Support Commún: 9News NEXT with Kyle Clark

Commún builds community resilience through relationships and programs that center community voice, cultivate a sense of belonging, and realize equity.

Commún was founded in a Southwest Denver living room when community leaders came together to discuss the changes happening in their neighborhoods. With the sale of the Loretto Heights campus, they knew that their community would change at an accelerated rate.

Today, after more than 600 one-on-one conversations, community meetings, and volunteer hours, Commún has launched community-identified programs that make the community stronger and more resilient in the face of change. 

Commún has four key programs:

Food Sovereignty: Increasing health and self-determination through land and food access.

Mental Health: Accessible, culturally-centered, community-led mental health support across the lifespan.

Economic Vitality: Creating opportunity through paid trainings, jobs, and skill building.

Community Organizing: Coming together to co-create the world we want to live in.

What's in the name?

Commún is an invented spelling of the verb commune (as in to commune with each other). They put action into the noun “community,” holding themselves accountable to the joy and hard work that it takes to cultivate community across income, language, race, age, and other distinctions. They chose the word and the spelling to be accessible in both Spanish and English, the primary languages spoken in Southwest Denver. In Spanish, the word común means common, signifying the every-day neighborly feeling that we seek to generate with each other.

The Barton Institute for Community Action serves as the fiscal sponsor for Commun.