Colorado is home to a diverse number of communities across a wide range of geographies, 73% of which are designated rural or frontier. Community engagement strategies must adapt to meet the needs of rural and frontier populations who face very different systemic challenges compared to their urban counterparts.
A recent article from the Public Management Journal highlights these issues as they discussed engagement strategies: “Rural communities experience a 20% higher mortality rate than urban communities, 23% lower incomes, 22.3% to 50% do not have reliable broadband access, and 31% of rural roads are in poor or mediocre condition.” This article explores engagement strategies from the perspective of rural government challenges, and much of the discussion is very relevant to local public health agency work in Colorado.