In Good Health

On the eve of last week’s election, I told our staff unequivocally: “Regardless of the outcomes of our national and state elections, our work, our intentions, our commitment to equity will not change. If that means we are fighting upstream, if that means we are alone in our effort, then so be it.”

What the Election Revealed

Getting through Election Day didn’t solve the challenges we’ve faced this year. The COVID-19 pandemic rages on with no end in sight, taking lives, threatening children’s learning and decimating the economy. The election affirmed rather than resolved deep divisions forcing us apart during a time when we should be holding tight and taking care of one another. And racial injustice – which for

A few months back a grantee shared with me the hard news that their property had been defaced with hateful speech. At the time, they were trying to figure out resources for staff who never turn off – in the midst of experiencing the pandemic from the frontlines, receiving an influx of funding resources and trying to keep their heads above water. While I found myself pining for in-person interaction, I recognized what they needed was someone to listen.

Complexities with the coronavirus and the ongoing racial injustice we’re experiencing as a nation present more obstacles than I can count. While I have my moments of being utterly overwhelmed by it all, we’re challenging ourselves – as individuals and as

Learning and evaluation have always been central to our practice at The Colorado Health Foundation, because we believe they have the potential to help us be smarter about our work so we can create greater impact at the intersection of health and equity.

Learning and evaluation help us hold ourselves accountable to the communities we exist to serve – always asking the questions of whether we’re living into our values, whether the assumptions we have hold true, and whether we’re helping communities move the needle on issues of health that are important to them.

Our President and CEO, Karen McNeil-Miller, describes the role of our Learning and Evaluation Department as holding a mirror up to the Foundation – offering an

This blog post was originally published on Sept. 9, 2020 on Pulse: The Colorado Health Foundation Poll website. 

When I joined The Colorado Health Foundation in November 2018, I started with three items on my “to do” list:

1. Figure out how to use public opinion research to better understand Coloradans.
2. Do that research in ways that are unbiased and methodologically rigorous.
3. Share what we learn openly and often to advance health equity.

It was a daunting list.

Fast forward almost two years, and here we are – releasing the first in an annual series of statewide polls of more than 2,000 Coloradans. Leading up to this, we’ve conducted focus groups, messaging analyses and media audits; but Pulse: The Colorado