Perhaps you’ve heard that the Vail Valley Foundation now has a “Community” component to go along with its longstanding mission in arts, athletics, and education.
It’s true that the VVF has officially recognized “Community Supports” as a part of its mission.
However, the reality is that the VVF has always been active in community support since its founding in 1981.
“I’m paraphrasing here, but President and Mrs. Ford always felt that our nonprofit needs to look beyond arts, athletics, education, and identify significant community needs,” said Mike Imhof, President of the Vail Valley Foundation. “We’ve always had that as part of how we put our mission into action, but in 2023 we have officially codified that into our new mission statement.”
The VVF’s mission statement, adopted in 2023, is: “To provide leadership in arts, athletics and education, and address community needs to enhance our valley as a place to live, work and visit.”
“Whatever the need has been over the years, the Vail Valley Foundation has been involved in finding new opportunities for the community to improve the quality of life in every which way, and that’s what the VVF has always been about,” said Chris Jarnot, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Vail Valley Foundation.
Childcare
Over the past several years the VVF Community Engagement Committee, chaired by Johannes Faessler, has identified childcare as a significant opportunity for the VVF to help bring together individuals, governmental entities, other nonprofits, businesses, and experts in the field to help find ways to alleviate and provide support to working families in Eagle County.
The result is the Eagle River Valley Childcare Initiative, which has initiated its efforts by pursuing the creation of an employer-based childcare center in Avon.
Active discussions and partnerships with the Town of Avon, childcare providers, other businesses, and local leaders, has moved this project forward into a promising stage: right now the Vail Valley Foundation and its partners have identified a possible location for the creation of a childcare center in Avon at the corner of Post Boulevard and E Beaver Creek Boulevard.
The project is planned to provide approximately 150 new, quality, childcare openings for families, including in the much-needed area of infant care.
The VVF does not intend to operate the childcare facility, and instead will partner with a childcare provider that has a proven track record of success to ensure that the new facility provides the highest-quality early childhood education possible to help our Valley take another step in the right direction in this important area of community need.
There is much ahead for this project, and for other areas of the VVF’s Community Supports mission.
We look forward to sharing more information with our community, and we are grateful for the support and partnership we continue to receive in this important area of our mission.
