For almost two decades, many in Montrose knew Sara Rinne through the Montrose Regional Library District. Since January, she's had a new role: deputy director of the Western Colorado Alliance for Community Action.
"We're a nonprofit organization. We work across the Western Slope from Garfield County to Ouray County," Rinne said. "So we help communities build power, confront issues that they want to change in their communities, and we support those efforts with resources and community organizers and leadership training."
Longtime West Slope residents may remember the group by its original name, the Western Colorado Congress. Founded 46 years ago, it took the Alliance name in 2018, and today it has active affiliate groups in Garfield, Mesa, Montrose, and Ouray counties.
The wins Rinne points to lately run through public transit. In Garfield County, Alliance members helped bring the transit authority, county commissioners, and the Silt and Rifle city councils together to preserve funding for bus routes that connect towns like Silt and Glenwood Springs. In Montrose, members worked with the city council to earmark lodging-tax money for local transit routes. The Alliance has also organized Montrose parents around the shortage of affordable child care.
The organization is "funded through grants, mostly foundation grants," Rinne said. "We take very little, if any, federal funding." A voting membership costs $10 a year.
That membership gathers August 29 in Grand Junction for the Alliance's 46th annual conference, themed "Power Forward!" — a day pointed squarely at the upcoming election cycle. Afternoon workshops take on protecting free and fair elections in western Colorado, the state budget in a session called "Pies and Charts," and the data-center fight in another called "Watts on the Line." The keynote comes from Karime Rodriguez, an organizer with the Arizona group LUCHA. The conference runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton; registration is $40, scholarships are available, and details are at westerncoloradoalliance.org.
So why leave the library after almost 18 years? "I didn't want to hide behind an institution anymore," Rinne said. "I have two kids and I want to make sure that Montrose is a safe and nurturing place for them to grow up in." It was, she said, "a big leap, a leap of faith a little bit to leave the library and join this organization, but I'm so happy that I did."
