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Denver to hold anti-racism workshops for District 3, 11 residents

Denver City Council President Stacie Gilmore and President Pro Tem Jamie Torres are hosting a series of anti-racism workshops for their districts over the summer.

The three-part training series is free and will focus on community-building activities, implicit bias and anti-racism training.

“These workshops are a powerful tool to create those opportunities and build solidarity among Denverites on these issues,” Torres said. “I’m thrilled to offer my constituents the chance to show up, learn and grow together.”

The workshops will be led by Conscious Minds Consulting, which approaches anti-oppression and anti-racism work by centering on emotional intelligence and building self-awareness and decision-making for participants.

This comes as Denver and the country at large have experienced growing awareness around the realities of systemic racism and ongoing racial injustices through things like the Black Lives Matter movement and the surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans.

The workshops will be broken up into three cohorts that each meet from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. once a week for three consecutive weeks.

For District 3, residents can meet on Tuesdays from June 8 to June 22 or on Wednesdays from June 9 to June 23. For District 11, meetings will be held on Thursdays from June 24 to July 8.

The workshops are being funded, in part, by a grant from The Denver Foundation, a nearly 100-year-old nonprofit that aims to inspire Denver residents and mobilize resources to strengthen the community.

“I am excited for this partnership which will provide a safe space for our community to engage in these important conversations,” Gilmore said. “I encourage everyone to have the courage to lean into discomfort as we learn and grow together in our increased awareness in ally-ship.”

Residents of Districts 3 and 11 can apply to participate in the workshops online at denvergov.org.

District 3 includes the Barnum, Barnum West, LaAlma/Lincoln Park, MarLee, Sun Valley, Villa Park, West Colfax and Westwood neighborhoods. District 11 includes the Denver International Airport, Gateway, Green Valley Ranch and Montbello neighborhoods.

Denver Public Schools students gather at Civic Center Park and march to the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue at City Park in support of Black Lives Matter on June 7, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. (Kathryn Scott, special to Colorado Politics)
Denver Public Schools students gather at Civic Center Park and march to the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue at City Park in support of Black Lives Matter on June 7, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. (Kathryn Scott, special to Colorado Politics)


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