By Chris Hazlitt, Chair, Board of Trustees, The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County
At The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, we’re mindful of how to make the most of the donations and other forms of support we receive from county residents who want to see everyone in our communities thrive.
We continually study, listen and learn about our community’s needs and opportunities. In particular, our 2015-16 Boulder County TRENDS Report is key to how we inform ourselves and our work. This biennial compilation of community indicators is also a trusted resource for all Boulder County residents, community leaders, nonprofits and service providers to better inform your efforts to improve and flourish our communities.
In this milestone 20th year of producing TRENDS, we highlight and celebrate the positive gains we’ve made countywide – even as we identify where there’s still much work to be done to achieve environmental sustainability, economic vibrancy and self-sufficiency for all. Already, our work has evolved in response to TRENDS data – for example, we created the School Readiness Initiative to address an alarming educational achievement gap.
Sadly, Boulder County has one of the state’s widest achievement gaps – and Latino children are the ones most affected. All too often, the ethnicity or economic status of a child’s family affect his or her start in life, which directly impacts whether the child will become a proficient reader by the third grade – early literacy is one of the strongest predictors of a student’s likelihood to succeed in school and in life.
We know from the current TRENDS report that the poverty rate for families and children in our county is growing faster than the national rate, and nearly 40% of Latino children here are living in poverty. That means we need to redouble our efforts to work with civic leaders, parents and residents to transform our systems in ways that guarantee success for every student…as early as possible.
Another aspect of inequality in our communities is affordable access to healthcare. Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, more Boulder County residents have access to health care and health care providers: in 2014, 8% of us were uninsured, compared to 14% in 2013. While that’s good news on top of the overall good health of our residents, low-income families and Latinos are still less likely to be insured.
But inequality isn’t our only problem. Rising housing costs and a lack of affordable housing – especially in Boulder – are pricing out the working and middle classes, which negatively affects the county’s economy as a whole.
It’s no secret that it’s expensive to live here, but we show in TRENDS that housing prices in Boulder County are rising faster than incomes, which puts tremendous pressure on our economy. We’re grateful to our many grantees who are tackling this challenge head-on – for example, the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA), the OUR Center and Sister Carmen Community Center help identify clients who need housing help before it’s a crisis, and the Boulder County Housing Stabilization Program helps renters keep their homes.
Through knowledge and network-building, community foundations like ours leverage a collective commitment to a stronger community into measurable impact. As we approach our quarter-century of improving the quality of life here, TRENDS represents our deep understanding of who we are…together, we can put that knowledge and information to work and narrow the gaps that persist. I’m optimistic that our rigorous attention to both data and doing will bring us ever closer to meeting the needs and opportunities of our neighborhoods and communities.
To request a free TRENDS presentation to your board, staff, volunteers or faith community, contact TRENDS Director Erika Stutzman at Erika@commfound.org or 303-442-0436, ext. 130.
