Our Work
Our Intergenerational Work
Roots of Power
Roots of Power is our parent leadership program that grounds our work. Like roots that hold the corn, our parents and caregivers anchor our communities. They nurture us, pass down cultural wisdom, and serve as our first teachers, protectors, and guides.
Seeds of Power
Seeds of Power is our youth leadership program that cultivates the next generation of movement leaders. Our young people are the seeds planted by their families, carrying ancestral wisdom and community strength as they nurture their identity, healing, and power to grow into strong stalks of change.
Maíz Rising
Seeds of Power is our youth leadership program that cultivates the next generation of movement leaders. Our young people are the seeds planted by their families, carrying ancestral wisdom and community strength as they nurture their identity, healing, and power to grow into strong stalks of change.
Intergenerational Path Towards Transformational Leadership Development
Each program is grounded in layered, culturally-rooted leadership pathways that are trauma-informed, identity-affirming, and action-oriented. Participants grow through three interconnected pathways.
Nuestra Mente (Our Mind)
Nuestra Mente cultivates intergenerational knowledge, identity, and leadership through historical analysis, organizing tools, and peer-to-peer learning to build the consciousness needed for systemic transformation.
Nuestra Alma (Our Soul)
Nuestra Alma cultivates intergenerational wellness by offering healing-centered spaces and culturally grounded practices that build emotional resilience for youth, parents, and alumni.
Nuestra Voz (Our Voice)
Nuestra Voz empowers youth, parents, and alumni with the skills, confidence, and training to lead collective action, influence policy, and drive systemic change in safety, mental health, and education justice.
Our Campaigns
Movimiento Poder operates at the intersection of youth leadership, education justice, healing justice, and immigrant rights. Its unique strength lies in cultivating long-term leadership through a culturally grounded, community-led approach.
Education for Liberation
The Education for Liberation campaign harnesses the voices of students who demand that DPS leadership put their needs first, calling for investment and centering the students’ demands.
Through this effort, Movimiento Poder and community members urge the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Superintendent Alex Marrero, the DPS School Board, and elected officials with say over our schools, to stop taking decision-making power away from students and communities and to center students in its decision-making process and policies.
Under this campaign, Movimiento Poder launched a Student Bill of Rights based on input from students. The document contains 10 baseline demands for DPS leadership and state and local policymakers, including: clean school facilities, inclusive learning environments, and well-resourced staff.
Protecting Immigrant Families
Movimiento Poder advances immigrant justice by equipping families with Know Your Rights trainings and family preparedness kits, advocating for fair and inclusive policies, and organizing to protect immigrant youth and families in schools and public institutions.
View our resources for immigrant families below:
Kit de Preparación Comunitaria: Creando un Plan de Emergencia Para Su Familia. / Family Preparedness Kit: Creating an Emergency Plan for Your Family.
ICE Out of Our Streets and Schools Poster Download / Descargar póster: ¡Fuera ICE de nuestras calles y escuelas!
Policy Advocacy
Movimiento Poder has helped win key state laws that protect civil rights, safety, and dignity for marginalized communities.
Among these victories is SB 25-276, which limits local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and strengthens protections for undocumented immigrants in Colorado.
Movimiento Poder also supported the passage of the Kelly Loving Act (HB 25-1312), landmark legislation expanding legal protections for transgender Coloradans—guaranteeing chosen names & pronouns in schools, safeguarding parental rights around gender-affirming care, and prohibiting discrimination and misgendering under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
And in the realm of school discipline reform, Movimiento Poder backed HB 25-1248: Protect Students from Restraint & Seclusion Act, which tightens limits on restraint and seclusion in public schools, requires stronger reporting and family notification, and mandates training and oversight of when these interventions are used.
Every year, Movimiento Poder also hosts a Youth Lobby Day where students and their families meet directly with legislators to share their stories and advocate for laws that create safe, healthy, and equitable communities.
Movimiento Poder works directly with Denver City Council to ensure our communities have a real voice in shaping the policies that impact their lives. We organize residents to participate in public meetings, share their experiences, and hold councilmembers accountable to the needs of immigrant, working-class, and youth communities. By centering those most affected in decision-making, we build a more transparent, equitable, and community-driven city.
Safe, healthy, and equitable communities.
We believe that in order to build safe, healthy, and equitable communities, they must be free from surveillance, criminalization, and policing that target and harm our people.
Safety is created through care, trust, and investment in community needs — not through police in schools, invasive surveillance technologies like Flock cameras, or systems that funnel immigrants, youth, and working-class families into cycles of punishment.
Movimiento Poder organizes to dismantle these harmful practices and to replace them with approaches that honor dignity, equity, and true community safety.
Read our reports below:
Alternatives to Policing: How U.S. Cities Are Advancing Community Safety by Taking a Multidisciplinary Approach
March 2024
Rolling Back Equity: A Response to Denver Public Schools’ Proposed Reinstatement of School Resource Officers
May 2023