Boulder County BOCC, CO 2018 Pinnacle Award Finalists, 5 Apr 2018

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From YouTube: 2018 Pinnacle Finalists

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These 15 projects are finalists in the 2018 Pinnacle Awards.

A

Hi,, I'm katie pague., I'm the program administrator for the financial.

A

Counseling program at boulder, county. hi,, I'm amy bruhn,. I do marketing and.

B

Outreach for boulder county housing, & human services. bank, on boulder county.

A

Was initiated from a $5,000 grant from the cities for financial empowerment, fund,.

A

Based on the estimates of the unbanked and underbanked in boulder county.

A

So, to be unbanked means that someone does not currently have a bank.

A

Account. to be underbanked means that you might have a bank account,, but you don't.

A

Use it. instead,, you use alternative banking services that are probably.

A

Costing you a lot more., there are over 5,000 unbanked families and over 15,000.

A

Underbanked families. folks tend to not trust. Banks is one of the main reasons.

A

That they're, unbanked or underbanked.. The other reason is that they feel they.

A

Don't have enough money to be banked., and so what we saw after with bank on.

A

Boulder county were some very simple accounts that folks could step into that.

A

Were safe and affordable for them., so one of the biggest aspects of bank on.

B

Boulder county is the engagement process., so we decided it would be smart to not.

B

Only partner with our financial counseling program,, but also with the.

B

Financial institutions and the human services organizations., we started our.

B

Coalition with about 20 members and we've doubled it in the last year., and we.

B

Also have about 20 champions, who are our eyes and ears and voice in the community.

B

The bank on champion network is a very unique structure. quarterly. We get.

A

Together for a listening and learning session, and we build in some little.

A

Technical education for them, but mostly it's hearing from the champions. we want.

A

To know, what's going on in relationship to banking. back in october of last year,.

B

We had our bank on boulder county public launch week.. We had celebrations at 10.

B

Different locations throughout our community,, and we just told people about the different accounts, and that was pretty awesome.. Our.

B

Coalition members are the ones who planned that and executed it.. It was.

B

Amazing. one of the most unique aspects of bank on boulder county is the.

B

Relationships that human services organizations and our community partners.

B

Have formed with financial partners such as banks and credit unions. we've never.

B

Had this relationship where we can work together to help our community and.

B

To educate financial partners on the services that the county offers. and that.

B

There are resources available for folks.

C

Hi,, my name is katie arrington and I'm the resilience and recovery specialist for.

C

The commissioner's office., what better together aims to do is to make all.

C

Residents more prepared, in case the unexpected happens.. These workshops are.

D

Designed for anybody interested in resilience and disaster preparedness., it.

D

Doesn't matter where you live, it's about assessing the threats of where you live.

D

And then addressing the risk associated with those threats. the reality of.

D

Emergency management is the bigger the disaster,. The more resources are going to.

D

Be stressed and overwhelmed, and so there's a growing movement to help.

D

Empower individuals in the community to be more ready and prepared for a.

D

Disaster., we challenge participants to go in their neighborhoods and talk to their.

C

Neighbors. we challenge them. To,, you know,, have a potluck,, introduce yourself to a.

D

Neighbor, you may not know. even teaching the class has made me realize. I need to.

C

Be a better part of my community., so I've continued to reach out to neighbors to.

C

Meet new neighbors that I didn't know before and just the same relationships.

C

That I already had going into the class. the more social capital in the community,.

D

The more neighbors know each other,. They have trust with each other,. The more.

D

Willing they are to ask for help and to offer help., and that resilience is really.

D

Key and an underutilized piece in disaster preparedness., our residents have.

C

Shown great resiliency in the past few years.: resiliency is the ability to.

D

Withstand and overcome challenges. we've had several major wildfires, a.

C

Catastrophic flood, and individuals can face small scale emergencies in their.

C

Daily lives., the identity that people in boulder have with the community is one.

D

Of the biggest reasons why we've been so successful in recovering from the.

D

Disasters we've had. this year we have four more courses scheduled throughout.

C

The county., the first two are already full.

E

My name is angel torres, and I'm a family navigator here at community justice.

E

Services., so the family navigator,, its main purpose, is to help families that.

E

Come through the juvenile justice system., so basically it comes into two different.

