From West Africa to Colorado: Brady Porterfield-Finn's People-First Approach to Public Service
- Catherine Huckaby
- Apr 1, 2024
- 7 min read
As the Neighborhood Engagement Coordinator for the City of Arvada, Colorado, Brady Porterfield-Finn thrives in bringing residents, resources, and creative solutions together. His journey from aspiring baseball broadcaster to community builder spans continents and careers, but one thread remains constant, a dedication to fostering meaningful relationships.
"I'm a people connector and relationship builder and at my best when I'm able to connect people looking for resources or programs with the experts doing that work. Bringing puzzle pieces together and being that connector is a space where I thrive."
This talent for making connections serves him well in Arvada, a growing city of 130,000 residents with complex community needs. Whether coordinating the city's 800 volunteers, managing the Snow Buddies program that pairs volunteers with elderly residents needing snow removal assistance, or serving on the board of Wholly Kicks, a nonprofit providing shoes to students experiencing economic hardship, Brady's work centers on bringing people together to solve community challenges.
From Broadcasting Dreams to Building Communities
As a graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in broadcast journalism, he originally dreamed of becoming a baseball announcer. "I had my own radio show and was working on building a career as a journalist," he recalls.
Everything changed during his final year of college when he participated in three service trips through Mizzou Alternative Breaks, traveling to New Mexico, South Carolina, and Nicaragua. These experiences opened his eyes to the fulfillment of multicultural community building—a feeling that would guide his future career choices.
After college, he joined the Peace Corps, serving in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
For years afterward, he searched for work that could recreate the fulfillment he found there. This quest took him to California working with adults with disabilities, to the Dominican Republic leading voluntourism, to Mexico teaching English, and various other stops along the way.
"For years, I was chasing that feeling. And the closest I've come to experiencing that is multicultural community building. And that's where I find myself happiest working right now."
What makes Brady's story compelling is how profoundly these experiences shaped his approach to community engagement. The cultural immersion he experienced in Burkina Faso—where he witnessed families embracing complex religious diversity under one roof—fostered an appreciation for inclusion that informs his work today. His perspective highlights how personal journeys influence professional approaches, especially in fields centered on human connection.
Snow Buddies and Block Parties: Creating Connections in Arvada
In Arvada, Brady has found his groove leading Neighborhood Engagement efforts through the city's Neighbors Connected program. He shares one of the city’s impactful initiatives, Snow Buddies:
"The Snow Buddies program is a public service where the city of Arvada for decades has matched caring volunteers with neighbors in need of snow removal support."
This year, the program has successfully paired 232 residents with volunteers, maintaining a waiting list of just three people. The map behind his desk shows the wide coverage of volunteers across Arvada's sizeable geography.
The program addresses a real need in a state with significant winter weather and a large senior population. "More than 20% of our residents are 65 and older," he notes, explaining that Colorado ranks among the top states for proportion of senior residents.
He shares a memorable story about a resident who received a citation from code enforcement for uncleared sidewalks.
"Frank called me in a panic, after receiving a notice on his door from Code Enforcement, letting him know that he would be fined if he did not shovel the snow from his sidewalks and his driveway within 24 hours."
Recognizing that Frank physically could not comply with this requirement, Brady immediately connected him with a Snow Buddies volunteer. But he did not stop there—he used this experience to implement systemic change, working with Code Enforcement and the city’s Legal team to create an accommodation for people with disabilities. He also developed a Neighbor Conflict Resolution training course to address the root cause: a neighbor had reported Frank instead of offering help.
"This conflict resolution training was a collaboration between our Human Resources department and our Police Department. We met last February at a local library, and had 50 neighbors attend the training."
Beyond Snow Buddies, Brady oversees other programs under the Neighbors Connected umbrella, including Neighborhood Walks, a Block Party Trailer that residents can reserve for gatherings, and Neighborhood Grants that fund community block parties, experiences and projects. He also manages a network of neighborhood leaders who meet quarterly for training and information-sharing sessions.
What stands out about his approach is his commitment to measuring success:
"Community engagement's being done well when those in the community tell you that you're doing it well. That's not for us to define."
The Art of Connection: Building Bridges Between Diverse Communities
His approach to community engagement reflects his multicultural experiences. In a city where demographics are changing and community needs are diverse, his focus remains on creating connections between them all. This includes partnering with organizations that might not typically be associated with government work.
"I’m excited by the partnerships we have with churches. There's a few that come to mind that often ask me, where can we volunteer? Who needs help? How can we partner with you?"
These faith-based collaborations prove valuable in reaching community members that city programs might otherwise miss. Brady describes working with a church mission’s director on service projects targeted at shut-ins and residents who need property assistance. This echoes successful models in other communities where churches have combined resources to transform neighborhoods through coordinated volunteer efforts.
