Belonging Takes Root: Lessons From Year One

Coloradans share what connection means to them What does it take to build communities where more people feel connected – including to people with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives? That question is at the heart of Belonging Colorado. So we took it to a place that brings together people from across the state: the Colorado State Fair. At our interactive booth, we talked with Coloradans about connection and community, invited people to draw the places and spaces where they feel like they belong, and asked one simple question: Where do you belong? Creating more opportunities to connect People who stopped at our booth approached the question in different ways. Some had an immediate answer, but most paused to reflect on what belonging really meant to them. Often, that meant thinking back to a time or place where someone had made them feel welcomed, included or valued. Shared hobbies and interests

Turning schoolyards into places where communities connect What can a schoolyard do for a community? Belonging Colorado partner Trust for Public Land, an organization dedicated to connecting everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors, is putting that question into practice through four new schoolyard projects in Salida, Leadville, Hotchkiss, and Aurora. Working alongside students, families, schools, and community members, the projects will reimagine school grounds as welcoming public spaces shaped by the people who use them. For Trust for Public Land, the work is about more than access to outdoor spaces. It’s an opportunity to bring people together, give communities a meaningful role in shaping shared places, and create spaces where more people feel they belong. We spoke with the Trust for Public Land about the four communities, what they hope to learn, and how the process of activating a schoolyard can strengthen connections along the way. What

How Fort Lewis College is confronting its history and creating space for belonging Belonging takes practice. Belonging Colorado partners share what they’re trying, what they’re learning, and ideas you can apply in your own work.  At Fort Lewis College, that practice starts with taking an honest look at the institution’s history as a federal Indian boarding school and considering what that history means for the college and the broader community today. Through its Belonging Colorado project, Fort Lewis is bringing people with different experiences and perspectives into the conversation about the college’s past, present, and future. We spoke with Paul DeBell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Civic Engagement and Bridging Institute at Fort Lewis College, about what they’ve learned along the way. What challenge was your organization trying to address? We are working to have difficult but important conversations about how to acknowledge our college’s

Why Belonging Colorado is investing in entrepreneurs Most of us don’t think about belonging when we open an app, join an event, or interact with a service. But those moments shape whether we feel connected or alone, included or overlooked. Increasingly, those experiences are shaped by entrepreneurs—designing the platforms, services, and interactions that influence how we spend our time, who we meet, and whether we feel included or left out. But of course, most businesses aren’t built with belonging in mind. They prioritize growth, efficiency, and engagement, but not always connection, trust, or the feeling that you matter. Belonging Colorado is working to change that. Through a partnership with Startup Colorado, Belonging Colorado is funding entrepreneurs to develop new ways businesses help people connect and increase belonging. Belonging @ Startup Colorado is both an experiment and an investment in what’s possible. By investing in entrepreneurs, we’re asking: What happens when

We are delighted to share this inaugural edition of the Belonging Colorado e-newsletter with you. We hope you’ll sign up for updates so you can stay in touch with us and we can work together to foster a state where everyone can show up as their true selves and know that they belong. Over the past year and a half, Belonging Colorado demonstrated what is possible when people come together with intention, curiosity, and care. During the first year-and-a-half of this exciting new effort focused on increasing belonging by bridging differences, one theme stood out clearly: Belonging grows where trusted communities intentionally build relationships. From Lamar to Steamboat, from Durango to Denver, we’ve seen people coming together in new ways to share, learn, and connect. Whether it’s enjoying the great outdoors together or working to try and solve the housing problem, we’re seeing evidence that people can move beyond surface-level