Save the date and join Citizens Project at the 6th annual Creating Community Breakfast!  This fun and free fundraising breakfast will feature speakers, musical entertainment and a few surprises. 

Thursday, June 3, 2010
7:30 – 8:30am (check-in begins at 7:00am)
Bigg City Event Center, 5825 Mark Dabling Blvd (south entrance

View the invitation

Learn more about the work Citizens Project is doing in the Pikes Peak region to promote equal rights, diversity, religious freedom through separation of church and state and civic engagement, and learn how you can help!

Special thanks to Citizens Project youth volunteer videographer Isaac and Impact Video Production for this video! Interviews were taped at the 2009 Everybody Welcome Festival of Cultural Diversity in Colorado Springs’ America the Beautiful Park.

2010 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration and March

Saturday, January 16, 2010

3:30pm – 5:45 pm

Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Terrance Carroll, Colorado’s Speaker of the House of Representatives

Please meet at Armstrong Hall (14 E. Cache La Poudre St., Colorado College Campus) at 3:30 for the march, with celebration to follow. Questions? Contact Jennifer @ 719-660-1435

December 31 always provides a great opportunity for reflecting on the previous year and looking at the things that went well for us:  in our personal lives, our professional lives, and our community lives. 2009 went really well for Citizens Project, in lots of ways.

• CP sent 12 editions of Freedom Watch Online to more than 1,500 subcribers and 41 Action Alerts to more than 1,000 activists
• We moved our office and held an open house
• Our fifth annual Divine Award Celebration honored Richard Skorman and our Creating Community Breakfast event rasied $40,000
• We published two comprehensive local voter guides and co-sponsored four election forums
• We completed a fantastic strategic plan, which will lead Citizens Project boldly into the next decade and maximize our ability to promote our values in the community
• Citizens Project mailed information about inclusive and legal practices at graduations and over the holiday season to all local schools
• We totally renovated our web site and electronic communications, created this blog, and tapped into the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook
• Citizens Project unveiled a proposal to extend Plus One health benefits to family members of City employees and advocated for the policy with elected representatives, the media, and our supporters
• We began planning our inaugural Citizens Religious Freedom Institute, a one-day symposium that will educate and empower students, parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders around religious freedom issues 
• We spoke out when injustices occured in our community, such as the appearance of Jesus Lives banners on city-owned lightpoles

In all truth, I know that these things were possible for only three reasons:

• We have the greatest volunteers on the planet.
• We have the greatest advocates on the planet.
• We have the greatest donors on the planet.

Citizens Project is the perfect name for our scrappy organization, because we truly are by the citizens and for the citizens of the Pikes Peak region. It is your support, whether emotional support, volunteer support, monetary support, or advocacy support, that makes what we do important and possible.

Earlier today, I prepared the last deposit of the year (and by the way, CP exceeded our individual income goals this year, thanks to people like you), and I was struck by the largest donation ($5,000) and the smallest donation ($4). For each person making these gifts, that amount represented a “stretch” for them – a real commitment to our values and our community - and I like to think that they are equal partners in this thing we call Citizens Project. We all do what we can, when we can, but at the end of the day – and the end of the year – one thing is true: we believe in a vibrant community that values diversity, equality and religious freedom.

Happy New Year!

Teaching Tolerance invites you to watch The People Speak, a documentary film based on the works of social activist and educator Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States, co-authored with Anthony Arnove and reviewed by Teaching Tolerance magazine.

The People Speak features dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries and speeches of everyday Americans who spoke up for social change, equality and justice throughout U.S. history and helped form and protect the democracy we enjoy today.

The words of suffragists, civil rights leaders, anti-war proponents and labor leaders are brought to life by actors and singers like Matt Damon, Bob Dylan, Danny Glover, Bruce Springsteen, Morgan Freeman, Marisa Tomei and many others.

The film reminds all of us that we must remain active in our communities to promote and preserve social justice and equality. Clips of The People Speak and a classroom study guide for your students are available at History.com.

We welcome your feedback.
You can reach us online

or by mail:
Teaching Tolerance
c/o Southern Poverty Law Center
400 Washington Ave.
Montgomery, AL 36104