My Colorado Journey

In Colorado, education and workforce gaps threaten the long term economic mobility and resiliency of our residents - especially those from underrepresented minority groups, low socioeconomic backgrounds, and rural areas. We must do more to erase these gaps and provide Coloradans (regardless of race/ethnicity, age, economic status, geography) increased opportunities to thrive and better information to support their journey. To address these challenges, a coalition of Colorado state agencies and private sector partners developed "My Colorado Journey."

My Colorado Journey is a groundbreaking statewide platform that connects individuals to work, education and support services. This free resource centralizes the state’s most powerful career, education, and human services programs and tools in a user-friendly way.

By better connecting individuals to robust data and resources through My Colorado Journey and facilitating comprehensive statewide outreach, individuals can be better equipped and supported as they navigate the best education, training, and workforce pathways for them.

Colorado has some of the most drastic educational equity gaps anywhere in the United States when measured by race and ethnicity. The share of Colorado’s white majority population that has earned a credential (64.2 percent) is more than twice that of Latinx and almost 1.5 times the share of African Americans or Black Coloradans. Gaps also exist in other characteristics including socioeconomic status, geography, and age. Many individuals in these groups lack the key resources and supports to succeed. These equity gaps threaten the long term economic mobility and resiliency of Coloradans.

My Colorado Journey is currently available statewide in Colorado for use by individuals of all ages and as a tool for professionals from high school counselors, local/regional workforce board staff, and other groups. However, more statewide outreach on My Colorado Journey and development of the platform must be done to fully leverage the potential that the tool (and the supporting Data Trust) can bring to all Coloradans. The targeted groups who will benefit from My Colorado Journey include the 125,000 adults seeking workforce services, the 800,000 comebackers with some college but no degree, and the more than 50,000 high school students graduating each year.

My Colorado Journey connects individuals to work, education and support services via a free resource that centralizes the state’s most powerful career, education, and human services programs/tools in a user-friendly way. The platform makes it easy to evaluate career/program options, set Goals and take the Steps needed to achieve them, whether you’re an adult switching careers, a high school student choosing their next adventure or a military veteran transitioning into civilian life.

Users are guided along a journey that’s personalized to their needs, desires, and stage of life. An innovative recommendation engine generates suggested Goals and maps out the action Steps needed to accomplish them, recording achievements along the way.

Agency collaboration and data integration ensure all Coloradans can connect to learning and work opportunities in just a few clicks. The state-of-the-art design reduces redundancy, time and cost with a powerful, mobile-accessible platform that brings together the best state resources in one place. Additionally, agencies and partners have built a secure, private environment where users control the information shared at every step of their journey.

Expanded support for the outreach and technical capabilities of My Colorado Journey will make the platform even more powerful in effecting positive change.

Throughout the development of My Colorado Journey, the collaborative multi-agency and vendor team has taken a user-centered approach in content creation and experience. Feedback from students, adults, and various subject matter experts has been key as the platform has been rolled out statewide. Additionally, the development of the platform has included professionals serving these individuals in high schools, workforce boards, and other groups.

The My Colorado Journey team has also begun the process of engaging more specific feedback from Coloradans from different race/ethnic populations as well as Coloradans in rural areas to ensure the platform meets their needs through survey and virtual town hall events.

By ensuring the content and user experience on My Colorado Journey best meets the needs of these individuals, the platform can better connect them to the information vital to their efforts in identifying education and training opportunities leading to better workforce opportunities and lifetime outcomes. Additionally, the platform serves the needs of professionals across the state to support efforts to connect individuals to the wide array of supports and opportunities.

The personalization engine embedded into My Colorado Journey helps individuals explore and connect to the resources that support their workforce goals. By linking data across various Colorado state agencies, the ecosystem of education and training opportunities can be presented to individuals in an action-oriented and easy-to-navigate way.

This ecosystem includes the public and private institutions of higher education in Colorado as well as private occupational schools, the programs on Colorado's Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL), and some national programs. Providing information on quality, non-degree credentials and training opportunities is a key component of the My Colorado Journey experience.

