[FILLED] Communications & Outreach Development
Host: Colorado Energy Office
Region: Colorado
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Climate Mitigation,Energy Efficiency,Renewable Energy,Transportation / Mobility
Skills Needed: Community Engagement, Project Management, Community Outreach, Marketing and Social Media, Communication, Critical Thinking
Service Needs & Plans
CEO administers a variety of programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including those that come from transportation, buildings, industry, and electricity generation. As we implement these programs, ensuring a just and equitable transition to our clean energy future is a top priority. Research shows that when government institutions invest in community engagement and engaging people with lived experience, it leads to more equitable and sustainable public policy and better public health outcomes. This kind of engagement also makes leaders more informed and better able to meet community needs. Not only do many of our programs focus on maximizing benefits in disproportionately impacted communities, but community engagement and feedback from Colorado communities is an essential part of developing our plans for future actions to mitigate climate change.
Our goal is to increase our communications and outreach capacity to help develop a more robust social media presence, improve our community outreach efforts, engage the media with our work, and ensure information about our programs is available and accessible to all Coloradans.
This individual will work with CEO’s Communications Manager, Environmental Justice Specialist, Director of Climate Communications, and program teams to achieve these goals. The CivicSpark fellow will also play an important role in developing our office’s capacity to comply with state digital accessibility requirements.
Project Description
Social Media: To date, our office has not had the capacity to develop a meaningful presence on social media. As more consumer- and resident-facing programs become available, using social media to educate the public about clean energy technologies and how they can take advantage of incentives to reduce emissions from their homes and cars will become increasingly more important. Additionally, using social media to spread the word about community engagement opportunities will ensure our office is receiving feedback from diverse perspectives. Our goal is to expand and improve our social media presence on Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, LinkedIn, and Nextdoor to increase the public’s awareness of clean energy technologies and engagement with our programs. Ideally, we would like to create bilingual social media content to engage Colorado’s Spanish-speaking residents, who have historically had less access to information about the work we are doing. The CivicSpark fellow would be responsible for working with CEO teams to develop content for social media, create a social media strategy, and implement a social media posting schedule.
Accessibility: All State of Colorado digital content is required to meet certain accessibility standards by July 1, 2024. This includes website content, social media posts, documents/reports, and other digital tools. By complying with these accessibility standards, we are ensuring that disabled Coloradans have equal access to our online content. The CivicSpark fellow will help increase our capacity to remediate existing content and produce new accessible content.
Media engagement and outreach support: The media is an important partner in informing the public about the work we are doing in order to achieve net-zero emissions in Colorado by 2050. CEO both receives requests from the media and actively engages reporters to help spread the word about the work we are doing. The CivicSpark fellow will support CEO’s Communications Manager and the state’s Director of Climate Communications in developing media outreach strategies and responding to incoming media requests. Ideally, the CivicSpark fellow will also help our office establish relationships with Spanish language media outlets.
Desired Skills
We are looking for someone who is motivated, passionate about the work we do to advance clean energy and reduce emissions, and committed to social and environmental justice. The CivicSpark fellow should be comfortable talking to people and should have the ability to communicate well with audiences that have varying levels of existing knowledge about our work. The CivicSpark fellow should be able to effectively communicate in both English and Spanish and should have excellent writing and editing skills. Graphic design skills are a plus. Experience creating engaging social media content and managing social media accounts is a must. Ideally, the CivicSpark fellow should have some existing knowledge about clean energy and energy efficiency, although the fellow can learn much of this on the job.
Organization & Community Highlights
CEO currently has approximately 75 employees and is growing rapidly as new funding comes in from both the state and federal government. We have seven program teams:
-Executive team (senior leadership, communications staff, others)
-Finance & Operations (budgeting, accounting, procurement, contracts)
-Policy (policy development and advocacy, regulatory analysis)
-Transportation (electric vehicles, e-bikes, EV charging)
-Building Decarbonization (building efficiency, electrification, renewable energy)
-Weatherization Assistance Program (income-qualified home energy efficiency)
-Strategic Initiatives & Finance (industrial emissions, emerging technologies [geothermal, carbon management], commercial financing)
Environmental justice is a top priority for us as we transition to our clean energy future. The Environmental Justice Act asserts that “All people have the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, participate freely in decisions that affect their environments, live free of dangerous levels of toxic pollution, experience equal protection provided by environmental policies, and share the benefits of a prosperous and vibrant pollution-free economy.” We acknowledge historical racism and the disproportionate environmental burden experienced in low income and communities of color. We are committed to restorative justice by changing policies and practices to create a more equitable, cleaner, and safer environment for all Coloradans.
In addition to our work on environmental justice, our office regularly convenes an equity, diversity, and inclusion working group to plan training sessions for our staff and address EDI issues in hiring and procurement.
There is no better time and place to get involved with this work. Colorado is leading the nation in its innovative approach to reduce emissions across sectors. Working across CEO teams to ensure that each team’s outreach and communications needs are met, the CivicSpark fellow will have the unique opportunity to learn about and be part of the state’s holistic approach to achieve a clean energy future. Working in communications and outreach will not only allow the CivicSpark fellow to learn about new clean energy technologies and strategies to implement them, but also how to educate and engage others with this work.
Our office is located in the heart of downtown Denver and is easily accessible by public transit. Denver has a variety of parks, museums, bike trails, breweries, restaurants, and other fun activities to do year round. Our proximity to the mountains offers opportunities to recreate outdoors, including hiking, skiing, biking, rafting, and relaxing. The State’s Bustang service offers affordable transportation to a variety of areas across the state, including major ski resorts along I-70.
Remote or On-Site Placement
Hybrid