For local Vail entrepreneur Armando Araiza, the change began with a mindset shift.
Supervising hospitality operations by day, he founded Elevated Engravings, his custom engraving business, as a side hustle to make awards and recognize the achievements of his staff.
Armando believes strongly in the power of recognition to create strong teams. But, when he considered growing his business, he felt stuck.
“Subconsciously, you don’t realize the things you’re doing that are keeping you stuck in these certain ways. How you perceive things are limiting you from [being] willing to actually go out there and put in the effort, or even just try,” said Armando.
Everything began to change when he was selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of Eagle Valley Community Foundation’s Elevar program in 2024.
“It’s like the law of exposure; once you’re exposed and you see these things happening— I can’t unsee that. I see others doing this, now I’m going to be the next one.”
Colorado’s Eagle River Valley is becoming a hot spot of leadership development thanks to Elevar, a culturally-relevant leadership and entrepreneurship program created by the Eagle Valley Community Foundation (EVCF).
Located two hours west of Denver, the Eagle Valley Community Foundation serves community members working or living in Eagle County in towns such as Vail, Edwards, and Gypsum.
Historically in this mountain community, a select few people of color have been asked to serve “in every board capacity or provide feedback on every single program,” shares Melina Valescia, executive director at EVCF.
This classic phenomenon, prevalent particularly in more rural or isolated regions, can leave some community members exhausted, and others still unrepresented.
This lack of representation isn’t indicative of a skill gap or missing qualifications among locals to guide decision making. The Eagle Valley Community Foundation has identified that this is simply a leadership gap.
While 35% of Eagle County residents identify as Hispanic or non-white, these communities represent 58% of the school district’s 6,300 students, according to the US Census Bureau and Eagle County District Re-50J.
Despite being a large sector of the population, “Hispanic families and those who speak Spanish…are the community members that we weren’t seeing in leadership positions,” shares Grace Anshutz, director of development & marketing at EVCF.
Historically, EVCF, which was founded in 2015, has funded core, urgent needs such as food insecurity and access to mobile health and wellness. Boettcher partnered with them to expand their Mobile Intercultural Resource Alliance (MIRA) bus program, which delivers health education and support directly to community sites.
But, through their work in addressing the area’s immediate needs, they continued to hear the same refrain: communities of color experience a lack of economic and leadership opportunities.
Organizational leaders thought, who better to address the gap than those operating inside this community? EVCF began working to learn more and uncover a way to either build a new table, or extend the table a little bit longer, explained Grace.
In partnership with the Colorado Health Foundation, who provided the initial startup funding, the first year of the program was focused on listening to community leaders.
From attending community meetings to speaking with the customers at their local market, Melina and her team listened deeply to understand community needs, identify what positive leadership would look like, and hear the community’s ideas to address their own challenges.
After months of listening, the Elevar program was born.
“We needed to have a Steering Committee who guided the process,” emphasized Grace.
The Steering Committee is comprised of nine community members who, despite obstacles, came to a leadership position, either with a traditional title or more informally. They represent the gamut of industries: in-home childcare providers, stay-at-home moms, construction, hospitality, and more.
Elevar engages the diverse committee to play a central role in guiding leadership development and community investments. The Elevar Steering Committee is composed of only leaders of color in order to provide resources that are culturally relevant and to maximize impact.
“I wanted to start this grantmaking to be informed by people that they don’t have a seat at the table,” Melina emphasized. “This is unique because now the one[s] that make decisions are 100% people of color.”
Each year, Elevar chooses a cohort of entrepreneurs of color and those from low-income backgrounds for an intensive program focusing on mentorship, specialized curriculum, and capital to support their ventures. The program focuses not just on business success, but on growth as community leaders.
Cohort members’ businesses meet a variety of needs and include a dual-language digital media company, a boxed meal delivery service, a video production business, and a handcrafted desserts company.
Rather than borrowing from other leadership playbooks, the Steering Committee created a model shaped entirely by the community’s realities and needs.
We designed this from the bottom up,” Melina said.
Committee members and visionaries are proud of their work, noting that no other leadership and business development program exists in Eagle River Valley that so intimately combines skill development, empowerment to engage civically, and the motivation to improve the community.
Armando’s transformation has been dramatic since Elevar.
“It’s amazing what happens to the mind and the brain when you see others doing these things, and you see these things actually happening. It changes your own reality,” he said of his experience in building his business since graduating.
Because of Elevar, he gained the structure and the vision, as well as a plan, to take a chance on himself and scale his business into a full-time operation.
Organizers report that 100% of participating entrepreneurs say that since graduating, they have made a positive impact locally by providing services to local nonprofits, joining boards and committees, or strengthening the broader ecosystem.
But, Elevar’s impact is not just in the numbers, but in the stories.
“You can measure economic impact for days, but we know that when someone feels they have a community behind them, and that they feel like they can belong, then they can be resilient against those other challenges,” emphasized Grace.
Elevar’s curriculum helps local leaders grow both personally and professionally. The curriculum focuses on topics including business foundations and management, operations, financial planning, and pitch practice with a community showcase.
Local collaboration is key to Elevar’s success. Now in the second cohort, Elevar is working with Colorado Mountain College to offer a more intensive curriculum delivered again by Steering Committee and community members.
In the Elevar program, facilitators look, sound, and celebrate like participants.
The peer-led approach helps participants connect more easily and engage more openly, strengthening community bonds and ensuring the guidance they receive is relevant to their lived experience.
The program opened doors for participants like Armando by showing him the possibilities of where his business could go.
Armando was also introduced to Colorado State University’s Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) at his Elevar business pitch presentation. He later participated in their training, which emphasizes civic participation and collaboration between community leaders.
With the tools and inspiration he gained from Elevar and FLTI, Armando is now creating an apprenticeship program, Elevated Leaders, which instills leadership, civic engagement, and hands-on skills in the next generation of youth.
“The goal, ultimately, is everybody’s an investment,” Armando said. “They’re growing, and they’re making their own legacy based off my assistance. That on its own is invaluable.”
Graduates of the Elevar program have gone on to become Steering Committee members, mentors, or instructors for the curriculum.
Armando recently taught the operations section to the next cohort of entrepreneurs. He is proud to be an advocate for Elevar. “I am a success story. [Sharing my experience] also helps me get out there and get to know my community.”
Elevar is encouraging strong local ties in Eagle County.
One additional strategy Elevar employs is hosting monthly workshops that are open to the public. The topics are directly pulled from what entrepreneurs say they need, such as a recent session on food safety. These events bring institutions into the room, such as county food safety officials, and walk through resources question by question with community members.
“[Graduates] are not only supporting the program, but supporting other organizations or programs,” Melina said.
With multiple businesses scaling, the forging of new partnerships with local organizations and larger-scale resources, and the upskilling of community leaders, the program’s success so far is a testament to Elevar’s vision of long-term empowerment.
“I think the strength of Elevar,” said Grace, “is that we know that the solutions to so many of our community’s problems lie within the community itself.”
That’s the Spirit of Boettcher.