A diverse group of Colorado state agency staff work on efforts related to My Colorado Journey. A steering committee comprised of representatives from various partners is led by staff at the Colorado Workforce Development Council (the state's workforce board) and the Colorado Department of Higher Education. Additionally, staff from vendor partners at BrightHive and PAIRIN support the My Colorado Journey work. In total, approximately a dozen staff support the statewide outreach and development of this platform. There 4 state staff members devoting 25-50% of time to the solution, 4 up to 25%, and 4 contractors between 50-75%.

The state of Colorado, and specifically the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC, the state's workforce board) and the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE), are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our work for the people of Colorado.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis recently released an executive order directing all state agencies to investigate policies and practices around diversity, equity, and inclusion and to ensure plans are in place to improve around all three. CWDC recently released its Talent Equity Agenda which makes the case for targeting resources, raising awareness, and accelerating shared strategies to close racial economic disparities in the state and measure the results. CDHE leads an Equity Champions Coalition comprised of multi-sector, bipartisan key influencers representing each region of the state to serve as ambassadors for Colorado’s focus on equity and connectors within communities of color.

The collaborative approach between state agencies and external partners in terms of content creation, user experience, and data sharing/governance for My Colorado Journey is unparalleled. No other platform or experience provides this level of robust information and action-oriented guided exploration. The Data Trust that powers My Colorado Journey enables sharing of data in a well governed, responsible way that has not previously been attempted in Colorado.

This approach not only serves the needs of individuals but also the work for groups statewide. This powerful platform also allows journeys to be shared with the professionals, mentors, and loved ones guiding them. Parents, counselors, advisors and case managers can see progress, recommend next steps and celebrate achievements.

Additionally, the work on My Colorado Journey to bring together various education/training options for individuals dovetails with other statewide efforts around blockchain solutions for credentialing and skill validation. As a state-led initaitive, My Colorado Journey can pull together data sets and connect statutorily required platforms that would not be possible with an off the shelf software solution. At the same time, the process being implemented and technology infrastructure can be scaled nationwide.

My Colorado Journey is a groundbreaking technology platform that connects individuals to work, education and support services exploration, and action planning. Using its built-in algorithms, content framework and task management technology, My Colorado Journey allows Coloradans to connect to the personalized services they need through an online technology platform that’s accessible via desktop, tablet or mobile device. The web application is hosted on a private Amazon Web Services (AWS) VPN cluster using AWS Aurora databases. It relies in part on data assets owned by a variety of state agencies. To simplify data access and governance, these agencies have come together to form a data trust. The trust is powered by Brighthive's multi-party data integration platform, which includes cloud-hosted ETL pipelines, RESTful APIs, access control, logging, and governance features. The trust's members collectively determine rules around data anonymization, aggregation, and access. Data sets containing sensitive PII are encrypted at the column level, any aggregate statistic based on wage records must have a cohort size larger than ten, and members must agree to ethical principles like algorithmic transparency. Members have the option to allow access to their data assets only for the purpose of calculating particular metrics, a restriction that is enforced in the software and auditable after the fact. This approach readily can be extended to accommodate new data providers for My Colorado Journey; or to allow for new researchers, third party application developers, or policy makers to build upon the work that has already been done.

The platform has been in operation since July 2019 and the functionality can be viewed at mycoloradojourney.com and in this video. The Help Center also includes more than 130 articles about how to most effectively use the technology, including short tutorial videos, FAQs and webinar recordings. 

The overarching theory of change for My Colorado Journey is that if Coloradans are able to access data on in-demand career opportunities and the necessary educational programs in a personalized, engaging, and supported manner, then they will be more likely to find meaninful employment with a living wage and more likely to pursue and complete education programs connected to work opportunities. 

The logic of the solution begins with the individual user, and utilizes an account setup process that quickly establishes the reasons why an individual is engaging with the platform. Suggestions are then offered for the user to identify the highest level outcomes they seek to acheive through an Outcomes-Goals-Steps framework that recommends goals to select, and the provides tangible steps the individual can take to ahieve the goals. The steps include accessing tools, assessments, and data sources on the platform, and when relevent connect the individual to external data sources.

