Building Caring and Livable Communities For All

–The Boulder County Human Services Strategic Plan–

Why do a human services strategic plan?

All communities in Boulder County have increasing challenges in ensuring that the needs of the most vulnerable of our residents are met and that all people have the opportunity to build better lives for themselves and their families.

Scarce resources mean that it is important to ensure that funds are being allocated to address community needs and that community investments in health and human services are maximized.

We believe that developing a unified vision of health and human service needs, promoting multi-system collaboration and best practices, and focusing investments on outcomes and accountability based on results will improve the quality of life in Boulder County.

Why the need for change?

Boulder County human service agencies are collaborative, community-based and skilled in leveraging resources. We believe that we have the opportunity to enhance these assets, maximize current investments and reduce the perception of duplication, fragmentation and conflicting incentives that are created by the maze of funding streams.

What do we hope to accomplish?

The ability to say – as a community – that we accomplished certain goals and objectives, utilizing best practices to address ongoing real needs and responsiveness to emerging issues. We believe that we can make the case that ongoing investments in human services in Boulder County will help maintain a broad and durable safety net. But we must look beyond simply mitigating poverty to providing real opportunity. We believe that this plan will accomplish this.

How will we do it?

Development of the “Building Caring and Livable Communities for All” vision will occur during a two-day, intensive, “Future Search” process April 13-14. This unique planning process is one that is used worldwide by hundreds of communities and organizations. Participants will be selected to represent a diverse cross-section of the entire community, including service providers, funders, business people, consumers, clients, elected officials and multi-ethnic and cultural perspectives. Participants will discover values, purposes, and projects they hold in common and to create a shared vision of what “caring and livable communities for all” would look like. Find out more about the Future Search process.

After the Future Search, action groups, comprised of community members and representatives from local nonprofits and funding agencies, will be convened to develop specific strategies and actions to implement the vision. Their recommendations will address what is needed in order to better plan and coordinate services, funding, resources, grant applications, and outcome measurements among agencies and funders.