E

Tracks. track 1 is a simple form of service that has the family navigator.

E

Attend all court delinquency dockets to just help all clients navigate the.

E

System., the family navigator connects families to resources within boulder.

E

County such as mental health,, hhs,, public assistance, and other programs that the.

E

Client may need. as a family navigator. I ensure that families who need additional.

E

Supports and resources aside from track-1., I help case manage them through.

E

The whole process from the minute they actually get booked into our juvenile.

E

Assessment center until they actually get into probation., so the whole purpose of.

E

This track 2 is to help families better engage into court, ordered services.

E

Most families that come through track 2 actually have no idea what the.

E

Juvenile delinquent system looks like, and part of my role as a family.

E

Navigator is to ensure that families understand each professional's role in.

E

The courtroom.- and that includes the district attorney's, the public.

E

Defender, as well as gal, which is guardian, ad litem, and sometimes even the.

E

Judge. part of the position requirement was to have someone.

E

That is bilingual, and also bicultural, because most of the cases that come.

E

Through this system are mostly spanish-speaking. in fact, about 75% of my.

E

Caseload is spanish, speaking clients., so the family navigator position is.

E

Actually very unique here in boulder county,, because it's actually the first.

E

Navigator, slash advocate position in the state of colorado. That actually is.

E

Specified for juvenile delinquent cases only., it's actually been a very huge.

E

Success. and other counties and jurisdictions have reached out to try to.

E

Recreate the same model, so they can also help other kids in other jurisdictions.

E

Who are involved in the juvenile system do the same thing as we're doing here in.

E

Boulder county.

F

Hi,, I'm michael dougherty, district attorney for boulder., I'm very excited to.

F

Talk to you today about our center for prevention and restorative justice.. It is.

F

An innovative program that's become a model for the state of colorado. This.

F

Program is designed to hold offenders accountable and by making sure they.

F

Don't read increasing community safety, we have an.

F

Amazing staff and dedicated volunteers from the community who help us hold.

F

Offenders accountable, make sure they're responsible for their crimes and, if.

F

They're willing to take responsibility, we offer diversion programs for adults.

F

And juveniles to help them get back on the right track. Hello, I'm elena shively.

G

I'm an attorney and the director of the boulder district attorney's center for.

G

Prevention and restorative justice, through our restorative diversion.

G

Program first time, offenders willing to take responsibility for appropriate.

G

Offenses are given an opportunity to complete diversion instead of facing.

G

Formal prosecution diversion works to address the offense and the person's.

G

Underlying needs by connecting participants with services and resources.

G

In the community that can continue beyond the period of diversion such as.

G

Mental health, counseling substance, abuse treatment and other positive supports.

G

Our program, prioritizes accountability and meeting victims needs through our.

G

In-House restorative justice program, we are able to support victims and offer.

G

The opportunity, if they choose and after thorough preparation to meet.

G

Face-To-Face with the offender who is participating in diversion the victim.

G

Can share how the crime affected them ask lingering questions about the crime.

G

And identify what they need to repair the harm that was done to them.

G

Restorative diversion allows us to address the crime, give victims, voice and.

G

Choice in the process and the outcome and at the same time give the offender a.

G

Chance to make amends and move forward, people are resilient and many if given.

G

Another chance we'll learn from their mistake and still be productive and.

G

Engaged members of our community, thus far, our outcomes have been.

G

Overwhelmingly positive with high victim satisfaction, high completion rates and.

G

Low levels of riah fence, we are highly collaborative with other agencies in.

G

School working on prevention and early intervention measures and as our staff teach at conferences provide trainings.

G

And consult with jurisdictions around the country. We are supporting reform.

G

Efforts on a larger scale, because we have passionate dedicated staff and.

F

Amazing volunteers for the community every day we're helping hold offenders.

F

Accountable they're willing to take responsibility and they go through a.

F

Program that ensures they're not going to reoffending ever being victimized in.

F

The first place, I'm james, fuller, I'm the architect of record for this project.

H

This is the boulder county courthouse information booth. This is one of the few.

H

Courthouses in colorado that has maintained a county presence for this.

H

Project what we were trying to do was just kind of a one-stop central portal.

H

Into the courthouse and that's why we developed this information booth, which.

H

You see behind me and we took some elements from the building and.

