Among the rolling hills and luxury ski resorts of Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, soaring costs of rent and childcare are crushing working families, leading to long commutes, mental stress, and dwindling time with loved ones. 

Realizing that neither the state nor the federal government was coming to save them, Mountain Voices Project (MVP) collaborated with the Confluence Early Childhood Education (CECE) Coalition to tackle this issue head on.

Over three years, MVP held conversations with their educational, faith-based, and non-profit institutional members in Garfield, Pitkin, and Eagle Counties to discern what the best solution to the childcare crisis would look like. They worked with civic leadership and community groups to craft Strong Start Bright Futures, a regional ballot measure across three counties to establish a new early childhood service district and approve a sales tax to fund that new district. 

Despite polling pointing to opposition of a sales tax increase, MVP educated thousands of people in their congregations and local non-profits, and leveraged their constituency to push a massive Get Out the Vote campaign, ultimately winning the ballot measure with 60% of the vote.

Strong Start Bright Futures will provide scholarships to reduce the cost of childcare for kids from birth to age five, raise wages for early childhood teachers and staff, and increase availability of child care and preschool options for families. 

MVP leaders will work with the new district board members to ensure that the money is spent according to their intent and that low-income immigrant families have access to the program.

[Photo credit: Vote Yes on 7A]