Boulder County commissioners, two of whom were elected in November, are looking at ways to increase representation on volunteer boards and commissions. A similar effort also is underway in Longmont.
County advisory boards, commissions and committees help advise commissioners, on matters concerning local governance and provide perspective into government processes. The groups give residents the opportunity to have their voices heard within government and, in turn, government benefits from this input, said Robin Valdez, business operations manager at the Boulder County Commissioners Office.
In Boulder County, close to 300 community members volunteer to serve on 28 out of 31 boards. The remaining three are boards open only to Boulder County employees.
Some population groups are underrepresented in those groups, according to data collected by the county. While just over 65% of volunteers are in the 50- to 69-year-old age group, less than 10% are 39 or younger and only 1% are 18 to 29.
Volunteers who identify as white comprise 86% of board membership, while those who identify as Latino and Black represent 7% and 1%, respectively, according to the county. Low-income individuals also are underrepresented, especially those making less than $40,000 a year, which make up only 7% of board and commission members.
Longmont residents make up 16% of volunteer board and commission members.
“Compared to Census Bureau figures from the federal government, we can see we certainly have gaps that we want to make sure we are reaching out to,” Valdez said. “I think we need to get perspectives from every facet in every group of the community so we can make better decisions in terms of policy and also in terms of guidance.”
Recruiting younger and more diverse board members also is something the city of Longmont is striving toward, Public Information Officer Rigo Leal said.
With 22 active boards and commissions, the city is working with nonprofit agencies including El Comite, Out Boulder County, and Intercambio to expand its recruiting efforts.
The city does not track demographics of board and commission volunteers.
“We leverage the (Boulder County) cultural broker network, as well as reach out to area churches, fraternal organizations and local clubs, to name a few of the ways we announce recruitment,” Leal said.
Adriana Perea, city community relations specialist, has overseen the recruiting of at least 11 new committee members for the Longmont Multicultural Action Committee, or LMAC, and said the group has become increasingly conscious of the need to “diversify and go younger.”
“Representation really matters,” she said. “It’s a design concept … to better understand the community we are serving, what services and resources are needed by the community, to represent and reflect the population we are serving.”
The opportunity to volunteer on a government board is not only about having a place at the table, but also ensuring people of color and members of minority communities feel welcome and have resources to feel supported, Perea said.
“It’s a dance of giving and taking, we need (people’s) time and volunteering, but we’re also ensuring they feel like they are gaining something through this experience,” she said.
Two groups in Boulder County are working to empower underrepresented members of the community to become civically involved.
People Engaged in Raising Leaders, or PERL, a program under the county’s Community Action Programs division is one of those groups. Program coordinator Belinda Hearn said the goal of the program is to give people opportunities to be leaders in their communities.
“Many of these boards are not reflective of the people they serve, so the visions that they have are not (truly) the visions of the people,” Hearn said, adding PERL provides tools and skills for people to effectively and authentically serve on boards, no matter their structures.
“As a woman of color, growing up in my community, people associated power and leadership with position, name and title. That's not truly what it takes to serve on the board or be a leader in your community,” she said. “You are a leader already as a parent, whether you're single or together with your partner. You are a leader because you get yourself educated, (because) you get your children to school and participate in the (parent teacher association). You get involved in what's going on in your community.”
Redefining what it means to be a leader is important in order to expand the scope and the pool of people serving who make decisions that directly impact communities, Hearn said.
“(Community members) are the subject matter experts on what their community needs … We have to do some power exchange, and that's kind of hard sometimes for these boards who have historically looked the way that they look,” she said, adding there is a difference between inclusion and tokenism. Inclusion ensures participants have the power to get things done to be a “game changer,” she said.
The application for the next PERL training program will open later this month.
Elvira Ramos, co-director of the Leadership Fellows program at the Boulder County Community Foundation, said changing leadership on civic and nonprofit boards is not something that happens easily or quickly, and it is something that must include existing leaders and established institutions.
“The demographics of the county are continuing to shift, bringing more diverse challenges to the area,” she said. “The nonprofit and civic organizations designed to manage and address these issues are led and staffed by those who no longer reflect our county's constituents, giving rise to strains, and sometimes conflict.”
One of the main reasons the Leadership Fellows program was created was to impact leadership across the county and it even requires graduates to take on some kind of formal leadership role within six months of graduation, Ramos said.
To date, 80% of program graduates have served and continue to serve in leadership roles, including Perea, and others in the Latinx and other minority communities.
This program is run in partnership with the Boulder Chamber, with funding from the Colorado Health Foundation and the support of the Community Foundation Boulder County. Applications for the 2022 cohort will open later this spring.
Glenda Robinson, a 40-year Longmont resident who has served on multiple local and county boards and commissions, including the Workforce Development Board at Workforce Boulder County and LMAC, knows the importance of representation.
As a Black woman in Longmont, she belongs to a community that makes up 1% of the population in the county but still wants to be heard, she said.
“There should be representation for every group … we want to be at the table, want to be heard, and have a unique perspective no one else has,” she said. “People have a tendency to look and say it looks hard or there is nothing (they) can do, but there is much that needs to be done.”
Longmont will have two boards and commissions recruitment cycles in 2021, the first from April 1 through May 28 and the second starting in mid-September. The last cycle of recruitment for the county was completed on Jan. 15 and the next is expected to open up in July.
For more information on how to get involved in Longmont, click here. To learn more about Boulder County’s boards and commissions, click here.
