Stigma

Filing Cabinets Needed

Our fooding cabinet project to deliver our Neighborlies (emergency relief food bags) to our community is really taking off. We have five Fooding Cabinets deployed with plans to install several more this summer.

To make this project work, we need a volunteer to keep an eye on each cabinet – keeping it clean and stocked with Neighborlies (supplied by Stigma). But before we can get to the work of the volunteer, we need the raw materials – gently used two-drawer filing cabinets for our artist to paint.

The Attack on the Stigma Continues

As one school year winds to an end, we are ecstatic to announce we have been tentatively approved to receive a grant that will fund most of our food work for the 2021/2022 school year. The attack on the stigma associated with hunger continues!

You Don’t Need a “Problem” to Experience the soberevolution

We are all about crushing the stigmas that keep people locked into living life below their potentials because of societal norms, and cultural ignorance and pressure. We don’t have to have an addiction to have alcohol put unnecessary limitations on our lives. If you want more from your time on this planet, this opening weekend might just be for you.

Have you heard of the “soberevolution?” More and more people are waking up to the negative impact of drinking a poison for celebration, mourning and stress relief. And the movement is taking a giant leap forward this week here in Denver. Awake is opening for delicious, alcohol-free evenings.

Voluneer Opportunity: Assemble Neighborlies

So many of you have asked how you can help. Lots of our stigma-fighting friends have offered to help us put together Neighborlies (emergency relief food bags) when it is time to assemble the next batch.

That time is now. This week. Friday, April 23rd at 9am at SAME Cafe.

Please Help Build Neighborlies

So many of you have helped us distribute our Neighborlies (emergency relief food bags) to our homeless and hungry neighbors, and we thank you.

Now we need your help assembling a new batch of Neighborlies!

Stigmattack: Our Food Partnership with Denver Public Schools

with Audrey at DSST Cole Unloading Produce Boxes

Stigmattack! That’s what we call our full-frontal food offensive against hunger with the Denver Public Schools with which we work. A few weeks ago, we shared the story of our partnership with the LoVVe project to bring healthy and delicious food to students and families at Ellis Elementary. At Stigma, we are proud to be partnering with two DPS high schools as well.

Find Your Story

Do you have a story that’s clawing, scraping and crying to get out? How about this question: Are you ready for the freedom and enlightenment that only authenticity and connection can provide?

Those are thought provoking inquiries. They are the kind of questions that we disregard at our own peril. Why not explore the true answers, and understand what your story means?

Leaning into Vulnerability with CAiR

Darin Valdez Preparing for The Story Writing Workshop at Colorado Village Collaborative

Anyone who doesn’t believe the power of the stigma to hold people locked in addiction hasn’t met Darin Valdez or heard his story.

Darin is the founder and executive director of Colorado Artists in Recovery – a Denver-based nonprofit with the mission to help people find their artistic creativity as a pathway to healing from addiction and other mental health challenges. Like a lot of us, Darin’s dedication to helping people is born from his determination to pay it forward. Just a few snowy winters ago, Darin nearly died from exposure as he lived on the streets and battled a debilitating meth addiction.

What kept Darin from getting help? Why did he nearly freeze to death in an outdoor stairwell in December of 2013?

He was too ashamed to ask his family for help.

Neighborlies Stuck on Your To-Do List

I bumped into a neighbor on a walk a few days ago. She is a good friend and supportive community member. She told me she had been meaning to contact me about our Neighborlies (emergency relief food bags). She wants to participate in our distribution of food to our homeless neighbors here in Denver.

She suggested that maybe I should just tell her what’s in our Neighborlies, and she could buy the ingredients and assemble her own to give away. And that’s when it hit me – a big old cartoon lightbulb went on over my head.

Weaponizing the Words Perpetuates the Stigma

If we refuse to name it, how can we expect to defeat it? That sentiment is popular in the field of stigmatized conditions. It’s also powerful and 100% true.

Stigma is not just an unfortunate side effect – the collateral damage of trying to feel better about ourselves by looking down our noses at the socio-economic layers below us. Stigma is debilitating. It keeps people stuck in otherwise improvable situations because stigma makes not drawing attention to our troubles the highest priority – even higher than getting out of our jam.

That time is now. This week. Friday, April 23rd at 9am at SAME Cafe.

Now we need your help assembling a new batch of Neighborlies!

He was too ashamed to ask his family for help.

The othering of our neighbors – it’s easier to compare and dismiss than it is to engage in compassion and involvement.