Black Civic Engagement & Policy

At the Legislature

Joy is Our Birthright! (& demand)

In partnership with Elephant Circle, we successfully ran HB24-1262: Maternal Health Midwives under a campaign titled Joy Is Our Birthright. To pass this bill, we built a coalition with approximately 13 members, including several birth workers.

124 people asked their legislator to support HB1262.

At the Ballot Box

The Black Civic Engagement and Policy program worked to build Black political power at the ballot box through education, outreach, and collaboration. Here are our 2024 highlights:

• Our 4th annual Black Voter Guide went above and beyond all goals, and was collaborative, beautifully designed, and strategically distributed to community. We received strong positive feedback throughout the three weeks it was live. We also met our goal for the launch, despite ambitious timelines and working with an outside designer
• We had great success at our events, especially Boogie Down the Ballot Trivia Night. We had very strong turnout, high engagement, and loved partnering with a local production company to make it an all-around fun and informative event. Our post-election soundbath was also well-attended.
• We had some big earned media wins, being highlighted for our Black voter engagement ahead of the presidential debate, and speaking about Black beloveds and Amendment 79 with 9News Denver.
• Other wins included working with Ladies First to create a special “I Voted” sticker, getting approval to have the link to our voter guides available to people voting in person at jails in Arapahoe County, learning more about data and setting up phonebanks from scratch for the first time as a team, and playing a key role in the defeat of Proposition 131.
• BCEP did more grassroots voter education as a standalone program than we’ve ever done before! Our partners at New Era supported with guide distribution, but the BCEP team distributed 750 print guides alone (250 more than 2022), made phone calls to community as a standalone program for the first time, and texted 3x as many voters this election season than in 2023, when we first piloted voter texting.

& Beyond

Advocacy Platform + Listening Tour

• We started planning a statewide listening tour of Black communities that will inform an internal and external advocacy platform. This will begin in early 2025. Additionally, we aim to launch a public advocacy platform to support program integration and planning by the end 2025.

Legislative Session

• We have begun initial partner meetings and identified some key priorities for us in 2025 legislative session, where we will be playing a supporting role. This includes measures to implement Amendment 79, create a Colorado-based Voting Rights Act and Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, and protect the right to visitation for incarcerated people

Look at the Material

156 community members sent letters to their legislators in support of legislation we ran and/or supported.

22 testimonies provided virtually, in-person or through written testimony.

11 partner bills supported through testimony, lobbying, comms support and/or sharing actions with the community, including:

SB24-053: Racial Equity Study - this bill will establish a commission to study historical and ongoing roots of systemic racism and identify measures to address those roots.

3 events hosted including the first annual Black Education & Movement Building Day, a Storytelling Training with Ladies First, and a Black Maternal Health Week Breakfast in collaboration with the Black Caucus.