Collaborative Visions/Visiones Collaborativas Launches Mora Resource Harvesting System

For Publication 06/15/21

Contact: Scott Campbell

Phone:    828.423.7367

Email:     scott@wildcraftmedia.com

Mora, NM, Jun 14, 2021 – The Mora Empowerment Project (MEP) has launched its Resource Harvesting System connecting local organizations with the professional and technical resources they need to grow and better serve the community.  A consortium of local groups started the Mora Empowerment Project in 2019 to help build sustainable economic resources in Mora County.

 “We are pleased to have the Resource Harvesting System off the ground,” said Dr. Richard Ruster, president of Collaborative Visions, the local non-profit organization shepherding the MEP, “and we are glad to announce Collins Lake Ranch as its first client organization.”

Collaborative Visions contracted Kayt Peck and Scott Campbell of Rociada-based Flying Pigs Creative Services, Inc. to provide technical assistance and fund-raising expertise for MEP.  Through the MEP, Steve Smaby of Collins Lake Ranch learned of Flying Pigs and contacted Collaborative Visions to see how they could help.

 “Collins Lake Ranch is excited to utilize this important service offered by Collaborative Visions and Mora Empowerment Project,” said Steve Smaby of Collins Lake Ranch.  “Our funding needs exceed our grant management ability. We appreciate the expertise that Collaborative Visions has brought to our organization.”

“Kayt and Scott are the same team who helped us get a $510,000 grant from the USDA for a distance learning center we are putting together with NMHU,” noted Anita LaRan, executive director of Collaborative Visions. “Work on the center began at Helping Hands Building this spring and it should be ready in time for the fall semester.”

 LaRan helped the group secure a grant from the McCune Foundation to jump start MEP’s Resource Harvesting System.

 “Collaborative Visions plans to hold a series of community meetings during the coming months so that everyone has the opportunity to learn of MEP’s progress and what the Resource Harvesting System can offer,” LaRan said.

 “This is an important milestone for the MEP,” Ruster added, “It shows how a diverse group can come together to do concrete work in our community.”

 Collaborative Visions is a Mora County-based non-profit organization dedicated to building partnerships to empower vibrant, healthy, and sustainable rural communities – communities that respect the environment, embrace ethnic and cultural diversity, and afford residents economic opportunity and to lead healthy, vibrant lives.

 Board members of Collaborative Visions are Dr. Richard Ruster, Chair, Isabel Lopez, Vice Chair, Lourdes Valdez, Secretary, Dr. Edward Martinez, Treasurer, Pastor Herman Medina, and John Olivas.