H

Incorporated them into the design of this information booth and what you see.

H

Behind me, it has a white marble counter which was repurposed from some of our.

H

Bathroom partitions and we also were able to reuse some of the orange marble.

H

That you see behind me on the walls as we punch through that wall, we're able to.

H

Wrap that wall with it on the front of the information booth, you'll, see metal.

H

Panels that are reflective of the metal panels on the outside of the building.

H

And this building, when it was designed in 1933 art deco, was a very popular.

H

Style and it is known for being very symmetrical in size in the massing of.

H

The building- and it's also known because it has these vertical elements, and so.

H

When you look on the outside of the building, you'll see these vertical bands.

H

Going up the building, where the windows and in between the windows are these.

H

Metal panels and that's what we incorporated into the design of this one.

H

Of the details that I'm most excited about is the usage of font in the.

H

Project, our member of our staff, who works on signage flores, was able to find.

H

An art deco font, which is historically accurate to the time period, and we were.

H

Able to use this not only for the signs above the information booth and the.

H

Elevator, but on all of the the front facing lobbies, as well as on the front's.

H

Of all of our buildings and doors, it's functioning it's doing what we wanted. It.

H

To do it is, you know, a central portal, it's a it's a front door experience for.

H

Clients coming into this building, they have a happy face that they can meet and.

H

It just feels more friendly and it feels more like we are part of a team when we.

H

All have kind of a central point where we're all coming back and forth to and.

H

So I think that it's been working very well and I hope to be involved in more.

H

Projects in the county courthouse.

I

My name is stacy proctor and I'm a project manager in the boulder county.

I

Transportation department, ever since the flood we've been working on stream.

I

Restoration projects adjacent to where we're doing road reconstruction projects.

I

After the flood, we realized that the roads in the canyons can't really be.

I

Built without really looking at what's happening in the creeks as well, so ever.

I

Since the flood we've been designing and building road reconstruction projects,.

I

Adjacent to stream restoration projects, even though there were two different.

I

Funding sources they're two separate projects: they really are closely related.

I

And closely intertwined and needed to be built together and in addition to that.

I

It also saved time and money to build them together, where we could we've been.

I

Trying to do natural channel stream design, so what that means is that, after.

I

The work is all done. You won't really be able to tell that we did anything it'll.

I

Look just like a normal creek, but it will be more resilient and functioning.

I

Better adjacent adjacent to the road so that during the next flood, we'll have.

I

More space and room for the the creeks to flow, so the construction process has.

I

Been very interesting: we've had to work very closely at one change to the road.

I

Impacts, the creek and a change, the creek impacts the road. So we constantly have.

I

To be in communication to make sure that that we're working closely together.

I

We've also had two different funding sources and so making sure that we're.

I

Meeting all of the requirements of the different funding sources has been a challenge. A lot of the work of the stream restoration projects have been.

I

Happening on private property owners properties, and so we've had to work very.

I

Closely with them to make sure that they're happy with the work that we're doing, that they've give us permission and that that they know what we're doing.

I

And why so? This project has been a true collaboration throughout the county.

I

We've had to work with land use parks and open space working at the county.

I

Attorney's office and multiple people within the transportation department to.

I

Make sure that the projects really work together that we met all the rules of.

I

The different funding sources and that and that it all it all, came together to.

I

J

I'm tessa hale and I'm the healthy beverage and food advisor of boulder.

J

County public health lafayette was a campaign to promote a healthy.

J

Children's meals ordinance in the city of lafayette that made history. What was.

J

Really amazing about lafayette, a choice were the young trailblazers who believed.

J

They can make a difference in their community and they did right here in.

J

Boulder county, one in four kids, is overweight or obese, and that's a 43%.

J

Increase since 2003- and we know there are many factors that contribute to.

J

Childhood obesity, but there's one major culprit that has no nutritional value.

J

And that's sugary drinks, so at public health we wanted to partner with the.

J

Community to raise awareness about this really important issue and several.

J

People had suggested that we connect with the lafayette youth advisory committee or le act for short, oh yeah. The la vie, youth advisory committee is a.

K

Group formed of 25 members all from local schools inside our little area and.

K

We discuss social and political issues that we think are very relevant to our.

K

Society and to our communities and over the course of our first year of working.

