Public Health in the Rockies 2026

Background/Purpose

Health systems continue to face challenges related to fragmented referrals, disconnected services, and limited opportunities for family partnership in systems planning. Boulder County Public Health leveraged its community alignment infrastructure through Family Connects and created the Family Voice Ambassador (FVA) model to strengthen collaboration across public health, healthcare, early childhood, and community-based systems to better understand community strengths and barriers.

Methods

Through Family Voice Ambassador engagement, cafecitos hosted by Family Voice Ambassadors, collaborative planning discussions, outreach activities, and cross-sector partnership meetings, caregivers with lived experience shared feedback on developmental referrals, behavioral health navigation, access to preventive care, food and childcare resources, and overall system coordination. We incorporated this feedback into our discussions on the Whole Person Care framework, coordinated referral pathways, outreach strategies, and systems improvement efforts.

Results

Family Voice Ambassadors helped identify recurring barriers families experience when navigating multiple systems, including confusion surrounding developmental referrals, limited awareness of available resources, language-access barriers, and fragmented communication across services. The community alignment structure strengthened collaboration among partners and guided improvements in outreach, culturally responsive engagement strategies, and discussions around more coordinated approaches to supporting families. Examples include:

* Whole Person Care Framework
* Developmental referral process improvement
* Improved navigation of resources
* Reduction in appointment cancellations
* Informs public policy project to improve access to food

Why Requesting a 1-Hour Session:

The additional 30 minutes will allow presenters to facilitate audience discussion and interactive reflection related to integrating family voice into public health and systems collaboration.

Attendees can participate in a guided discussion activities using the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership framework to explore how organizations can move beyond traditional outreach and incorporate community voice into systems improvement, planning, and partnership strategies. Participants will have opportunities to identify strengths, barriers, and actionable next steps relevant to their own communities and organizations.