Some People Hold Denver Together.
¿Qué significa tejer comunidad (weaving)?
Tejer comunidad (weaving) es la práctica de construir relaciones significativas que crean las condiciones para que la confianza social crezca en las comunidades.
Comienza con un compromiso sencillo: vernos los unos a los otros como iguales en dignidad, incluso cuando las experiencias y los puntos de vista difieren.
Tejer comunidad (weaving) invita a las personas a:
- Descubrir lo que tienen en común.
- Aprender cómo sus diferencias pueden fortalecer a la comunidad.
- Trabajar codo a codo por el bien común.
Esta labor puede ser formal o informal, y se caracteriza por cuatro cualidades:
- Local: Une a personas que comparten el mismo vecindario, pueblo o región.
- Mutua: Celebra las contribuciones de todos y crea oportunidades para que cada persona pueda tanto dar como recibir.
- Acogedora: Invita a las personas a unirse tal como son.
- Continua: Construye relaciones que se profundizan con el tiempo a través de un compromiso constante.
¿Qué son los Premios Weaver?
Denver is full of people quietly making it better — the neighbor who checks on elders after a snowstorm, the block captain who turns strangers into friends, the organizer who makes sure no one gets left behind when things get hard. These are weavers. The Weaver Awards exist to find them, honor them, and fuel what they’re already doing.
Launched through Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute, the Weaver Awards are a national program designed to shine a light on the everyday community builders who prioritize relationships over transactions and belonging over busyness. They aren’t looking for the loudest voices or the biggest organizations — they’re looking for the people whose work holds neighborhoods together in ways that rarely make the news but matter enormously to the people around them.
¿Por qué lanzamos los Premios Weaver en Mile High?
Denver is growing fast — and that growth has come with real costs to the connections that make neighborhoods feel like home. More than a third of Coloradans say they're not sure they truly belong here, and that uncertainty isn't felt equally.
Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC) has spent 50 years working across Denver's neighborhoods to make sure every community has a voice.
The Weaver Awards let us go deeper: finding and funding the individuals who are already rebuilding trust, one relationship at a time.
¿Qué recibirás si eres galardonado/a con un Premio Weaver?
Being named a Weaver Awardee means your community sees what you’ve been doing — and wants to invest in more of it. Awardees receive a $2500 micro-grant to put toward their community-building work.
Beyond the grant, awardees receive public recognition through local and national media as part of a coordinated moment with Weave and Community Hosts across the country. They also join a broader network of weavers — people doing similar work in cities from coast to coast — with access to storytelling platforms, peer gatherings, and ongoing connection through the Weave community.
¿Quién selecciona a los galardonados con los Premios Weaver?
The Mile High Weave Awards Advisory Council.
Applications will be reviewed by an advisory council made up of community partners who understand Denver’s neighborhoods and what impactful relationship-centered work looks like here on the ground. Reviewers score applications through a structured platform provided by the Aspen Institute, and INC makes final selections in partnership with that panel. The goal is to root the process in local knowledge — because the people who know Denver best are best positioned to recognize its weavers.
¿Quién es elegible?
Los solicitantes deben cumplir con los siguientes requisitos:
- Tener por lo menos 18 años
- Vivir y servir en Denver.
- Contar con un proyecto que ayude a conectar a los vecinos y fomente las relaciones entre ellos.
- Su proyecto esté abierto a cualquier persona de la comunidad.
- Su proyecto aborde una necesidad compartido o problema en la comunidad.
- Si el proyecto forma parte de una organización, dicha organización debe tener un presupuesto anual inferior a $250,000.
- Presentar una carta de recomendación de un miembro de la comunidad que viva en la misma zona donde usted presta servicio.
¿Qué buscamos en una solicitud para los Premios Weaver?
Think less about résumés and more about relationships. We’re looking for people who get neighbors together to tackle something they care about — it could be a youth mentorship program, a community garden, a mutual aid network, a cultural gathering, or something else entirely. What matters is that the work brings people together, builds real relationships, and is open to anyone who wants to join.
Strong candidates are often people who show up consistently and quietly — the ones who rarely seek recognition but whose neighbors couldn’t imagine the block, the building, or the community without them.
¿Cómo puedo usar los fondos?
Award funds are designed to support whatever your weaving work actually needs — not to fit a narrow definition of what community-building “should” look like. Whether that means hosting gatherings, deepening relationships across your neighborhood, supporting the time and logistics your work already requires, or expanding something that’s working — the intent is to resource you and what you’re already building. That said, there are a few restrictions.
Funds may not be used for:
- Regranting funds to others
- Large purchases for items not intended for community use (e.g. building supplies for personal or private use)
- Purchasing items to be donated to specific individuals (e.g. wheelchairs, personal equipment)
- Tuition or certification fees
Acerca de Denver Civic COLab
Denver Civic COLab (a partnership between Denver Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation and the University of Denver ) is one of 25 Community Hosts selected nationwide in 2026 to lead a local Weaver Awards program.
Asesores Comunitarios
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Trupti Suthar
Community Connector
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Mimi Luong
Community Builder and Entrepreneur
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Patrick Walton
Director of Government & Community Affairs, Denver
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Stephanie Laing
Director of Community Empowerment for Human Rights and Community Partnerships
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Jeanne Granville
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Stephanie O'Malley
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DaZha Creal
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Ean Tafoya
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Micah Smith
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Guiselle Torres