Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is committed to keeping communities informed and providing meaningful opportunities for input into decisions that impact people’s health and the environment. This input directly informs the department's decisions.
To advance environmental justice, the department works to provide fair, equitable, inclusive, and accessible public participation opportunities for all across Colorado. This work includes meeting the requirements of Colorado’s Environmental Justice Act and implementing best practices and recommendations outlined by the Colorado Environmental Justice Task Force.
Below are several key best practices the department regularly considers or applies when planning and promoting public participation opportunities. These practices may be useful to local public health agencies, permittees, and other groups or organizations working to engage diverse individuals and communities in actions that impact public health and the environment.
Learn more about the department’s commitment to public participation and participation procedures and nondiscrimination policy and resources.
- Know who you are trying to reach and why.
- Example: Contact community members within a one-mile radius of a facility to inform them about a planned permit renewal and upcoming opportunities to provide the facility with feedback on its planned pollution reduction measures.
- These questions can help you identify and define your audience:
- Who will be impacted by your action or decision?
- Who would like to be informed about your action or decision?
- Who might have concerns about your action or decision?
- Who has traditionally been involved in this action or decision and why?
- Who has not traditionally been involved in action or decision and why?
- Who might face barriers to engaging with you about the action or decision (such as language, timing of meetings, accessibility of meeting locations)?
- Consider partnering with or contacting CDPHE, a local public health agency, local government, community groups, community leaders, industry associations, public libraries, faith-based and secular institutions, hospitals and clinics, schools, universities, civic organizations, social and activity clubs, businesses, nonprofits, neighborhood organizations, and others to learn about local audiences and how to best reach them.
- Consider hosting meetings during weekdays and weekends.
- Consider hosting meetings during morning, afternoon, and evening times.
- Know your audience — choose days and times that the community can best participate — such as after 6 p.m. on a weekday or 10 a.m. on a Saturday.
- Choose locations within a disproportionately impacted community or in a central location within close proximity to all affected disproportionately impacted communities.
- Choose locations where community members feel comfortable and that can be easily accessed by public transportation, bicycle, or walking, and that have sufficient parking to support community attendance.
- For instance, consider local libraries, recreation centers, community centers, civic centers, town halls, child care centers, schools, and other similar venues.
- Consider accessible meeting formats, including virtual, in-person, and/or hybrid meeting options to ensure the widest possible participation among local communities.
- Publish meeting and presentation materials on a publicly accessible website.
- This may include content such as meeting agendas, slide presentations, meeting minutes/notes/takeaways, summary of public comments received and responses, and frequently asked questions.
- This approach allows community members unable to attend the meeting to access information later — at a time and place that works for them.
- Consider whether the online materials should be made available in languages other than English to reach your intended audience.
- Consider using a facilitator to keep the meeting on track, especially for meetings with a large anticipated attendance.
- Providing as much advance notice as possible ensures community members are available and can plan to attend public meetings.
- At least 30 days advance notice allows time for community partners and connectors to help spread the word about the event.
- Provide at least one reminder in advance of the meeting — such as a few days days or one week before the meeting to boost attendance.
- Know your audience and consider using a variety of tools and tactics that are appropriate for reaching them.
- How does the community get its information? When? In which languages?
- Communication tools and tactics that might help spread the word include:
- Fliers.
- Fact sheets.
- Email updates.
- Text notifications.
- Websites.
- Social media.
- Attending community events.
- Collaborating with partners and community organizations that are trusted sources of information to share updates, messages, and public meeting information.
- Know your audience — if many people in the community where you are conducting outreach are monolingual speakers of a language other than English — or feel more comfortable reading, speaking in, or listening to a language other than English — provide written and verbal information in more than one language. Also, inquire about any sign language and other accessibility needs.
- This can be done by hiring and working with a professional translator for written communications and a professional interpreter for verbal communications.
- For instance, if more than 5% of the population or community you’re trying to reach speaks a language other than English, provide communication in that language in addition to English.
- Example: Hiring an interpreter so that a public meeting can be offered in both English and Spanish.
- Example: Hiring a translator so that presentation materials, promotional fliers, social media posts, website content, and feedback forms are available in both English and Spanish.
- Apply digital accessibility best practices for all web content so it is inclusive and can be understood by everyone, regardless of any disabilities.
- Examples:
- Include alternative text (“alt text”) for all images.
- Provide closed captions and audio descriptions for videos.
- Use proper formatting when developing PDFs and run accessibility checks to ensure content is easily accessible by a screen reader.
- Do not use color alone to convey information in a visual manner - use shapes, bold, underlining, and other visual cues in addition to color.
- Examples:
- Ensure that all communication — written, visual, verbal — is culturally appropriate, inclusive, and accessible. When in doubt, consult with an expert or direct representative of a particular community, group, culture, or organization to learn more about them.
- Ensure that all communication is clear, concise, and uses plain language. Avoid overly technical language, acronyms, and jargon.
- A best practice is to aim for content to be presented at a 6th to 8th grade level.
- Explore freely available online tools to evaluate the grade level of your writing.
- Provide opportunities for the public to provide input in a variety of ways, such as:
- Email.
- Online comment forms or surveys (before, during, or after the meeting).
- Phone.
- Examples:
- Providing call-in options for public meetings.
- Providing a phone line for receiving comments or feedback.
- Examples:
- Verbal comments at public meetings.
- A best practice is providing community members with at least 2-3 minutes each to speak. A visual timer helps inform individuals about how much time they have left to speak and allows consistency.
- Audio recordings — such as an option for people to submit audio comments.
- Video recordings — such as an option for people to submit video comments.
- In-meeting polls or surveys.
- Reduce barriers to participation and ensure a diversity of voices, perspectives, and lived experiences can participate.
- Examples:
- Provide participation and childcare stipends — such as gift cards for those who attend a public meeting — to make it easier for people to join. Be sure to promote any stipends or services ahead of the meeting.
- Provide on-site child care for meeting participants. Be sure to inquire about child care needs during meeting registration to ensure all people involved understand expectations. Promote any child care services offered ahead of the meeting.
- Provide food at public meetings. Select food vendors from the local community where possible.
- Provide clear expectations for the meeting, including the meeting’s purpose, agenda, how to submit comments, and how questions will be addressed.
- Examples: