Colorado African Organization was formed in August 2003, by a pioneering team of members from several countries from Africa. Our vision was to establish an organization that for the first time and with one voice would advocate for the issues that uniquely affect the entire African immigrant community in Colorado.  Our mission as an organization is to foster greater unity among us, to increase the level of our participation in the activities of the Colorado society we live in, and to insure our inclusion and representation in dialogues affecting community policies and opportunities.

As we stated in our first newsletter in October 2003, "CAO is representative of, and sensitive to, the racial and cultural diversity of the community of Africans in Colorado. It promotes the unity of Africans, collaboration between Africans and free exchange of ideas in an open, caring community.  CAO encourages continual development of Africans' individual talents and recognizes the critical importance of each person to the achievement of Africans' common purpose."

There are other mainstream organizations that provide services to Africans, most notably the voluntary agencies involved in refugee resettlement.  However, while these organizations assist individuals, they do not assist our community to organize and advocate for ourselves.  Also, while there have been past efforts to organize the African community in Colorado, these efforts have failed because of the self-interest and self-promotion of the organizers.  We believe that CAO represents the first effort to assist Africans in Colorado to move from being service recipients to being policy makers, and the first effort to focus in consensual governance.

To date our activities have focused on organizing ourselves and creating strategic relationships with other organizations.  We have devoted considerable time and effort to successfully reaching out to the individual African communities, such as the Liberian Community Organization, the Sierra Leone Support Group, the Association of Ivorians in Colorado, and the Gambian Association, to name just a few, in order to secure their support for our mission and their participation in our activities.  We have also successfully reached out to mainstream organizations, such as the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center, the African Community center, and the MicroBusiness Development Corporation, in order to secure their assistance for our organizing efforts and to have a voice in influencing the services they offer.  Because we are entirely a volunteer and constituent based organization, our challenge (not a failure) has been to have the time and resources to move our development forward.

While our members are also subscribed to individual country organizations, CAO provides a unique platform for a unified and more powerful level of engagement with parties on matters affecting the African community. With the Immigrant African population in Colorado growing at three times the national average there has never been a better time for an organization like CAO.

Organizational Structure and Decision Making

We are a new organization, all of whose leaders serve as volunteers.  The organization has a vibrant Executive Committee that serves as its Board of Directors, and runs its affairs in line with its constitution. The composition of the Executive Committee of the CAO reflects the diversity of our membership.  President (Gambia), Vice-president (Zimbabwe), Treasurer (Cote D'Ivoire), Secretary (Senegal), Alternate Secretary (Kenya), Projects Coordinator (Mauritania), Public Relations Coordinator (Sierra Leone), Executive Member (Tanzania), Social Welfare Coordinator (Kenya) to name a few.  Most of the executive members are and/or have been at one time members/leaders of their individual country organizations, and thus bring to CAO a first hand experience and representation of the issues that affect their respective communities.

The committee which meets at least twice a month and more when need arises makes all decisions. The committee strives to reach a unanimous consent and where that is not possible decisions are adopted by majority vote of the members present as long as they meet the quorum stipulated in the constitution. Minutes of the bi-weekly meetings are circulated to all concerned before the next meeting.

Issues at hand

A new immigrant from African, be it student, refugee or permanent residence faces great challenges in this country due to the following reasons:

• No credit which means difficult getting financed for anything or very high interest rates or insurance rates.
• Limited knowledge of the cultural issues.
• Possible immigration harassment due to heightened events after September 11.

Focus

CAO has a three-part plan to address the issues and that is through, community advocacy, education and small business enterprise promotion.

(1) Community Advocacy:

• Appoint a community Ombudsman to speak out against financial exploitation by unscrupulous car dealers, Insurance and Mortgage Brokers
• Seek access to city and county policy committees to speak out on issues affecting the African (not African American) community issues.
• Seek access to the District Attorney’s office to champion against any form of unwarranted harassment directed against the community in any manner by any government law enforcement agencies.

(2) Education:

• Voting -- Through country representatives, sensitize members on their right and need to vote as a block and hence become a recognizable voting constituency, since many members are qualified to vote.
• Domestic Violence -- There is a problem of domestic violence in the community that is not addressed by anybody because it goes un-reported. Many victims of domestic violence do not speak due to unfounded fear of immigration repercussions or otherwise from crime perpetrators.

(3) Small Business:

CAO seeks to provide access to small business financial resources by:

Inviting financial trainers from within and without to give lessons on:

o       How to obtain, start and maintain a small business

o       First time homebuyer seminars.

Activities

CAO has achieved the following milestones:

a)   Established a web site and seeks to promote its activities further on the Web.

b)      Been registered with the State as a corporation and is in the process of applying for the 501(c)3 with the Federal Government.

c)      Has initiated a membership drive and this process will be going on for next few months.

Join CAO Today! 
Join our Family of Africans!

For your CAO membership, you may download the attached form, fill it out and mail to:

CAO Public Relations Services
P.O. Box 471111
Aurora, CO 80047

Tel: 720-231-8632  Fax: 303-937-3798
Email: managementafrica@aol.com