What is Belonging Colorado?
Belonging Colorado is a bold, statewide effort that began in Summer 2024 to bring people together in new ways, grow resilience in the state, and expand Coloradans’ sense of who belongs. Driven by research from our Bridging Differences Team at the Greater Good Science Center and powered by a special fund at The Denver Foundation, it brings Coloradans together across lines of difference to build stronger communities rooted in trust and connection.
Bridging helps foster a sense of belonging. People feel they belong when they have a voice and opportunities to build meaningful relationships and even help shape Colorado’s future, across their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Our approach supports both valuing and recognizing what makes us unique and our common humanity.
Our Role
The Greater Good Science Center serves as the Implementation Partner for Belonging Colorado. We provide research and science-based practices for building connections across differences and support local community organizations to implement high quality bridging programs.
Our Communities of Practice:
- Community Grantees: 15 organizations (with 14 projects statewide) are bringing people together in ways that fit their communities. Each group designs a local “connection project” around what people care about and where division shows up most. Participants build relationships and collaborate through experiences like shared meals, art-making, nature-based gatherings, community problem-solving, and more.
- Leadership Networks: 8 organizations that train and support leaders are weaving evidence-based bridging skills into their leadership programs. They’ll strengthen bridging as a core leadership competency, so leaders can build cultures of trust and belonging, reduce “us vs. them” dynamics at work, and help people feel valued (and more likely to stay).
- Leader Cohort (coming soon): This cohort will bring together influential leaders from across sectors to practice bridging and belonging and to explore how they can embed those principles inside major institutions and professional networks. Their visible (and even subtle) endorsement of bridging can set norms and shape what feels possible. They signal to teams and peers that belonging, collaboration, and connection across differences belong at the center of how we lead.
We support the members of our communities of practice with:
- Guidance in designing and implementing bridging programs, informed by the latest research
- One-on-one project coaching
- Technical assistance with developing learning and evaluation plans using research on measuring bridging programs
- Opportunities for peer learning and connection across the state
What Participants Are Saying
“My experience with the Belonging Colorado cohort was transformational. I love the people in the group and the trust that was developed so quickly between us. I am truly inspired.” -Community Grantee
“I’m excited to relay how excited all of our program participants are. We’ve already had a couple convenings--it was powerful, it was rich, it was deep, it was sincere, it was authentic. It was all the things that it needed to be to advance this very brave, courageous concept of enhancing belonging. I just wanted to say, though, some of the tools that we’re learning through this cohort apply, we’re finding that they apply across other categories of the organization. So, this is really, really good stuff and I wanted to say thanks.” -Community Grantee
“Watching the facilitator use the techniques with us as well as sharing the science really made it click for how to put these concepts into practice.” -Leadership Network Grantee
Helping to Build a Colorado Where Everyone Belongs