His perspective on successful engagement emphasizes meeting people where they are:
"Because you sent out a survey and it only got three responses, doesn't mean people don't care. We just need to find a new way to solve that problem and revisit our approach to the survey next time."
This mindset extends to how he thinks about diversity and inclusion in community work. Drawing from his Peace Corps experience, he embraces the rich multicultural landscape of his communities.
"We have demographics that are growing, changing, and evolving. We have so many more mixed relationships and marriages and kids growing up with several different nationalities, ethnicities, and backgrounds where every second of their life is multicultural."
His own family reflects this diversity, informing conversations with his children about identity and belonging that parallel the larger community conversations he facilitates in his work. This personal connection to the complexities of modern identity adds depth to his professional approach, allowing him to build bridges between diverse community segments with authenticity and understanding.
Advice for Aspiring Public Servants: Embrace Creativity and Trust the Path
For those considering careers in public service, particularly in community engagement, Brady emphasizes the value of being creative:
"Creativity is such a valuable skill, especially leading Community Engagement and acknowledging that our community members have unique ways they live their lives, prefer to communicate, and want to collaborate."
This creativity allows engagement professionals to adapt approaches when standard methods fall short. He sees the ability to think outside conventional frameworks as essential to reaching more community members and achieving meaningful results.
He also offers encouraging perspective for young people uncertain about their career paths: "I didn't see it either," he admits, referring to local government as a career option.
"We don't see a lot of influencers or stars or celebrities who are local government workers. These are the people who are helping to keep our sewers moving so we can flush our toilets, helping to keep our utilities and our public works and our electricity running."
He references Steve Jobs' famous Stanford commencement speech about connecting the dots looking backward—how experiences that seem random at the time often make sense in retrospect. "Even what I'm experiencing now might not make sense. But in the future, I'll be able to look back and understand that I can take value from what I'm experiencing today."
This wisdom particularly resonates coming from someone whose path wound through broadcast journalism, international service, various countries, and jobs before finding his place in local government. His journey shows how unique experiences can converge into meaningful work that leverages all the skills and perspectives gathered along the way.
For Brady, public service offers something vital that other careers lack:
"There are stepping stones across the water that we don't always know are in front of us, or which direction they're taking us, but they are taking us somewhere forward."
The Power of Intentional Connection
Brady Porterfield-Finn's work in Arvada demonstrates that effective public service is not about implementing perfect programs—it is about bringing the right people together to solve community challenges.
From matching Snow Buddies volunteers with elderly residents to facilitating neighborhood leadership networks, he focuses on creating systems where residents help each other with government serving as the facilitator rather than the sole provider. This collaborative approach multiplies impact while building community resilience that extends beyond any single program.
What makes his work distinctive is his combination of personal warmth and strategic thinking. He recognizes that true engagement requires both heartfelt connection and practical systems to sustain it. Whether working on conflict resolution training or coordinating volunteer appreciation events, he balances the human element with structured support that enables lasting impact.
As communities face increasingly complex challenges, Brady's story reminds us that the most powerful solutions often begin with a simple connection. His journey from aspiring broadcaster to community builder demonstrates how unexpected paths can lead to meaningful work when guided by a commitment to service and a talent for bringing people together.
Public Service Resources and Organizations
Brady and his Snow Buddies Program were recently featured in a story by Colorado Public Radio. The story spotlights the program’s work to support some of Arvada’s most vulnerable residents with snow removal.
The City of Arvada, Colorado is a home rule city located in Jefferson and Adams counties, Colorado. Known for its historic Olde Town district and vibrant community, Arvada offers attractions like the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities and Two Ponds National Wildlife Refuge.
Neighbors Connected is a community program aimed at fostering collaboration among residents in Arvada through initiatives like Snow Buddies, Neighborhood Grants, and block party resources. It promotes resilience and engagement by empowering neighborhood leaders and offering tools for conflict resolution and disaster preparedness.
Neighbor Conflict Resolution is a collection of resources, tips and strategies for neighbors to use in their quest to resolve conflicts in their neighborhoods.
Wholly Kicks is a nonprofit based in Aurora, Colorado, dedicated to supporting individuals experiencing homelessness or economic hardship. It provides new shoes and socks through events and outreach programs while fostering mentorship and relationships to empower communities.
Mizzou Alternative Breaks is a student-led program at the University of Missouri that organizes service trips during academic breaks. Participants engage in meaningful volunteer work across various locations to address social issues like education, poverty, and disaster recovery.
The Peace Corps is a U.S. government agency that sends volunteers abroad to address global challenges in areas such as education, health, agriculture, and community development. Volunteers commit to two years of service to promote cultural exchange and sustainable development.