J

Together, they were everywhere in the community, they were at community events, they were presenting to adults, they were presenting to youth. They were really.

J

Effectively, raising awareness about the harms of sugary drinks, so we started.

L

This project, in february of 2016, with boko for h2o or boulder county for water.

L

Essentially, where we started educating the community on the health benefits of.

L

Choosing water over sugary beverages and then through that, we decided that we.

L

Wanted to transition into policy work to make a more lasting impression on the.

L

Community and we know that the average family eats out four to five times per.

J

Week and that most of those times the kids are drinking the sugary beverages that comes with meals. So the passing an.

J

Ordinance like this in lafayette would have a significant impact on improving.

J

The health environment for kids and, most importantly, we knew if anyone could get.

J

This ordinance passed, it was le ack, so being such a big group and being so.

K

Diverse we started to focus on sugary beverages because we saw that it was an.

K

Actual real issue that was targeting people of color and low-income.

K

Communities within our community so with I be something that we can work on and.

K

We all felt pretty good about it, since we all could relate to it in a sense, so.

J

Lafayette, which is now known as ordinance 40 in the city of lafayette,.

J

Requires that a restaurant that serves a meal for a kid that includes a drink.

J

Offers something healthy like water or unflavored, milk or unflavored dairy.

J

Alternative the result of lafayette choice is that fewer children in boulder.

J

County will be drinking sugary drinks and we're shifting the norm away from.

J

Sugary beverages to healthier choices, lafayette soy was the first youth-led.

J

Campaign in the nation, it was the first ordinance passed in the state of.

J

Colorado and it was the first ordinance passed outside the state of california,.

J

And the sixth in the nation.

M

Good afternoon my name is mel stonebraker.

M

And I'm a senior land officer at boulder county parks and open space. I'm here.

M

Today, to talk about the main hopper acquisition which closed in 2017 and it.

M

Covers approximately 200 acres of a farm that lies strategically between.

M

Lafayette and louisville, and as far back as 1996 lafayette louisville in boulder.

M

County entered into an intergovernmental agreement and said if that property ever.

M

Becomes available, we all agree that we will try to purchase it and preserve it.

M

First of all, it does create a buffer between the two communities. It's a.

M

Couple of hundred acres- it's been it's still actively farmed. It also is quite a.

M

Historic property it was, it was homesteaded in 1865 by the kerr family.

M

They leased the the mineral rights to a company that was looking to extract coal.

M

And in a year after they leased those rights and 1878, they plaited out a.

M

Little town called louisville, so louisville was tied to this property.

M

From it's very beginning, so we back to the present sort of john may holford.

M

Passed away five or six years ago and his wife followed him shortly thereafter,.

M

And robert is one of the sons and eventually he got serious about maybe.

M

Doing an open space kind of preservation deal, it was a very difficult negotiation.

M

But we ended up, as I say, we acquired 199 acres, it costs about 8.2 million. So we.

M

Ended up with a hundred sixty-five acres of true open space as far as, what's what.

M

The future use of the property is it's going to be leased as as agricultural.

M

Land so next year, it'll be put out to lease with.

M

Time under this new ownership there is lafayette. Louisville would like to build.

M

A trail that will connect up to spurs of trails that sort of in near may offer.

M

And don't quite connect between lafayette in louisville, but I would.

M

Expect in the next six months or so we'll see some some design drawings for.

M

A trail that will go across may hopper and will again sort of connect, lafayette.

M

In louisville and but at the same time preserve the buffer between the two.

M

Communities hi I'm tammy pillar, etha and boulder county's youth transportation.

N

Planner I coordinate the trip tracker program here at nahuatl elementary, which.

N

Encourages students to walk bike, busting carpool to school in the spring of 2016.

N

We can be new group of parents, teachers, st. francisville, a school district staff.

N

And county transportation staff to conduct an active school neighborhood.

N

Checklist and identify infrastructure projects that would improve walkability.

N

And bikeability for students here at nya elementary. So when we did our site.

O

Observation we observed all the students on wheels coming from the walker.

O

Sidewalk and then they would turn and stay on this side of the road and ride.

O

Up the street against traffic, we think they did this because it allows them to.

O

Avoid interacting with turning cars at this intersection and then the shoulder.

