Herstory
COLOR’s herstory began with a grassroots group of Latinas searching for strategies to overcome increasing rates of HIV/AIDS and other issues impacting the Latino community in the areas of education, health care, civil rights, economic justice, and immigration. In 1998, COLOR became a nonprofit and has been serving the Latine communities of Colorado ever since.
How We Started
With the help of a grant from the Latinas Unidas State Coalition Project for the National Institute for Reproductive Health, our Founding Mothers started working to create a voice and presence in the area of reproductive health and freedom in Colorado. In April 1998 they created Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), the first Latina-led and Latina-serving reproductive justice organization in the state. In December 2000, COLOR became incorporated in the State of Colorado and received 501c(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service.
Our Approach
As a Latina-led organization, COLOR works to advance reproductive justice for all people in Colorado. COLOR’s approach centers on intersectionality with the knowledge that no person leads a single issue life. We challenge all barriers keeping communities from leading healthy, self-determined lives by furthering environmental justice, economic justice, racial justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQIA+ liberation and more. We take a youth-to-elder approach, embracing the teachings of multiple generations in a cultura-centric way (meaning our work evokes and lifts up the traditions, language, and cultural identities of our communities). COLOR works to cultivate and develop our community members through a leadership ladder that authentically reflects the lives of those we serve.
COLOR Action Fund
Today, COLOR has expanded its reach and impact, including the creation of COLOR Action Fund in 2018, our C4 sister organization dedicated to holding elected officials accountable and ensuring they truly serve and represent our communities.
COLOR Action Fund works to create the infrastructure to identify and support community leaders, increase Latine representation in elected offices, build political influence, and reframe the narrative around our issues to ultimately pass policy that empowers our communities.
Their programming is dedicated to identifying members for COLOR Action Fund in key target areas across Colorado, and to activate members of the Latine community to become vocal advocates, volunteers, and eventually reproductive justice candidates for office at every level.
