A civic strategy practice that builds. Based in Colorado Springs.

Common questions: how an organization brings up its next leaders, where it should stand as it changes, where its mission and its operations have come apart, how to approach city government or a public agency about something new. An engagement begins with one of those questions and a calendar, usually six to twelve weeks, and produces something written: a memo, a framework, a positioning paper the organization can act on. A retainer keeps that going by the month or the quarter. The civic audit looks at an institution, network, or field and asks where civic life is strong, what capacities have atrophied, where the work sits in its broader context, and what comes next.

Strategy answers what to do. Programming and engagement design answer how. A program arc shapes a season or a year of an organization’s offerings: a member education series, a public lecture track, a fellowship cycle. An engagement process designs how a community is consulted on a decision that affects it, such as a budget priority, a land-use change, or a strategic plan. Curriculum design does the same for training programs and workshop series.

Convening and facilitation are how those services get delivered when the room matters. A hosted convening is a single occasion — a retreat, a dialogue, a town hall, a working session — held for the question that brought people together, sometimes inside one organization and sometimes across many. Standing facilitation is recurring: a board, a working group, a coalition’s standing committee, a member gathering that meets on a regular schedule.