Future-Ready State Agencies
What does it mean for a state agency to be “future-ready?”
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
Ever wish you could predict the future? While nothing is truly “future-proof,” to be a “Future-Ready” State Agency means being able to not only adapt to the future, but the ability to anticipate what is to come. It also means that State agencies have the skills and tools to be responsive to change. Being “Future-Ready” is being proactive and operating within flexible systems in order to adapt and thrive in the face of disruptions.
The Future-Ready State Agencies program is a range of technical assistance offerings by the Colorado Resiliency Office to help State agencies apply the lens of adaptability and future-visioning to their efforts to integrate resiliency principles into programs and operations.
Future-Ready Technical Assistance Opportunities for State Agencies
State agencies can take advantage of the following flexible technical assistance options to support their resiliency work. Please contact Shayle Sabo, the CRO’s Resiliency Program Manager, to discuss which options are right for your agency.
Option 1: Self-Guided Resource | The Colorado Resiliency Playbook
Future-Ready State Agencies is an expanded technical assistance opportunity that builds upon the Colorado Resiliency Playbook, developed in 2019.
What is the Colorado Resiliency Playbook?
The Colorado Resiliency Playbook is guidance offered to State Agencies to assess their agency’s ability to anticipate, respond to, and recover from disruptions. This offers tools and modules for agencies to work through on their own timeline and at their own pace. This resource is designed to help agencies to integrate considerations of resiliency into policies, practices, programs, and budgets. Using this Playbook, State agencies can develop strategies and actions that enhance resiliency and improve successful outcomes.
Option 2: Future-Ready Investments | Incorporating the Resiliency Criteria into Discretionary Grant Programs
State funding programs offer opportunities to support local governments in being ready for future challenges. The CRO offers technical expertise to grant managers in reviewing existing and future community-facing competitive grant programs to determine opportunities to better incorporate resiliency criteria, as required by statute. By incorporating criteria to support impactful long-term investments and projects that have multiple benefits, we can ensure that we are funding efforts that are better able to withstand future disruptions.
The CRO offers technical expertise to grant managers to work collaboratively to review existing and future community-facing competitive grant programs to determine opportunities to better incorporate resiliency criteria.
Check out our Webinar - Incorporating the Resiliency Criteria into Grant Programs Introduction!
We are currently experiencing a historically unprecedented time of Federal funding being allocated to State agencies and local governments through the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. This webinar was offered to support State agencies as they are administering grant programs as a result of this funding, however, the information in this applies to all competitive, community-facing grant programs. This is a great introduction for grant managers to understand how to integrate the resiliency criteria into the funding programs they are administering.
Option 3: Immersion | Future-Ready State Agencies Workshop
Future-Ready State Agencies provides an immersive opportunity for State of Colorado agencies to integrate resiliency principles into their work. We recognize, and celebrate, that each agency will have different goals and outcomes due to a variety of factors including mission, goals, obligations, and more. This is tailorable to the goals of each agency and provides a lens through which to assess gaps, evaluate readiness for the future, and streamline efficiencies.
Upon completion of these workshops, State Agencies will be better equipped to adapt and thrive in the midst of changing conditions.
Outcomes:
Develop an internal agency Resiliency Working Group to coordinate across divisions and be a long-term body for implementation of resilient strategies.
Create an action plan to incorporate resiliency strategies and principles into policies, operations, programs, and to make their agencies more adaptive to change. This includes, but is not limited to:
Building capacity for collaborative and adaptive management
Leveraging funding and resources to achieve multiple benefits
Strengthening partnerships with external stakeholders and local communities
Opportunity:
Meet the obligations for institutionalizing resilience outlined in CRS-24-32-122 including the requirements to:
Implement resilience policies and procedures
Institutionalize resilience practices across departments and agencies
Secure resources and investments to implement resilience solutions
Integrate resilience criteria into existing competitive grant programs
Reflect on where we have been, and also look far into the future to build creative solutions, and all while having fun!
Ready to Launch?
We are now available to enthusiastic State of Colorado agencies ready to take the leap to be Future-Ready!
The CRO will accept one agency in the Spring and one agency in the fall annually. This allows us to fully support the agency in this process.
Application Available Soon!
Additional Questions?
Contact Shayle Sabo, Resiliency Program Manager