2025 Impact Highlight
Front Range Region
Trainings help local leaders build data-informed approaches to planning, community engagement
To make resilient decisions for the future, local leaders need both reliable data and the skills to meaningfully engage communities in interpreting that data and shaping priorities.
In Fall 2025, CSU Extension joined the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) and partner organizations for two Small Town Hot Topics webinars focused on how to use economic and demographic data to guide planning and public engagement.
Small and mid-sized communities in the regions, counties and municipalities covered by the DRCOG include Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson, and Broomfield. This region is facing rapid growth pressures, shifting demographics, economic uncertainty, and increasing public expectations around transparency and participation.
The first training was held in October 2025 and introduced foundational data concepts and demonstrated how communities can translate information into actionable decisions. Topics included:
- The Future of Childcare & Aging – Early Childhood Service Corps
- Data: What do you need to know to succeed?
- CSU Extension overview on how to interpret economic signals and use data in planning
- Collaborative question-storming activity to clarify community priorities
During the second training held in November 2025, Community and Economic Development specialists with CSU Extension provided guidance on how to analyze data, interpret patterns, and connect indicators to policy questions, followed by examples of how communities are already applying these tools in decision-making.
A third training planned for 2026 third training in the series will guide local leaders in designing engagement processes that draw more residents into the conversation and build shared ownership of decisions.
In total, 36 local and regional leaders participated across the two sessions, representing municipal staff, planners, economic developers, nonprofit partners, and special districts across the DRCOG region.
Outcomes from the trainings included:
- Improved understanding of what economic and demographic indicators reveal
- Greater ability to translate data into policy questions and budget priorities
- Increased confidence in using data as a public communication and engagement tool
- Expanded readiness for engagement
- New frameworks to design community conversations with transparency
- Examples of real Colorado towns applying data to guide decisions
- Practical exercises that encouraged cross-jurisdiction learning
When communities understand their own data – and residents are invited to interpret and act on it – local priorities become clearer, decisions are better informed, and trust in public institutions grows.
This partnership strengthens Colorado’s civic capacity by:
- Helping small towns move from data collection to shared understanding and action
- Supporting decision making rooted in evidence rather than assumption
- Providing skills to engage residents, not just inform them
- Building a pipeline of leaders who can convene community around difficult decisions
By continuing to support DRCOG through consulting, training, and applied technical assistance, CSU Extension is helping communities turn data into dialogue, and dialogue into decisions.