Partner Feature - Marina LaGrave highlights the importance of language and cultural competence in community building

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Marina LaGrave, whom Trestle has been partnering with on many projects over the last several years, explains in a Daily Camera portrait why language access and cultural competence are critical aspects when working to build inclusive communities. 

As explained in the article, Marina wears different hats: she is an interventionist at Columbine Elementary School in Boulder - where Danica met her when her kids were students there; she is an interpreter and translator for the City of Boulder; and she is the founder of CLACE - the Latin American Center for Arts, Science and Education. As such, we have had the pleasure of collaborating with Marina on many projects, including: 

  • The Ponderosa Community Stabilization project: over the past 5 years, Marina has been instrumental in engaging the Latinx community of the Ponderosa Mobile Home park. She continues to serve as a cultural liaison between the City, the project team, and the Spanish-speaking residents, thanks to the fact that she has been able to gain all parties’ trust by patiently listening to and answering any and all questions. 

  • The Cultural Responsiveness and Inclusion Strategic Plan (CRISP) for the Boulder County Parks and Open Space (POS) department: over the last year, we have been working with Marina and her colleague Bob Russel on the CRISP for the BoCo POS department. Marina has been working relentlessly to connect the POS department with Latinx leaders in the region, and think creatively about how to co-create active and lasting partnerships between the Latinx community and the POS department.

  • The COVID-19 Pandemic Impact Study: for this 2-month, fast-track project, we are partnering with Marina to recruit Latinx community leaders and activists to co-create a process to interview members of the Latinx community and gather stories on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting them. Thanks to Marina’s extensive network and community connections, we were able to hear from 115 community members and help identify barriers in accessing County services and gaps in those services.

From left to right: Marine, Marina, and Danica at a Ponderosa Community Block Party in June 2019

From left to right: Marine, Marina, and Danica at a Ponderosa Community Block Party in June 2019

As we practice adaptive leadership in all those projects, we keep learning from Marina on such important topics as co-creation, cultural competence, and inclusivity. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with her and are looking forward to many more opportunities to do so.  

Pipes and Pavement at the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park Community

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Last month the first streets in the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park were paved over the brand new water and sewer infrastructure! This is a huge milestone for the community, and for the community stabilization project Trestle Strategy Group has been working on since 2015. 

Ponderosa Mobile Home Park is located along Broadway in North Boulder. Trestle Strategy Group has been working with the City of Boulder and the Ponderosa community through many phases of the project:

  • Land acquisition: the City purchased the park in August 2017;

  • Annexation: the park was annexed into the City in October 2019; 

  • Infrastructure and housing plans development: the site plan and technical documents were approved by City Council in October 2019;

  • Infrastructure replacement - sewer, water, gas, electric, stormwater detention, water quality, roads and sidewalks.

Throughout this very complex process, Trestle Strategy Group focused on innovative, equitable, and customized community involvement, the primary goal being to minimize resident displacement and disruption to the community. Through the end of last year, this substantial community outreach and engagement process was centered around the Resident Leadership Committee, a group of 7 nominated community leaders living within the Ponderosa community, who were sharing information, ideas, and concerns between the City and the residents. 

The RLC was set up so Ponderosa residents could co-create the vision and infrastructure and housing plan for the community, work on issues that are important to residents’ daily lives, and empower residents to develop a lasting leadership group in the community. Numerous community meetings, in various formats, all bilingual, were held throughout the process to ensure residents were informed, could get all their questions answered, and could weigh in on important decisions: 

  • 10 Community Workshops 

  • 2 Neighborhood Block Parties

  • 22 RLC Meetings

  • 15+ City Q&A Meetings

  • 40+ One-on-One meetings

  • 1 Good neighbor meeting

  • 4 Habitat for Humanity home tours

  • 2 Habitat for Humanity workshop on homeownership and financing

  • Training opportunities for residents

In addition, we kept communication channels open, and ensured residents had access to up-to-date information, both in English and Spanish, through a variety of tools to fit their needs: 

More recently, residents formed a more formal Homeowners Association (HOA) so they can stay organized as the construction work progresses and the first Habitat homes are built, starting in 2021.

While the planning process hasn’t been simple, we have been able to come up with a highly innovative site plan that enables current residents to stay in the park - whether in their mobile homes or in a new Habitat for Humanity home, substantially improves infrastructure, services, and quality of life, provides flood protection, and maintains permanent affordability for future generations. We are extremely proud to continue to be part of this project along with many partners including JVA, Caddis, Marathon Construction Management, G2 Consulting, KCI.

Marine Graduates from ULI's Real Estate Diversity Initiative Program

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On Monday I graduated from the Urban Land Institute Real Estate Diversity Initiative! REDI provides women and people of color the opportunity to attend a comprehensive training in real estate development.

As a complement to classes covering the spectrum of the real estate development process, we worked in small teams to create a development plan and pro forma for a 110,000 sq. ft. site in the Westwood neighborhood in Denver. In an effort to provide Westwood residents with the opportunity to start building generational wealth, our team came up with a site plan where all housing units were affordable and for sale. We also integrated a large plaza and a childcare center for the benefit of the community. You can watch our team's presentation by clicking on the image on the right.

I am very proud of our team's vision, and very grateful I was able to participate in the 2020 REDI program. Huge thanks to the Urban Land Institute, my team members, mentors Rich Wilson, Richard Epstein, and Ken Hoagland, and coordinator Kimberly Ford (Ming), and my colleague, mentor, and friend Danica Powell.