MONTROSE – One Community is about one thing: bringing cultures together.

Co-directors of the organization’s Montrose center Elizabeth Roscoe and Martin Valdez are reaching out to all segments of the community, including foreign-born, established residents and those traveling through, in order to promote understanding of each group’s challenges and needs.

For example, One Community’s Conversation Partners works with the adult literacy program in Montrose County to help English language learners. Volunteers, who aren’t required to speak another language, hold one-on-one conversations with participants, said Roscoe.

An orientation for 12 volunteers was held in March but about 10 more are needed, Roscoe said. “We need more volunteers and some students were upset they didn’t have one,” Roscoe said. “We hope to get at least 10 from the second orientation” on May 5.

One Community can also help English-speakers who want to brush up on their Spanish by pairing them with Spanish-speakers, she said.

The method has been used at some of the other 19 Community One centers throughout the state, all funded by the Colorado Trust, to promote bringing people of different cultures together in the communities where they live.

“One-on-one is proving quite effective for learning,” she said. “I want to have some sort of café sociale where people from different countries can discuss things or get together and watch a film. I’ll be planning something in the near future.”

Though founded by Colorado Trust, One Community is a project of the Montrose Health Partnership, a loose association of agencies, individuals, nonprofits, and organizations working on specific projects, Roscoe said.

One Community is meeting a goal of the health partnership with a program called Promotoras, which provides translators and interpreters to people for medical appointments and emergencies.

Another program helping bridge the cultural gap is the reinstatement of the Language Bank at the Montrose Public Library.

“People from different countries volunteer to assist with translations and interpretation,” Roscoe said. “So far we have people who speak Dutch, Spanish, Hindi, German, Esperanza, and English.”

Anyone can register at the library and get involved, she said. Volunteers can help speakers of other languages in many situations, whether it’s an important appointment, or if a traveler gets stranded or lost.

“Both Martin and I feel language support is really important and tough for people working long hours or traveling through our county,” Roscoe said.

While Roscoe works on agency outreach and administering One Community’s many programs, Valdez’s chief concern is outreach to the Spanish-speaking community, Roscoe said, and it helps that he was born in Mexico, in the Acapulco area.

But just speaking the language isn’t enough to bridge cultures, Valdez said.

“You can speak Spanish but if you’re not bi-cultural, you can’t open their hearts and minds. It’s harder,” he said.

Valdez is currently working with bringing the Spanish community and the schools together to address truancy issues, which he said is a serious problem. So far, the effort is in the data-gathering phase and Valdez has been working with the school district and attending truancy advisory board meetings.

“We’re working with school staff, finding a way to work together to find a solution,” he said. “The beauty of it is that they all see this is a big issue.”

One solution to the truancy problem is early intervention, Valdez said, and keeping parents informed because they could be unaware their child is missing school.

“Sometime parents don’t know. Then they go to court, miss work and their income is gone,” Valdez said. “Why not find ways to let the parents know before it’s too late?”

Valdez is also working with high school members of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens.

“I’m trying to work with the youth to create some events where youth, schools, parents, and other groups can join in to integrate these families into our community,” he said.

Sports is one of the best ways to bring different cultures together, Valdez said, and he’s working on a soccer tournament for the future.

The work of One Community doesn’t stop there, Roscoe said, and she’s been involved with others on the possibility of bringing a community health center to Montrose. Most community health centers are in urban areas but have been shown to be “a viable solution” in rural areas, she said, and the closest is the Uncompahgre Medical Center in Norwood.

“We’re taking a regional approach,” she said.

For more information on One Community, or to volunteer, contact Roscoe at 901-3430 or Valdez at 209-7123.