{"id":45539,"date":"2021-07-26T23:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T05:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/project-pass-it-on-to-hold-first-meeting\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:25:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:25:43","slug":"project-pass-it-on-to-hold-first-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/project-pass-it-on-to-hold-first-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Pass It On to hold first meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Crystal
Crystal Eve Osborn Cooper sits atop a rock during a hike near Farmington Lake near Elephant Rock. Cooper founded Project Pass It On to help shed light on local issues with abuse, missing people and lack of mental health care. (Courtesy of Crystal Eve Osborn Cooper)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 A group aiming to shed light on abuse, missing people and lack of mental health care is gaining traction and members in San Juan County, with 135 people joining in five days.<\/p>\n

The group is called \u201cProject Pass It On\u201d and is described by founder Crystal Eve Osborn Cooper as a collective of people who \u201cchoose to exercise our right to not remain silent\u201d about local issues including potential corruption within local and federal government.<\/p>\n

Cooper said she started the group for multiple reasons, including growing suicide rates of teens, lack of mental health care and seeing \u201crepeated sex offenders walking free.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe missing Indigenous women and men from the Navajo Nation are barely a blip on the radar, although the numbers are staggering and unfathomable,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

The goal of the group, Cooper said, is to make San Juan County \u201csafe for the generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was time for me to relive my own experience in hopes that others would be brave enough to come forward as well,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cSo many of us have just suffered silently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper made a Facebook post July 21 and has since recruited 135 members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so immensely proud of each person who has messaged me,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cI know how difficult it is coming forward in complete bravery, recounting their stories. I love the hope that each of us show, thinking that finally, we might be heard. We have not and will not give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of those members reached out to Cooper with their own stories of struggle and abuse and have said they want to speak at a meeting coming up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is us sharing our stories, building a foundation of trust and becoming a family, not just a group,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

The meeting will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Minium Park in Aztec and will be livestreamed on Facebook for those who cannot attend.<\/p>\n

mmitchell@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

discuss abuse, lack of mental health care and rise in missing people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1240,799,28,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86537,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45539\/revisions\/86537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45539"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}