News about our work to strengthen neighborhoods
CONO’s new mission: to strengthen neighborhoods through community engagement, education and trust-building. Let’s work together to engage all voices, learn the process and inspire each other to plan for the future.
The unveiling comes after a busy six months at CONO. Since assuming leadership of CONO in July, I’ve been busy working with our staff and reaching out to the community to forge a new path for this nonprofit agency that I love.
CONO is re-engaging in the Pikes Peak region with a clear focus, and I can’t wait to share that with everyone at our open house.
As I’ve met with neighborhoods, interest groups and community leaders around the region, a question kept coming up in my mind. I’ve found myself asking “How am I showing up in my community?”
Now, I’m asking the same question of CONO. And I want to ask it of you. How are you showing up in your community and your neighborhood? Did you vote? Do you attend your school board meetings, your church functions, local parks events, community talks or engage in your family dinnertime? What does showing up mean to you?
Here’s how I answer that question: I like to show up in my community by eating out at local restaurants, looking my servers in the eye and saying “Thank You.” I like to make cookies and take them to my neighbor who lives alone. I attend community meetings and listen. I pick up litter on the trail when I hike on the weekends.
CONO wants to show up for you — all neighbors and neighborhoods. Again, what does that mean?
There are over 980 neighborhood organizations in El Paso County (to include HOAs and neighborhood associations). We want your voices to be heard and to be included in decision-making, locally in your neighborhood and in the city at large.
How do we make that happen?
How do we make that happen?
The city has prioritized Neighborhood Plans as an initiative from the comprehensive planning process called PlanCOS. A Neighborhood Plan is a tool that neighborhoods can use to identify what they value in their neighborhood and what is missing in order to drive quality development.
Think of it as a roadmap to the future for growth in your neighborhood.
To learn more about PlanCOS and Neighborhood Plans, go to coloradosprings.gov/plancos/page/plancos-chapter-two-vibrant-neighborhoods.
There’s much more I want to tell you about showing up in your community. To learn more, please connect with CONO. You can start that by signing up for our newsletter and identify which neighborhood you live in. That information will be kept confidential to the public, but it will help us to build our neighborhood directory to better keep you informed about issues, meetings and plans that affect you and your neighbors.
As always, I welcome your input. Please email your thoughts to me,
Sara Vaas, sara@cscono.org.
Sara Vaas has been executive director of the Council of Neighbors and Organizations since July and served from 2015-2019 as assistant director.