Thanks for joining us!

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for Local First’s Annual Member Celebration last Friday, April 8th! We had a lot of fun getting to see everyone in person and celebrate the past year along with the momentum building in 2022.

Congratulations to our 2022 Member Award Winners!

The Community Collaborator Award

The Stellar(c)3 Award

The Local Legend Award

Big thanks to our meal sponsor Sage - Farm Fresh Eats, the beautiful venue Powerhouse Science Center, our talented musical guest Lacey Black and Ska Brewing for sponsoring her performance, and the wonderful community sponsors that made this event a reality: Durango Land and Homes, Ultrasteam Professional Cleaning & Restoration Services Inc., and Sante

Annual Report Release

Our 2021 Annual Report is hot off the presses, you can view the report here.

As we look ahead to the rest of 2022, we wanted to let you know what our priorities are moving forward. In December & January we asked for your input in an annual member survey, if you weren’t able to fill it out please give us your input here.

We learned that your top five priorities are workforce housing, environmental sustainability, addressing specific barriers to small business prosperity, healthcare, and labor issues.

Our staff will continue to prioritize diving deeper into these identified priorities and offering solution-oriented educational tools to our members through events, webinars, and programming this next year.

Harnessing Opportunity in Durango

Speaking of which, Local First recently hosted a webcast with well-known urban planner Joe Minicozzi to bring in an outside perspective on development in Durango, including the redevelopment of the former 9-R building.

In a square foot comparison to the economic impact of the Smiley building, Minicozzi projected an opportunity for 127 more jobs, nearly $4.2M in new salary wages, and over $50k in annual tax revenue. He also calculated that if the building was simply rented out for $12 a square foot, it could yield over $500k in revenue per year for the community.

View Minicozzi's economic projections of the former 9-R property in this clip.

You can watch the entire webcast recording and read a full recap of the event here.

Join Local First’s Board of Directors!

Are you interested in being more involved with Local First’s work and helping to steer the Local Movement in La Plata County?

There are open seats on both Local First and Local First Foundation boards and we would love you to join us!

For more information and to apply, please email director@local-first.org.