EDGEWATER, Colo. — The Edgewater Collective is helping promote programs and partnerships to improve education, economic opportunity and civic engagement with Latino communities across Jefferson County.
The nonprofit, based in Edgewater, was founded in 2012.
“We saw needs in our local schools, and wanted to do everything we could to fix them. But over the last 11 years, really learning about our community, building relationships with immigrants in the Edgewater area. We really began to see our community in terms of what kind of the typical needs that people like me see for our community,” Edgewater Collective Executive Director Joel Newton said. “During the pandemic, our team was connecting with folks that were renting in Edgewater and helping them catch up on their rent. And through those conversations, we began to learn workers were being taken advantage of, so they weren't being paid, they would have to drive long distances. And through that, we began to realize that we wanted to help them start their own business.”
So far, the Edgewater Collective has helped launch four cooperatives.
“The language co-op does translation interpretation services, Casitas Pin Pon does child care during events, Cuenta Conmigo which provides lactation consulting and infant health services,” Newton said.
There’s also the Edgewater Cleaning Co-op which provides cleaning services to residential and business clients.
“I feel honored to be able to do what I'm doing now, no matter the work,” Deisy Bebersi, an Edgewater Cleaning Cooperative member, said through an English translator from the language co-op.
Berbesi speaks Spanish, and arrived in Denver two years ago.
“I'm from Venezuela, and I had to leave my country just for the situation that's happening out there,” Berbesi said. “I basically run away from my country and came to the US to be able to start over here. I did graduate, graduated from college out there. I'm an accountant.”
But Berbesi said when she came to the United States, she had to leave her career behind and start over.
“We started from the bottom, and we had no place to live. We have nobody. We didn't know anybody out here, and we were living in a shelter,” Berbesi said.
Berbesi started cleaning houses and businesses to provide for her husband and three children, but Berbesi said she learned she was being paid below minimum wage.
She eventually learned about the Edgewater Collective, and alongside other immigrants, helped launch the Edgewater Cleaning Co-op.
“That's been one of my dreams, to have my own business, to be able to run my own business, and that's an opportunity that I'm able to do now,” Berbesi said. “I understand that there are some people that are coming out here and they're delinquent and but that's not the case for everyone there. The majority of us come out here to get a better life, to work hard, and I just want to tell them like, if I was able to do this and I'm making my dreams come true, then that's something that you guys can do as well.”
Berbesi said she’s proud of her new career and the ability to provide for her family in her new home.