O

Is also a little wider than the sidewalk on the other side of the street, where.

O

The school bus, pick-up and drop-off used to be, and so students have figured out.

O

That going up, the northside of morton was actually safer, and so we designed.

O

The cycle track to embrace that behavior and provide a safe place for students to.

O

Access to school doing what they were already doing during the summer of 2017.

O

Boulder county road maintenance widen the existing shoulder to provide a uniform eight foot wide asphalt surface for the cycle track. We banned parking on.

O

The north side of the street and separated the cycle track from the road with a double white stripe in a row of flexible delineator posts, construction.

O

Costs a little under $28,000, took about three weeks and was completed in time.

O

For the 2017-2018 school year in the first month, the cycle tracks an average.

P

Of 54, walking and biking trips and so far, motorists driving next to it and.

P

Pedestrians and other users I've been doing so safely and correctly.

P

And there been no reported instance so far hi, my name is sarah harder and I'm.

Q

The school wellness coordinator for saint brain, I was also a member of the.

Q

Active school neighborhood checklist that was conducted here at nigh want and.

Q

It's really exciting to see the cycle track come to fruition as a district.

Q

We're really encouraging students to be more active and take their health into.

Q

Consideration so with this project we can now see more kids walking the biking.

Q

To school hi, I'm nancy pitts and I'm the principal at nya watt elementary, and I.

R

Just have to say, without a doubt that this cycle track has increased the.

R

Amount of students that we have biking and walking every day to school, it is so.

R

Much safer and they just feel so much better about it.

S

I'm colin tom, I'm a policy analyst at boulder county public health.

S

Patrick murphy, I'm an environmental health specialist at boulder county.

T

Public health, I think plenty of concerns have been raised by the public and as far as potential impacts to public health and.

T

To the environment and with the rapid expansion of oil and gas development.

T

These concerns have increased and the county commissioners would like to show.

S

That they're responding to public concerns and that we're looking into the.

S

Impacts of oil and gas development on public health and making sure that the.

S

Public have access to the information boulder county commissioners provided.

S

Funding for public health to bring on the oil and gas inspector who uses a gas.

S

Imaging camera to identify gas leaks at well sites the inspector carefully.

S

Collected reams of data from nearly 500 inspections, the question became what can.

S

This information tell us about oil and gas operations in boulder county. We.

T

Engaged a public health analyst and an oil and gas research specialist to.

T

Compile and analyze all of the data, the team worked closely with the inspector.

T

To ensure they were interpreting the data correctly, the findings were that.

T

65% of all sites inspected with the camera found a leak requiring requiring.

T

A corrective action 30% of sites with leaks in one year had leaks in later.

T

Years and many leaks were associated with pneumatic controllers found.

T

Throughout well sites across the county, the team prepared a white paper.

T

Documenting these findings and presented them to the air quality control.

T

Commission that considered them when deciding to strengthen the rules governing oil and gas emissions, boulder county joined the local government.

S

Coalition and they and several other parties cited the white paper in their.

S

Support of stronger oil and gas emissions rules, the white paper results even withstood criticism from one operator through the.

S

Inspection program and the important data that was brought to light the.

S

Boulder county oil and gas team played a big role in strengthening oil and gas.

S

Emission controls across the front range and in laying the groundwork for.

S

Statewide efforts that will better protect public health, the air and the.

S

Climate either have always been full the county, treasurer yeah. We saw the.

U

December of last year and congress passed the tax reform. It blew this place.

U

Up because everybody was trying to beat the system try to prepay their taxes.

U

People were calling in and their weight was more than an hour. You know, and we.

U

Have people lining up forever the great thing about it is, though, everybody in.

U

The county pulled together with folks with land use coming in, read the.

U

Assessor's office and the assessor yourself sitting on the phone down here.

U

We have a security figuring out where, to put folks, we had the it guys coming to.

U

Figure out how phone lines could changed upstairs and how we can put our system.

U

On here, so when the live we're drawn here and the lines were going to clear.

U

Across the building and clear around everybody would step it up hell. Even the.

U

Commissioner has brought us pizza, which was wonderful. My staff was firm.

U

My staff voluntarily stayed till 10:30 at night and beyond and came in way.

U

Early in the morning to do this thing, you talk all the time about providing.