The steps are designed to break through barriers that the user is experiencing, and are engineered to support the highest level needs first and then progress a user to further steps and actions as they are ready. Some users may reap the full benefits of the platform and acheive outcomes in a short period of time, while others may return to the site multiple times over a long period as they pursue their journey.

My Colorado Journey is anchored by a professional center that allows job coaches, counselors, case managers and others to view the progress of their clients, create customized plans, suggest steps, and support them to completion. The need for support in Colorado far outweighs the capacity for in-person interactions, and My Colorado Journey provides the solution with meaningful online interaction and self-exploration.

The behind the scenes theory of change for this work drives the data trust, and that theory is if policy makers and leaders have an awareness of the actual results of education or training programs and wage outcomes of participants, then better policy can be developed to create economic mobility and the opportunity for all Coloradans to prosper.

During our fiscal year of July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021, we intend to expand the platform to 45,000 users, while at the same time capturing insights through focus groups and outreach research on how to best position the services so that we are serving at least 450,000 users by June of 2026. As the user base increases, we are also tracking the completion of steps and outcomes within the system, and expanding the active user groups to include all targeted populations.

Barriers to success exist in the following four areas.

Awareness: Individual Coloradans most likely to benefit are not yet aware that this platform is available, is free to use, and can support them in positive ways.

Desire: When awareness of the platform exists, there is still hesitancy to utilize resources, individuals may have the misperception that a free service will not provide value, and concerns about sharing information and data may exist.

Knowledge: For professional users, they currently lack the knowledge about the how the platform functions and of all the features avaialble that will enhance their individual work

Financial Support: State agencies and project team members have a strong belief that these services and supports should be made available at no cost to all Coloradans in order to ensure equity and best impact vulnerable populations. This approach however requires ongoing philanthropic or government investment to sustain the services and overall initiative.

Solutions are in flight for each of these barriers, and we welcome support and ideas from the Solve community to strengthen our ability to overcome each item.

Awareness: Digital outreach and promotion is conducted regularly, and we are working through professional networks to inform job coaches, counselors, and case managers about the benefits for their customers, with the assumption they will then promote to individuals. Messaging exists, and would be augmented by more robust marketing assets that can be delpoyed across multiple channels.

Desire: We are currently conducting research to better understand the reactions of target users to the platform, and then refine our approach in outreach so that we are immediately genereating desire and addressing concerns that may exist. 

Knowledge: For professional users, training is offered in an ongoing basis through webinars. The realities of the pandemic have eliminted in-person, group training as an option which proved to be very effective for driving adoption in the first six months of implementation. Targeted professionals are also receiving a large amount of digital content and being offerend solutions, so our approach must cut through a significant amount of noise in the system.

Financial Support: Existing state assets are being consolidated into My Colorado Journey so that current funding streams become available for ongoing use. We are modifying our approach with partners so that each agency is contributing in specific ways, and as new grants are received they have portions dedicated to My Colorado Journey.

We plan to measure the following outcomes as we move into year 2 and 3 of implementation.

Year-over-year increases in college application, apprenticeship enrollment, or CTE program enrollment from Colorado high school seniors

Increased program enrollment over normalized baseline given program type and business cycle

Increased program completion rates due to better program fit and higher program effectiveness

Initial evidence of measurable wage gain over control group for users of the platform, contingent upon wage data integration

The lead agency is the Colorado Workforce Development Council, which is housed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Our solution team is a collaborative of multiple state government agencies and vendor partners, with decision making coming from division leadership or higher and subject matter experts from varying levels within the state agencies.

