What is SLV Places?

WHY

The purpose of this initiative is to Inspire the people of the San Luis Valley to reclaim and restore beloved community places in their region through community connectivity, cohesive vision, and partnerships to ultimately leverage local and outside investment for local social entrepreneurship.

WHAT

SLV Places has several goals including:

1. Placemaking for Social Entrepreneurship. Identify the favorite places that need a little love. Transform vacant dark places into opportunities by inviting engagement and ideas.

2. Establishing Places that Support Entrepreneurship. Connect priority places to investments and resources that will both beautify and activate the area with resources that encourage more near-term investment.

3. Long-term Investments in Places for People. Jumpstart long-term solutions for housing, access to broadband, renewable energy, and workforce opportunities in technology and maker spaces to further initiatives.

HOW

DCI and the Town of Center piloted a temporary placemaking installation in 2019, and the impacts have included the Town approving funding for beautification, the school securing a grant to do a mural project, four long-standing vacant buildings changing ownership, two commercial and two housing units currently under renovation, and connecting with property owners who will donate a property for coworking space to the Town for a year or more.

DCI hopes to continue this process of placemaking installations in additional communities in the SLV, and will inventory these underused, vacant and decaying places and shape a series of placemaking installations to invite participation. There is a focus on four dimensions of interaction that will be installed to re-engage conversations about decision-making of their place:

a) The PERSONAL DIMENSION, “What do you want to see and do in this place?”
b) The COMMUNITY DIMENSION, “How can this community support your vision?”
c) The PARTNERSHIP DIMENSION, “How do we, together, make the vision happen?”
d) The REGIONAL DIMENSION, “How do we leverage local efforts to meet regional needs?”

WHO

The San Luis Valley project focuses on seven Colorado counties: Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Huerfano, Mineral, Saguache, and Rio Grande. County where populations range from 720 to just over 16,000. Predominantly agricultural in nature, San Luis Valley is one of the poorest rural areas of Colorado, with a poverty rate estimated at 20.5%. The economic growth rate is projected around 0.7% per year compared to Colorado’s economic growth rate of 3.5%. The San Luis Valley also has the largest native Hispanic population in Colorado and is 47% hispanic.

The first phase will directly impact five communities Antonito, Center, La Jara, Monte Vista, and San Luis, but the impacts will work toward the vision and needs of a region by furthering the push for a unique and dynamic development with housing, trails and connectivity, free broadband and renewable energy infrastructure, and trails.

The impacts will be multi-tiered, looking at building employment and training opportunities and civic engagement for individuals, housing and commercial space renovation and investments for communities through partnerships, and work towards large-scale investments in broadband infrastructure, housing, and workforce opportunities for a region.