Our Programs
Business Growth Program
The North Fork Valley Business Growth Program helps entrepreneurs, artists, farmers, makers, and small business owners build stronger, more sustainable businesses through education, connection, and community. By providing practical learning opportunities, peer support, and access to regional resources, the program empowers local businesses to grow while strengthening the creative and rural economy of the North Fork Valley.
Throughout the year, the program offers workshops, networking events, and the six-month Business Growth Collective, serving more than 180 entrepreneurs annually. Many of these programs are offered in collaboration with valued partners, including the North Fork Valley Chamber of Commerce, Valley Organic Growers Association, Region 10, helping connect local businesses with expertise, resources, and opportunities that support long-term success.
Tourism
There is something special about watching a place you love get discovered by the rest of the world, and that is exactly what is happening in the North Fork Valley right now. The North Fork Valley Creative Coalition has joined forces with the North Fork Valley Chamber of Commerce with one shared goal: welcoming more visitors into this valley we call home.
Tourism does more than bring people through town. It keeps our restaurants full, our farms thriving, our galleries busy, and our small businesses growing. It helps this community continue doing what it does best.
Together we launched visitnorthforkvalley.com, a warm and inviting new site built to show travelers what makes this place so special before they ever set foot here. Orchards heavy with fruit, wine that tastes like the land it came from, art around every corner, and mountains that take your breath away.
We are just getting started, and we cannot wait to keep welcoming new friends who fall in love with this valley the same way we have.
Paonia Creative District
The Paonia Creative District is a Colorado Certified Creative District that celebrates and strengthens the arts, culture, and creative industries in Paonia and the surrounding North Fork Valley. Managed by the North Fork Valley Creative Coalition, the district is home to galleries, studios, performance venues, restaurants, shops, and locally owned businesses, and serves as a gathering place for many of the community's signature events, including Final Friday Art Walks, Mountain Harvest Festival, Light the Night, and the Paonia Holiday Art Fair.
Beyond supporting creativity locally, the Paonia Creative District is connected to a statewide network of creative communities. We work closely with Colorado Creative Industries, the Western Slope Creative District Network, and fellow Creative Districts across the region to share resources, strengthen rural creative economies, advocate for the arts, and create new opportunities for artists, makers, and creative businesses to thrive.
Paonia Clayworks
Paonia Clayworks is a community pottery collective at the heart of Paonia's creative scene. They offer fully equipped studio space for members, ceramic classes and workshops open to everyone, and a showroom where you can take home something handmade right here in the valley.
Their workshop calendar stays busy year round with classes in throwing, hand building, glazing, and more, making Clayworks one of the most accessible creative resources in the Valley. And if you haven't been to their annual Soup Bowl fundraiser yet, put it on your calendar — local potters hand craft ceramic bowls, you choose one to keep, fill it with bottomless soup, and every dollar goes toward supporting the arts in our community.
Nourish Our Farmers
Nourish Our Farmers is a coalition supporting the mental, physical, and economic well-being of agricultural producers throughout Delta County. Led 13 local organizations and businesses and anchored by the Valley Organic Growers Association, the program fosters connection, reduces isolation, and builds a more resilient farming community.
Through health and wellness resources, a meal program serving prepared food to local farmers and crew members, and monthly Farmers Social gatherings, the coalition meets producers where they are. It also connects farmers to business and economic support, education resources, and a wide network of local, state, and federal programs. At its core, the belief is simple: healthy food systems begin with healthy farmers, and supporting them supports the whole valley.