U

The best in public service, we were thrown something that none of us could.

U

Have ever expected, we were thrown thousands of people paying about forty.

U

Five million dollars in taxes early, you know something that we had never seen.

U

Before and so quite frankly, it was happening all over the country and.

U

Pulling together, we figured out a way to serve the taxpayers to get them. What.

U

They needed to get them pre, paying their taxes. We did, I believe, working together.

U

Multiple departments, the best of public service, it was prepay palooza. It was.

U

Actually, a lot of fun a lot of work. We hope not to do it again, but a lot of fun.

V

I am dandelion boulder county transportation project engineer, paving.

V

Engineer for the county, the pinnacle award application we submitted was for.

V

Sustainability on a specific process of recycling in place, repaving of roads.

V

It's a paving train, which is some very large equipment. That's home handmade by.

V

The the construction company that we hired this paving machine heats the.

V

Material up to an oatmeal consistency, so it can be raped off the surface. Every.

V

Emulsifies and that's like adding lotion to your skin or adding some more honey.

V

To your oatmeal so and then they place it back down the road smooth and then.

V

Compact, it paving is the right solution for the right job at the right time, for.

V

The right road, so it's not just one one size- fits all. There's many ways to.

V

Sustain your roads, but these roads were chosen because of their quality at the.

V

Time they weren't failing yet, where this process wouldn't work on a failing road.

V

But it'd be a road, that's still in fair condition, so we tried it pretty preserve.

V

What we have already purchased and put on the ground, because that is a our.

V

Biggest asset in the county is the roadway surface, so preserve as much as.

V

We can the sustainability part of it is that we have to haul in less material.

V

The traditional method of mill and fill would you have used four hundred and.

V

Seventy-Five thousand yards of new asphalt with this heater and repaving, we.

V

Used two hundred and fifteen thousand square yards of asphalt, so it's more.

V

Than half the savings of purchasing new asphalt, all in all, that being said,.

V

There's one point: six million pounds of co2 not emitted into the air, the social.

V

Sustainability is these projects are completed quicker with less disruption.

V

To their traveling public and the economic sustainability of this process,.

V

Saved nearly four hundred fifty thousand dollars this summer, seasons of paving.

V

Okay, I would like to thank the our partners and other agencies for the.

V

Success of this project c, dot c of longmont city of lafayette city of.

V

Boulder, as well as the boulder county, transportation department, commissioners and our contracting partner of cutler.

V

Repaving hi, I'm frank alexander from the department of housing and human services.

W

And I'm here in the wild sage, community room, which is one of our prime examples,.

W

Of affordable housing here in boulder county in the holiday site, and I'm here.

W

To speak to the regional, affordable housing plan, the regional plan has been.

W

Adopted by every single jurisdiction in boulder county, with the exception of.

W

Erie and the plan strives to achieve a total of 12% of the region's housing.

W

Stock by 2035 as permanently affordable, that would be tripling our existing.

W

Affordable housing, stock of 6,000 homes to 18,000 homes by 2035 and what we know.

W

About our region is that we're in the middle of an affordable housing crisis.

W

And that by diversifying our housing stock and making it more accessible and.

W

More affordable and more sustainable for every age group and every family type.

W

That our entire community will be more thriving, be more resilient and more.

W

Sustainable, so we appreciate all the support for the regional housing plan.

W

And we look forward to the great work, that's going to happen in our.

W

Communities to achieve the goals that are laid out and then it over the next.

W

17 years I'm jim williams, with housing and human.

X

Services in communications and I've been a part of the regional housing plan.

X

Effort from the beginning, it's been an incredible experience. Seeing so many.

X

People from so many different backgrounds come together different.

X

Jurisdictions from across the county, all in support of this regional housing plan.

X

And it's, I think, a great example of the need to speak with one voice on.

X

Important issues like affordable housing, the more we're talking about things in.

X

The same ways and sharing what we know about the need, together, the more able.

X

We'll be to make progress, and this regional housing strategy is a map of.

X

What that progress is going to look like.

Y

I'm vanessa mccracken and agricultural resources specialist at boulder county.

Y

Parks and open space and I'm lauren cold agricultural management coordinator for.

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City of boulder, open space in mountain parks, we're here on the bishop county.

