With it’s small town energy and close knit community, Boise harvests a culture of looking out for your neighbors.  Numerous non profits and individuals devote their livelihoods to giving back, standing up, and providing resources for those in need.

Create Common Good is based in the Treasure Valley and focuses on food service training to help individuals overcome unemployment. “Through our wholesale business-to-business food manufacturing, we generate sustainable, repeatable revenue making us less reliant on grants and donations and allowing us to model the self-

sufficiency we teach,” reads the non-profits mission statement. The facility has the capability to help local business with product development, food packaging, and food production.

They also have a snack program supported through grant dollars from St. Luke’s Community Health Improvement Fund. Their goal is to provide nutritious snacks for low-income children in the Valley. Organizations that utilize this program include the Boise School District, Family Advocates, the Women’s and Children’s Alliance daycare, & Girls on the Run. The incredible collaborative effort of Create Common Good serves as a thriving example of the unified nature of Boise citizens.

Social activists are key components to the Boise upstander scene. The Idaho Women’s March ran in both 2017 and 2018. Taking place on the Idaho Capitol and streets of downtown Boise, the event follows suit of many of the nationally recognized protests that span across the country. The event aims to bring attention to social justice issues pertaining to gender inequality, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, workers’ rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, environmental justice, and ending violence.

Heading the event is Colette Raptosh. Originally from Boise, but currently a student at the University of Utah, she is the CEO of the LLC organization People for Unity.  The organization is also responsible for the 2018 Enough is Enough Student Walkout that served to promote gun control reform.

Additional organizers behind this event include some of Boise highs very own students. Maddie Oppenheimer (Junior), Kylie Casper (Junior), and Henry Turner (Senior) are all members of the Women’s March of Idaho team. “I think it’s really cool that high school and college students are running the Women’s March of Idaho because it shows that youth can be just as involved in the community as adults. It really gives us a voice in the future of our community,” explains Oppenheimer.

It’s these groups that collaboratively cultivate the standard of excellence Boise upholds. It’s to them that our community owes a great deal, for always being the helping hand  and recognizing the importance in uplifting all members of our society.