Written by Nina Riggio
From runaway teenagers back East to closeted sex slaves, Korean Veterans dealing with Agent Orange to previous professional tap dancers, Grits Collective has been collecting personal stories from the houseless community and are passionate about sharing these narratives.
Grits Collective was proposed by Colorado College students during the CC Soup Project, a competition during the 2014-2015 school year to rethink the community soup kitchen after it closed. Then-seniors Ben Criswell, Caitlin Canty, and Paige Clark came up with the idea as an alternative to connect with the community.
The mission of Grits is to provide empowering programming for vulnerable members of the community, challenge the status quo attitude toward these populations, and deepen the relationship between CC and the rest of Colorado Springs.
With the help of the CC Innovation Institute and the Collaborative for Community Engagement, Grits Collective was awarded seed funding to start up a small publication. But now the funding is running out. They are waiting to hear back about a $10,000 grant they applied for in September, but as of now there are no plans for future funding.
Grits partners with Catholic Charities, Marian House, Urban Peak, Colorado Springs Food Rescue, and KRCC for support, workshopping space, and rescued food.
Since Tent City closed down, more relationships between CC students and the houseless have formed and there has been talk of changing the model to a completely owned and operated street paper. Raven, a former Tent City community member, has had experience with past street papers and thinks GRITS should move towards this model.
“I want it to be more of an advocacy project for the street people and the houseless. Neutral ground where service providers will have a place to promote resources,” Raven described. “So that when people come here from out of town with nowhere to go, they can look in the Classified section and see where they can get coffee, job, clothes… not controlled by church functions.”
Raven was joking about naming the paper The Colorado Springs Echo with some friends one day as a play off the Denver Voice, which is a street paper in Denver. “I was just being a smartass when I came up with the name,” said Raven.
Raven has reached out to friends from the former Tent City establishment to help write for the paper. She believes it is going to be very difficult because the street folk are very ‘stubborn’ and a vulnerable and closed population. There is a possible idea to pay the writers after their third article so there is more content.
“From my experience, a street paper was the one place the houseless could go and get real answers, and it gave balance to the conversation,” said Raven.
Co-chairs Max Rawson, Reed Young, and alumni Ruthie Markwardt are on board with the idea of a paper, but are currently looking to build a team based around the street people’s ideas. There has been talk of different proposed columns, such as specific columns for veterans and women, along with a detailed classified section.
Interested students can get involved by emailing info@gritsco.org.