Y

Open space agricultural property to talk to you about the soil revolution.

Y

Conferences, these conferences arose from many hours in the field studying and.

Y

Monitoring soil health with volunteers and other soil, health experts, colorado.

Z

State university extension in boulder county, the usda's natural resources.

Z

Conservation service in boulder county, the boulder valley and longmont.

Z

Conservation districts, the ag resources, division from boulder county parks and.

Z

Open space and the ag stewardship workgroup from city of boulder, open.

Z

Space in mountain parks all worked together to organize and host two soil.

Z

Revolution, conferences in 2017, the first, the soil revolution, it's more than just.

Z

Dirt was held on march 9 and, with the overwhelming support of attendees, we.

Z

Held the second, the soil revolution digging deeper on december 14th.

Z

Conference organizers wanted to offer pertinent information to farmers and.

Y

Ranchers in boulder county in the surrounding areas, so we built a conference focused on educating producers by highlighting.

Y

Farmers in the regional areas who have adopted soil health management systems.

Y

And also included locally relevant research between the two conferences we.

Z

Had more than 400 attendees, more than half of whom identified as commercial.

Z

Producers, the conference's aim to address local conditions and offer.

Y

Practical considerations for farmers and ranchers with diverse agricultural.

Y

Operations, the two conferences brought together more than 20 speakers, including.

Z

Farmers from boulder county, the eastern plains, the san luis valley, new mexico,.

Z

And nebraska boulder county and our partners in the soil revolution.

Y

Conferences are dedicated to helping our farmers and ranchers remain viable in.

Y

The face of climate change in challenging economic times and are proud.

Y

To say that over 86% of the conference attendees indicate that they would adopt.

Y

Some of the management systems that they learned about during the soil revolution.

Y

Conference series in 2017, I'm wyatt, barnes, red wagon organic farm.

AA

Been open space tenants in boulder county for ten years or eight years now.

AA

I was excited that boulder county finally started talking about soil.

AA

Health there's a lot of people aren't really thinking about it. I'm excited.

AA

That we had a conference and I think in the future, we'll be able to start having.

AA

More people continue to build and continue to share knowledge on what.

AA

They're doing yeah it was a really good starting point for confidence, so I'm.

AB

Tonya alton, I'm the adult education specialist, with the gv learning lab at.

AB

Workforce boulder county in 2017, the ged learning lab, began a collaboration with.

AB

Boulder county's impact currency implementation project and boulder.

AB

Valley, school district and st. vrain valley, school district and the idea of.

AB

This was to create a prevention model that would help youth at risk, who may.

AB

Otherwise not finish up their high school education, get services to wrap.

AB

Them around their high school diploma, but also wrap additional supports around.

AB

Them if any of those community partners noticed that there's a youth in the.

AB

Community who's struggling and needs some help, rather than just allow them to.

AB

Fall through the cracks or wait for them to tear up into a more criminalized.

AB

Approach through their past truancy, programs, all of our staff, so counselors.

AB

At the schools, administrators at the schools, housing and human services, if.

AB

They're working with housing with the youth, they all reach out very quickly.

AB

And wrap us into the program so that we can meet these kids and explain our.

AB

Program and then find a way to get in and support them. Our program is the only.

AB

One of its kind in the country and we wrap each one of our students around to.

AB

A tailored personalized curriculum, so we learn them. We learn what they're.

AB

Bringing to the table, we learn their strengths, we're very trauma-informed and.

AB

So we build everything from the ground up based on each individual's need in.

AB

Their pathway, so each student that comes in our program works on their own.

AB

Particular pace at their own particular time toward their goal of ged or.

AB

Whatever it is, they want, after ged, whether it's secondary education, employment. That sort of thing we had 52 students over the last year in 2017 that.

AB

Participated as a part of this project of those 52 68 percent and will have.

AB

Their high school equivalency diplomas by august of 2018.

AB

38% of them already do and half of that number graduated with honors or high.

AB

Honors, so it's a testament to the students themselves that they really do.

AB

Have a great potential and a great deal to offer our community.

AB

They just need a system that raps to them, rather than them, rapping to a.

AB

System and our goal in the learning lab is to help people see their potential so.

AB

That they can then pay it forward and do what they do best in the community and.

AB

Continue to ripple out from there.