Welcome to Center for Health Progress (CHP)! We are a people-powered, multi-racial, member-led organization in Colorado. We want our communities–not greedy corporations and executives–to have power over the decisions that impact our lives.
CHP is a vibrant, grassroots organization spanning communities across the state, with deep ties in Fort Morgan, Metro Denver, and Pueblo. We recruit, develop, and retain hundreds of community members who have a personal stake in this fight. We organize poor, working, and middle class people of all races across Colorado who that have a shared stake in taking on the greedy corporations and executives who’ve rigged our healthcare system, bankrupted our families, and bought the votes of our elected officials. We organize health care workers who worry the care they provide will drive their patients into medical debt, and folks who can’t access the health care they deserve. We organize people who live under the threat of discrimination, and everyone who is struggling to make ends meet. We develop grassroots leaders who are winning campaigns and policies that limit corporate power and strengthen government oversight. We need all of us to build institutions that value people over profit.
Greedy corporate executives and lobbying groups are tearing our communities apart and pitting us against each other. Together, we’re channeling our individual anger and pain into collective action. We’re crafting strategies to win changes that have immediate impacts on our lives while building the power we need to transform our society.
Our Fight, Our Future: The Century Long Fight for Health Care
As we confront ongoing challenges and health care industry opposition, the importance of our community power has never been clearer. This timeline is both a reflection of the past obstacles and wins, and a guide for our path forward.
Staff
Our Leaders
Building Our Skills in the Face of Power: Leadership Development
Change happens best when those closely impacted by the problems in our society are leaders at the center, so CHP is deeply embedded in the communities where we organize.
Our formal leadership program deepens our leaders’ analysis on power, and health and health care. It supports them to work through limiting fears and beliefs as they prepare to push themselves, take risks, and take leadership in their team’s shared goals.
CHP’s structure ensures community members actively participate in decision-making, informing our priorities, and driving activities. With leaders across Colorado—from agricultural workers in the Eastern Plains, to Chicanos upholding a legacy of resistance in Pueblo, to health care workers disillusioned by a system that favors the wealthy elite —we’re a community fighting for systems that value our humanity and wellness.
Inside/Outside Strategy: Bridging Health Care Workers and Patients
Healthcare worker in scrubs hold sign reading “You sued me too”
We are all patients needing health care at some point–even those who work within the health care system. We recognize the ways that health care workers are uniquely harmed by a system that prioritizes wealth over wellness.
Health care workers are fed up with the ways our profit driven health care system uses them as a tool to make money for executives, and prevents them from providing quality care. We build power with both the health care workforce and the broader community because we recognize that we all deserve a system that prioritizes our humanity above corporate profits.
Board
Joining People’s Action Institute: Amplifying Our Voice and Impact
In 2023, our member leaders voted to join as an affiliate of People’s Action Institute, a national network of 40+ power-building organizations like ours in 30 states advancing equity and justice by winning local, state, and national campaigns. Our affiliation strengthens our leadership development and base building, issue campaigns, and brings the voices of Coloradans to a national stage.
