Disrupting Colorado's Status Quo: Unlocking New Policy Advocacy
In our efforts to bring health in reach for all Coloradans, 我们与全州的倡导者和政策制定者密切合作，推进与基金会一致的公共政策 focus areas.
我们知道，在过去两年中，我们并不是唯一一个经历了变化和破坏现状的组织. The pandemic pushed every organization to examine and change how it operates. Just as changes in the Foundation’s work have unlocked essential learnings for us, many other institutions have discovered similar lessons for themselves, including our government institutions.
Our policy agenda looks and feels different than it has in the past. Rather than simply looking into issue-specific policy opportunities, the Foundation addresses how Colorado’s policymaking process can become more inclusive and equitable. 我们的公共政策团队从广泛的倡导组织收集了十大菠菜靠谱老平台科罗拉多州政府机构如何运作和制定公共政策决策的观点. Our report on Colorado’s Policymaking Processes 总结了我们所学到的改革州政策制定的机会，使其更具包容性，并对科罗拉多人的声音作出反应. This year, we are focusing intensively on the following three areas:
- Improving housing affordability
- Reforming state rulemaking processes
- Reforming the rules and procedures of Colorado’s state legislature
本基金会认为，我们的政策议程是将我们的声音集中在一些重要问题上的一种方式，这些问题可以使所有科罗拉多人更接近健康. 我们还向在更广泛的问题领域倡导卫生公平的其他组织提供资金. You can learn about our advocacy funding here.
Questions? Email us at [email protected].
Policy Agenda
Advocate for state and local policies that improve housing affordability for Coloradans living on low income.
Why this and why now?
We believe that safe, 稳定和负担得起的住房是一项基本人权，因为它是良好健康的重要基础. Housing costs have increased substantially across the state, making a place to call “home” increasingly unaffordable for Coloradans living on low incomes. Many people across Colorado are forced to make impossible choices between housing and healthy food, health care expenses, educational opportunities child care and more. Our annual Pulse poll found that more than eight in 10 (82%) respondents cited housing costs as a very serious problem in 2021.
科罗拉多州的住房负担能力挑战是由多种因素造成的，需要地方和州的公共政策干预来改变. However, 造成目前经济适用房短缺的因素错综复杂，这给各级政府的决策者带来了重大挑战. Many elected officials struggle to disrupt the root causes of the challenges their urban, 郊区和农村社区面临并且仍然不确定哪些解决方案属于他们的权力范围.
Advocate for reforms to state rulemaking procedures to make these policymaking processes more equitable and inclusive.
Why this and why now?
许多倡导者倾向于将精力集中在推进与心理健康等具体问题领域相关的政策变革上, food security or affordable housing. While this can allow advocates to advance meaningful policy changes on those topic areas, relatively few actors in Colorado’s advocacy ecosystem focus specifically on disrupting or challenging governance and power structures, which define processes for how policy decisions are made.
科罗拉多州的倡导生态系统相对缺乏对改革科罗拉多州政府机构制定政策决策的规则和程序的关注，这导致了一种倾向于维持现状的偏见, communities and organizations have little influence over public policy. This, in turn, preserves structures, 州政府机构的模式和做法使权力和资源的种族不公平分配永久化，最终使富人和特权阶层的声音更有可能在政策制定过程中被听到.
In 2021, the Foundation intentionally gathered perspectives from a wide range of advocacy organizations about how the policymaking processes in Colorado’s state government institutions could be reformed to be more equitable, inclusive and racially just. 倡导者对各州委员会目前发布正式规章制度的程序表示了特别关注和失望. 他们反映，州的规则制定目前是一种排他和不透明的“内部人士的游戏”，对于传统上没有权力和特权的科罗拉多州人来说，在州政府行政部门做出的关键政策决定中表达自己的声音尤其困难.
Advocate for reforms to the operating procedures of Colorado’s state legislature to make its policymaking processes more equitable and inclusive.
Why this and why now?
倡导者还表示，科罗拉多州议会的流程和程序使得科罗拉多州人在该州政府立法部门做出的政策决定中发出自己的声音极其困难. 许多与州立法机构接触过的倡导者反映，权力和影响力目前集中在游说者和有资源雇用他们的组织手中. In fact, 立法机构的规则和程序使科罗拉多州的立法过程难以监督和影响任何没有在国会大厦工作丰富经验的人.
While this dynamic is not unique to Colorado and our state’s legislature, 许多支持者还乐观地认为，改变大会遵循的规则和程序是可能的，并能在谁能在国会拥有权力和影响力方面产生有意义的变化. For example, 许多人反映，在疫情期间，在立法委员会听证会上远程作证的选择，使更多科罗拉多人有可能直接与立法者交谈.
Resources
The Foundation provides reliable, 十大菠菜靠谱老平台各种主题的无党派信息，为全州的公共政策和宣传工作提供信息. These educational efforts often take the form of briefs, regulatory comment letters, webinars and in-person convenings.