DENVER - This year's Urban Leadership Foundation of Colorado (ULFC) annual Leadership and Legacy Gala is "a Grammy-inspired affair" to pay tribute to excellence and achievement in the community. The leader of the ULFC will honor community leaders throughout the gala.
ULFC helps develop the next generation of Black leaders in Colorado.
“When the Black community thrives, everybody thrives, right? It's importance is rooted in that people are not in survival mode," ULFC CEO Dr. Ryan Ross said. "People have the opportunity to thrive. People have access to information, opportunity, and most importantly, understand authorizing environment. How does the city work? How does the state work? What are the nuances of politics? And that's really important right now because I think we're experiencing probably one of the most important elections of many of our lifetimes.’"
Ross said the gala serves as a major fundraiser for the foundation.
"We use these funds to do a lot of our initiatives, a lot of the community facing work that we do," Ross said. "So to fund our scholarship programs at the Community College of Aurora, and work on our homeless initiative, and then also provide scholarships to emerging and arriving leaders who want to participate in our fellowship, but maybe they work in nonprofit or education, and unfortunately, in Colorado, not making the kind of income that allows them to have the discretionary funds to invest in themselves.”
The ULFC will host the event Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Seawell Ballroom. It begins at 6:00 p.m.