Friends of the Front Range Wildlife Refuges

Listening to the community: this grant funded work for several consultants and the generation wild nemc youth council to learn about the community perceptions of the rocky mountain arsenal national Wildlife refuge and their expectations. Work included a demographic report, extensive focus groups and interviews with neighbors, and a report on what the communities want and need from the refuge. Many of the recommendations were implemented, including bi-lingual signage, cultural training, and continued outreach into the neighborhoods as well as a gap analysis to explore the current relationship of the refuge and our neighbors and, in particular, to identify barriers. We are continuing work to make the refuge more welcoming, reflecting the diversity of the adjacent neighborhoods.

Develop and manage the natures nest gift shop at rmanwr for the benefit of refuge programs and the general public. Provide other educational support to the Refuges - particularly support to school groups and the wheels for Wildlife program to provide transport support to local schools. We provide support to the rmanwr to manage on-site events particularly refuge open days as well as black-footed ferret surveys and the annual bison roundup. We engage and support the youth council in all refuge programs.

Increasing inclusivity in volunteer programs: the project goal is to increase inclusivity in the volunteer program at the rmanwr. We accomplished this by hiring a full-time volunteer coordinator. Through this program we have recruited and trained volunteers at the refuge from our neighboring communities reflecting the demographic diversity of these communities. In 2023 we had 39 regular volunteers logging 4,500 hours and almost 400 volunteers attending specific group activities on the Refuges.

Regional equity analysis: this grant funded work for a consultant - the Colorado non-profit development center - to conduct a social science analysis to look at regional equity to gain an improved understanding of issues that may limit access to our outdoor spaces - particularly for children. the objectives of this work are to develop and share a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the equity dynamics in our community as it impacts parks and open spaces. This work is part of multiparter input to the work of the metro denver nature alliance. In 2023 the prototype mapping tool went live and the final draft equity assessment was shared with partners.