Mission

“Because community makes all the difference, we will work to serve and strengthen ours.”

Goals, and Objectives

The Denver Inner City Parish exists to serve the spiritual and secular needs of the low-income residents living in West Denver Community. We are dedicated to strengthening families, enhancing community spirit and fostering hope through education. Our primary goal is to provide basic human and educational services to a disadvantaged community that is primarily but not exclusively Latino.

The Denver Inner City Parish has
these goals…
• To cultivate a resident-driven, spiritual, social, and educational center for all ages in Denver’s Westside community.
• To strengthen families and individuals, from children to seniors, so that they achieve more stable and self-sufficient social and economic lives.

• To develop community leadership, so that our often disenfranchised community attains collective empowerment.
• To foster hope through education, so that community members of all ages create a larger vision for their lives while becoming role models for the community and generations to follow.

DICP programs work because people have a sense of community – a sense of belonging. This sense of ownership and community allows DICP staff and program participants to affect positive growth and change in our own lives and in the lives of our fellow community members.

Our Population

While Denver Inner City Parish does not exclude anyone from receiving services because of geographic boundaries, DICP focuses its energies on the West Denver community bordered by Broadway, Sheridan, Evans, and Colfax. We have participants who commute for services; most of these, regardless of where they currently live, identify as "Westsiders" and are connected in some way to the La Alma/Lincoln and Baker neighborhoods. Many were raised in our immediate community and have since moved.

History

In 1960, Colorado local churches adopted the Inner City Parish movement of East Harlem. The Denver Inner City Parish was founded, and we soon began programs in the Lincoln Park Public Housing Project In 1961, United Methodists donated our building at 910 Galapago Street. In 2004, the Denver Inner City Parish acquired the building at 1212 Mariposa Street. Our programs now run out of both buildings. Over the years, our programs have changed but we remain committed to strengthening families, enhancing community spirit, and fostering hope through education.