I was walking in Fort Collins with a friend about a month ago and approached a campus called The Music District. The Music District describes themselves as “a dynamic gathering hub, workspace, and creative playground for contemporary musicians and members of the Northern Colorado music industry to collaborate, connect, learn and level up.”
We stopped and looked around at buildings in front of us, guessing at which ones were a part of the district and which ones had other purposes. As we continued our walk, I turned to my friend and began preaching to the choir about how The Music District is but one piece of evidence of the positive effect Bohemian Foundation has on Fort Collins.
Bohemian Foundation works with community members on the care and improvement of local, national, and global communities, and it is a supporter of The Music District that my friend and I noticed on our walk.
Bohemian Foundation supports so much more than the district and its music, including grant funding to nonprofits serving populations in the Poudre School District.
As Rocky Mountain Equality’s (RMEQ) Advocacy and Education Manager, our staff lead for our northern Colorado office, and as a Fort Collins resident, I have been fortunate to interact with Bohemian Foundation in several ways. I have seen the impact of the organization, which helped us establish our first program in northern Colorado – Youth Leadership Development. In 2023, we held our Larimer County Youth Leadership Retreat.
This retreat was not only our first event as part of our northern Colorado expansion, but it reminded us that we must be responsive and accountable to the desires and needs of our community.
After submitting a second application to Bohemian Foundation to continue the youth leadership program in Larimer County, I looked at the list of awardees for this new grant cycle on LinkedIn and saw the news I was hoping for – RMEQ had been selected.
Service and program expansion comes with rewards and challenges and a wealth of learnings. There are many reasons to be excited about this award from Bohemian Foundation, but chief among them is confirmation that RMEQ is here to stay in northern Colorado and ever-committed to working collaboratively to create connection and provide advocacy, education, research, cultural events, and responsive programs and services that ensure LGBTQ+ people, families, and communities thrive.