Our Mission
We work with government and community partners to create data-informed solutions to Colorado’s most pressing problems.
Our History
The Colorado Evaluation & Action Lab launched in 2017, thanks to the vision of former Governor John Hickenlooper and Lt. Governor Donna Lynne, with seed funding from private philanthropy. As an innovative government-research partnership, the Colorado Lab, housed at the University of Denver, was designed to meet the unique needs of the state, serve as a strategic connector to accelerate a culture of evidence-based decision making in Colorado, and remain responsive to the flow of governmental decision making across administrations.
Our Essential Elements
We conduct research with rigor to obtain the best available evidence to address Colorado’s most pressing social problems and improve the lives of Coloradans. To do this, we build relationships, work to understand and reform systems, and collaborate with partners to take action. With these Essential Elements guiding our collaborative efforts to improve the lives of Coloradans, our goal is to leverage data to inform policy and practice, set the wheels in motion to achieve and sustain change, and position our partners to pursue additional, meaningful change for the communities they serve.
Prioritize Relationships
Relationship
Early on, we learned the importance of meeting our government and community partners where they are. We listen carefully, supporting them to unpack ideas and gain insights on the factors—big and small—that might serve to accelerate or shut down learning, improvement, and change efforts. These actions require trust, which is why our top priority—always—is relationships.
Learn Together
Relationship
Part of relationship building is learning together with our government and community partners about the data and actions needed to move the needle toward desired outcomes. Using the Colorado Steps to Building Evidence model, we support our partners in moving their program, initiative, or collaboration to the evidence level needed to achieve their goals.
Bridge to the Research Community
Relationship
We host a trusted community of subject matter and methods experts who help us be responsive to the needs and goals of our government and community partners. We prioritize capacity building within our own team and the broader research community so that we are always providing quality support.
Apply Rigor
System
The rigor of our work is just one of the things that gives our government and community partners the confidence to make informed decisions that drive action. Rigor means employing the appropriate analytic design based on the question and goals, being systematic and transparent in approach, and asking challenging questions.
Make Connections
System
As an independent, neutral third party, we are in a unique position to make connections within agencies, between agencies, and across branches of government. We also help support connections between state and local government and community partners. Whether these connections involve linking data systems, aligning program implementation, or combining resources to achieve a common goal, the Colorado Lab can help.
Risk for Reward
System
We recognize that tackling problems that cross systems and involve multiple stakeholders is a long game. We approach this work with patience and a sense of urgency that keeps things moving. The decision-making priorities of our partners anchor us and we celebrate both incremental successes and substantial gains.
Activate Findings
Action
The goal of every Colorado Lab project is meaningful, timely action. We generate research evidence to inform practice and policy decisions. We learn together with our partners, candidly and continuously discussing the data and building the structures and processes needed to support sustained change.
Sustain Change
Action
When the essential elements are implemented—from building relationships with our government and community partners to learning together as we conduct research with rigor, leveraging data to inform policy and practice, and intentionally activating findings—we increase the chance that our findings will be actionable, successfully implemented, and sustainable.
Relationships
Building mutual relationships is at the heart of the Colorado Lab’s work.
We:
- Prioritize relationships by listening to diverse needs and insights, making connections, and modeling responsiveness and flexibility.
- Are committed to learning together with our partners to move the needle toward desired outcomes.
- Serve as a bridge to the research community, fostering connections within Colorado’s research and evaluation community, and engaging external partners to harness their subject matter and methodological expertise.
Systems
We apply systems thinking at every step of building evidence so that issues and solutions move beyond silos to collective impact. We:
- Apply rigor to obtain the best available evidence matched to decision-making goals.
- Make connections across players in different systems to find alignment in opportunity.
- Welcome risk for reward to disrupt core causes that hold problems in place.
Action
The end goal of every Colorado Lab relationship and project is meaningful action. Our work does not stop at the generation of research evidence. We:
- Activate findings by investing in pathways that move results into opportunities for sustained change that crosses generations and systems.
Essential Elements Blog
Our special blog series highlights elements that are essential to our work with a broad range of government and community partners. The effectiveness of the work we undertake together is key to advancing systems and policies that strengthen opportunities to meaningfully improve the lives of Coloradans.
Essential Elements: Sustain Change
Throughout this past year, in recognition of the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab’s 5th anniversary, we have lifted up elements of our work essential to achieving our mission—using data to inform solutions to critical social problems. We have seen that when the essential elements shown in our graphic are implemented—from building relationships with our government […]
Essential Elements: Activate Findings
The goal of every Colorado Lab project is meaningful, timely action; we generate research evidence to inform practice and policy decisions. One of the most important elements to activating research findings is taking care to create, nurture, and maintain trusting relationships with and among partners (our first essential element). Throughout each project, we learn together […]
Essential Elements: Apply Rigor
At the Colorado Lab, we use data to support learning and sustained action among our partners. We view “rigor” as one part of what helps a study meet that goal, striving to do work that is simultaneously rigorous, relevant, and resonant. While the term “rigor” is widely used in research and evaluation, it is rarely […]
Essential Elements: Making Connections and Risk for Reward
The Colorado Lab was established with a fundamental commitment to using data to develop sustained solutions that benefit Coloradans. Our ability to fulfill this rests on a collective commitment of Colorado decision-makers to generate and use research to inform policy and practice change. That commitment is made visible in progress like the 2013 SMART Act […]
Essential Elements: Bridge to the Research Community
Celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab! This post is part of our special blog series to mark the fifth anniversary of the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab. In each post, we highlight elements that are essential to our work with a broad range of government and community partners. The effectiveness […]
Essential Elements: Prioritize Relationships & Learn Together
Early on, we learned the importance of meeting our partners where they are. We listen carefully, supporting them to unpack ideas and gain insights on factors—big and small—that might serve to accelerate or shut down learning, improvement, and change efforts. Surfacing these types of details requires trust, which is why our top priority—always—is relationship-building. Part […]
Colorado Lab Celebrates 5-Year Milestone
Colorado Lab Celebrates 5-Year Milestone Policy Lab Comes to Colorado The creation and launch of the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab in 2017 positioned Colorado at the forefront of a growing movement to implement an evidence-based approach to governing. Policy labs are typically positioned in universities to supply governmental partners with relevant and timely research evidence […]
Our Approach
Visit our approach page to learn more about how we use the Steps to Building Evidence.
Our Team
Visit our team page to learn more about the people behind the Colorado Lab.