Partners

Sisters of Color

SISTERS OF COLOR UNITED FOR EDUCATION, Denver, began in 1990 when two Xicana activists became frustrated with the lack of health education and prevention services for women in their community. They recognized the staggering economic, cultural, political and social barriers that increased people of colors’ health risks, such as poverty, lack of formal education, unequal family power dynamics, and community stigmas associated with illness. The founders began their work by providing educational materials and distributing condoms out of their cars and hosting discussions in their homes. They focused on providing a safe and supportive environment in which to address sensitive health issues.

The Center for the Church and Global AIDS supports the efforts of Sisters of Color and has raised funds to support this invaluable work in the Latino community.

In 2009 Sisters honored the Center for the Church and Global AIDS and its Executive Director, Donald E. Messer, with its OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY PARTNER AWARD.

For nearly twenty years SISTERS has been building, supporting and sustaining Promotor@ programs with hard-to-reach populations and communities. Until recently, most of that work was done in the Denver metropolitan area. But in 2005 the organization began to define its work in statewide terms. This expansion of services grew out of concerns for the needs of an increasing Latin@ presence in many rural Colorado communities and an accompanying negative sentiment toward Latin@ families, particularly Mexican immigrants.

In Denver, SISTERS now offers many of its programs and services at our new building at 2895 West 8th Avenue. The 2000 census finds our Sun Valley neighborhood to be 52.61% Latino and 71.5% of the neighborhood’s Latino households are living in poverty. This compares to Denver’s poverty rate of 14.29 for all race/ethnicities and 22.47% poverty rate for Latinos citywide. s.