COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

The County worked diligently to identify potential projects upon passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in the spring of 2021. An internal call for projects was initiated throughout the County’s leadership, including over 50 independently elected officials as well as 33 appointed executive administrators, to identify program and project ideas for inclusion in the final Portfolio. Over $700M in requests were received and vetted by the County Administration Department to begin sharing information with the Court. Throughout several public meetings, including discussion during the Court’s annual Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Development hearings, the Court provided direction to County Administration on which program areas were to be prioritized for inclusion into the final Portfolio. Throughout this period, members of the Court shared information on the proposed Portfolio with constituent groups, neighborhood association meetings, electronic newsletters, and general meetings conducted in their individual capacities.

Portfolio Adoption & Listening Sessions

On October 25, 2021, after a public meeting workshop, the Court voted to approve and adopt the final Portfolio. As the County evaluated how to prioritize the distribution of funding to assist nonprofit agencies, the Court also directed staff to implement a series of community listening sessions to distribute information on the final Portfolio as well as solicit feedback on which services should be prioritized for funding utilizing the nonprofit agency NOFO. In addition to engaging the community in an in-person setting, online presentations also corresponded to each meeting with an online survey tool to solicit input electronically. The results of these surveys, comments and general feedback from the community were summarized in a report shared with the Court ahead of the final decision-making sessions related to external agency funding.

• Download the Listening Sessions Findings Report
• Download the Listening Sessions Findings & Community Benchmark Presentation
• Download the Notice of Funding Opportunity Community Benchmark Report

Site Selection

The Listening Sessions were held across the County, with one session scheduled in each Commissioners Court Precinct. The meeting details were:

• Precinct 1 | Montana Vista Fire & Rescue, March 29, 2022
• Precinct 2 | El Paso County Coliseum, March 24, 2022
• Precinct 3 | San Elizario High School, March 30, 2022
• Precinct 4 | Canutillo High School, April 7, 2022

The sites selected for these meetings were deliberately chosen to try to foster engagement in areas that have traditionally lacked access to policymakers and government program information. Each member of the Court shared information on these sessions with their respective constituencies in addition to sharing information with local media, County social media networks as well as social media accounts of critical community partner agencies. The information gained from these sessions continues to be utilized by the County to further develop other initiatives within, and external to, the Portfolio.