Host: City of Grand Junction
Region: Colorado
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Climate Mitigation, Public Health, Transportation / Mobility, Urban Planning, Education
Skills Needed: Community Engagement, Facilitation, Stakeholder Engagement, Curriculum Development, Communication, Self-Motivated

Service Needs & Plans

This project will be servicing the City of Grand Junction in the implementation of specific goals established in our recently adopted Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan. Our new Mobility division is tasked with achieving many specific goals and outcomes, ranging from developing safe infrastructure to growing an equitable and inclusive transportation culture.

We are hoping to grow organizational capacity to develop relationships with local educators for curriculum materials and programming in schools, as it relates to mobility. The intended outcome is to build a teachers’ resource toolkit for comprehensive curriculum with mobility as a nexus.

Project Description

1. Overarching Goal:
Develop a platform for Mobility Education and Outreach to deliver against the objectives established in Grand Junction’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan.

2. Role of the Fellow:
•Lead outreach to build relationship(s) with D51 principal(s) and teacher(s)
•Co-develop comprehensive curriculum materials for interdisciplinary Travelers’ Education encompassing core competencies and life skills in context, possibly including:                              -Bike skills
-Navigational skills
-American and local history
-Equity and access
-Law
-Economics
-Finance and budgeting
-Technology
-Physics
•Establish a pilot plan for ongoing co-engagement with local principals and schools, including formative and summative independent or group projects for students

3. Project Outcome:
•A pilot Travelers’ Education curriculum to help develop an inclusive mobility understanding

4. Increasing Capacity:
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan establishes the goals for Grand Junction to be a Quality Multimodal Community which is Equitable, Safe, and Connected. The plan’s 39 specific objectives will be more easily delivered upon with a fellow to focus on those related to education and outreach

Desired Skills

Interest and experience in K-12 education or curriculum development
Driven and self-guided
Engaging and collaborating with stakeholders

Organization & Community Highlights

Grand Junction is the largest city between Salt Lake and Denver along the I-70 corridor. It has great access to the outdoors and provides many urban amenities such as arts, music, and dining. It is the home to Colorado Mesa University, which hosts approximately 10,000 students during the school year. The City of Grand Junction is an open and transparent government enjoys a professional, hardworking staff dedicated to public service and improving the lives of its residents. The city has invested in outreach and engagement staff and is focused on providing an accessible and inclusive government for and by the people. Grand Junction is also at a pivotal point in its history as more people are recognizing the high quality of life the area enjoys as well the lower cost of living compared to many great Colorado cities. The City has invested significantly in recent years in the city’s waterfront, downtown, parks and recreational amenities, and many say the city is at a key transition point. The City of Grand Junction’s thriving community is increasingly committed to environmental and social justice. The recently adopted Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan reaffirms the city’s priority to enable equitable mobility for all its residents. The City is committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace through the newly established Mobility Division. Working for the City in this capacity will allow a fellow to see the inner workings of local government and identify aspects of Mobility work that may interest them in their careers. From policy work to public outreach and engagement, this division’s work constantly changes and provides real experiences that create visible change within the community where we all work and live. Since the Mobility Division is so new, fellows play a part in shaping projects from ideation all the way to implementation.

Remote or On-Site Placement

On-site