Impacting the City: 5280 Fellows’ Professional Projects

by The Green Room in Integration with the Church, Leader Profiles

We received an email about the 5280 Fellowship recently from Jeff Haanen, a blogger here and the director of the Denver Institute for Faith and Work. The Fellowship is a leadership program in Denver and Boulder for full-time professionals who are committed to applying the gospel to their work. Here’s an excerpt from what he had to say about this exciting program and the specific projects that the first cohort of Fellows worked on.

This last year, our 27 Fellows culminated their 9-month experience by completing personal and professional development projects. Personally, we asked them to create an intentional growth plan addressing a spiritual or moral issue in their lives. And professionally, we asked them to solve one problem in their workplace, industry or community over a period of three and a half months.

Here are a few examples of final 5280 Fellowship professional projects, and their impact on the city:

Paul Frank, a product manager at GHX, a health care technology company, created a mentoring program for millennials, citing God’s Trinitarian, relational character as inspiration.
Christiana Farrell, a senior urban planner for Jefferson County, implemented new staff training to prevent “compassion burnout” for government workers often beleaguered by angry citizens and overwhelming workloads.
Blythe Scott, an employee at Lutheran Family Services, created “City Forum,” a quarterly event to discuss controversial Denver issues with grace and civility.
Paloma Douglas, an ESL teacher in Jefferson County School District, created a 45-minute documentary on refugees in Denver (to watch the film, go to: http://5280fellows.com/2016-2017-featured-professional-projects/).
Catherine Alvarez, a business development officer at Red Rocks Credit Union, created a “selfless sales” model for her company, improving profitability and customer satisfaction (and getting a promotion)…..

As I heard Fellows passionately present at the final retreat, I felt the Bible take on a new, broader meaning for me. Biblical calls to advocate for the weak, speak the truth in love, obey the government, create wealth, and love our neighbors as ourselves are not only private opinions, but public goods for our entire city.

To learn more, apply, or donate, visit the 5280 Fellows website or Denver Institute’s website.