Building community

Since its inception in 1981, the Vail Valley Foundation has been a champion within our community to create life-enriching experiences for everyone who lives, works, or visits here. 

For decades, the organization defined its work around three pillars: arts, athletics, and education. However, the organization always responded to the needs of our community in broader ways than our three pillars can express. With this in mind, beginning in 2023, the Vail Valley Foundation formally adopted “Community” as a fourth pillar of the company. 

Why community and why us? 

The Vail Valley Foundation has always been in a unique position to bring together governments, businesses, and individuals to accomplish great things and take on big challenges. 

What areas? 

The community engagement committee, established in 2021 in the wake of the VVF’s work supporting the local response to COVID-19, identified two key areas to provide immediate and mid-range support: early childhood education & housing. 

Strategy: 

The VVF is not taking on these challenges alone: public-private partnerships are essential to uniting the community toward solutions that alleviate our community’s most pressing issues. 

In childhood education:

The Eagle River Valley is currently a childcare desert, and the situation has reached a point where nearly half of all parents in the Valley cannot find adequate childcare. Many people manage childcare needs through informal and unlicensed means such as friends, family, and neighbors, and a significant portion of the population has no viable childcare solution.

To address this critical need, the VVF is piloting the Eagle River Valley Childcare Initiative by building an early childhood education and development center in Avon. This will be an employer-sponsored center that will provide childcare to approximately 165 children ages 0-5 in the Valley. While the VVF does not plan to run the center, it will provide financial oversight and create a template that may eventually allow multiple centers to open throughout the Vail Valley. 

This effort made significant progress in 2024. In partnership with the Town of Avon, the Vail Valley Foundation identified an ideal location for an 13,000-square-foot licensed early learning center on an approximately 4-acre plot of land within The Village at Avon development. As presented, the initiative could bring 12 preschool classrooms to serve around 168 children from the community. 

The plans for the childcare initiative include: 

• 32 slots for infant ages birth to 12 months (4 classrooms) 

• 24 slots for toddler ages 12 to 24 months (2 classrooms) 

• 32 slots for discovery preschool ages 2 to 3 years old (2 classrooms) 

• 40 slots for preschool ages 3 to 4 years old (2 classrooms) 

• 40 slots for Pre-K ages 4-5 (2 classrooms) 

The program has garnered a letter of support from the Eagle County government, Town of Avon, Vail Resorts, Vail Health, Sonnenalp Resort, Eagle River Water and Sanitation District, Eagle County School District, and EastWest Partners. 

In Housing 

Our organization is working together with entities throughout Eagle County to identify and support partnerships that can lead to improved workforce housing conditions.