About this group
- Group Name: Fort Collins Not In Our Town Alliance
- Location: Fort Collins, CO
- Links: Ft. Collins NIOTA website
- Origin: Our group was initiated when clergy were trained in November 2001. We developed a statement of mission and purpose, which included creating a community-based organization to address issues of bias motivated incidents and crimes. With the assistance of Fort Collins Human Rights Commission, we organized an April 2005 NIOT Kick-off Forum. Our formal organization emerged in February 2006.
- Membership: 15 active members, 38 total members registered, and list serve of 110.
- Structure of group: Our group structure is through elected leadership with provisional constitution and bylaws. Positions include a 6 member Council and 110 volunteers on a list serve. We have both prevention and response committees. We are in the process of filing to be a nonprofit with the state. We hold regular meetings with council, and we use a consensus model of decision-making and selection of leadership.
Allies
We use local media to share our message with the community. They frequently alert us to incidents when they call for our opinion on a situation. Our other allies include: Fort Collins Human Relations Commission, Lambda Community Center, PFLAG, Women's Resource Center, Interfaith Council, Northern Colorado Multicultural Corporation, Colorado State University Center for Justice, Peace and the Environment Youth and Militarism Project, Fuerza Latina, Community Restorative Justice Program, A Place for Peace, Poudre School District (K - 12), AARP Chapter, Front Range Community College, Fort Collins Clergy Hate Incident Response Team, Rocky Mountain ADL, Denver ACLU, Colorado Civil Rights - Denver.
Challenges
Keeping enthusiasm and participation alive is a challenge. Mobilizing additional resources for prevention and response activity can also be challenging.