As the lead for this solution, Lee Wheeler-Berliner has devoted his professional career to combating cycles of generational poverty by enhancing the level of social justice and equity that exist in our public systems through roles in the nonprofit and public sectors. As an AmeriCorps volunteer operating an afterschool program in southeast Dallas, he observed first hand how the lack of opportunity shaped the lives of children, their parents, and young adults living in low-income neighborhoods. Other leadership team members have devoted their careers to workforce development, education, and supporting marginalized populations including individuals with disabilities. The power of these experiences grounds our team with a focus on the individual, and the belief that we have an imperative to deliver the highest quality, most accesible informaiton and experience to empower all Coloradans to make decisions about their future that will lead to self-sufficiency and meaningful employment.

In addition to the passion and commitment displayed by the leadership team, the depth of expertise in project execution and experience deploying similar systems is critical to realizing the long-term success of My Colorado Journey.  

The multi-state agency collaborative includes the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, the Colorado Workforce Development Council, the Colorado Department of Higher Education, and the Colorado Department of Human Services.

Current content partners include, the Colorado Workforce Development Council, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and TeachColorado.org, which is championed by the Public Education & Business Coalition. 

Additionally, vendor partners in this work include BrightHive and PAIRIN.

Thought partners who are active in contributing to success and guiding the work include Colorado Succeeds and Skillful Colorado, each of whom provide a representative to our steering committee meetings and support the amplication of this work.

My Colorado Journey is designed to serve three specific user groups: individual job seekers, individual students (of all ages), and professionals who support these two groups through government of non-profit organizations. Value is generated for the individuals through the services offered on the platform that include but are not limited to providing an individual with access to data; delivering assessments that generate recommendations on the career options that may be a good match; and identifying and closing skill gaps a user has in relation to a desired career. 

The professional users gain value by having an interface that allows them to see the plans of their clients, generate reports on progress, and assign outcomes, goals, and steps to their clients for completion.

All of these services are delivered through the creation of a free account on the web site. While some amount of information is available without creating an account, the optimal personalization and customization is delivered through the account setup process.

The platform does not generate revenue as it is offered as a free service by the state of Colorado. Competing products do not have the same functionality or state support, and organizations who may pay for similar services, such as a school district, can recover costs and redirect those resources by adopting My Colorado Journey. 

The start-up and implementation costs for My Colorado Journey were supported by philanthropic investments. We are still in an expansion phase where, in 2021, a large emphasis is being placed on outeach and training to grow the user base and demonstrate the efficacy of the platform to the public, organizations, and the state legislature. As adoption increases, we are consolidating existing state-funded programs and services into My Colorado Journey, and redirecting those funding streams towards this effort. Full sustainability will be reached when a sufficient level of consolidation occurs so that all ongoing expenses for platform maintenance are covered by state funds, either that are redirected or newly assigned to cover this work.

My Colorado Journey was one of three grantees selected nationwide for funding and support through Data For the American Dream, with $1M being awarded for work in 2020 and 2021. This contribution was combined with grants totaling $950,000 from Colorado focused funders as well as by contributions from state agencies to launch and grow the platform. State agencies to date have contributed $700,000 in state and federal funds to support the addition of specific features and the operation of the platform in year two.

Our team is actively seeking grant funding that can support outreach, sustain existing functionality for users, and expand the product offerings to deepen the personalization options for specific user groups. During the first half of 2021 a target of $178,000 has been established. 

Expected annual expenses range from $939,000 to $1,013,500. The variability is driven by options in the staffing support model and the level of specified feature enhancements each year. The governance and devleopment approach uses an agile methodology, which creates variation in expenses as the costs may fluctuate based on the highest needs identified by user groups.

My Colorado Journey is in a growth and expansion phase, which requires continued financial investment and support and expertise to overcome the barriers to success. To date we have been engaged in a learning community with the other two states funded by Data For the American Dream. The ongoing support and insight gained through that partnership has been incredibly valuable, and we understand the strength that comes from building strong collaboratives of like minded organizations.

We have a bold vision for how My Colorado Journey will impact the lives of thousands of Coloradans each and every year, and achieving a bold vision requires partnerships that lean into the expertise of each entity at the table. Through MIT Solve we see both the opportunity for financial support critical to the expansion phase and access to experts in a community who can shape our thinking on outreach, bring expertise and insights to shift our approach, and drive us in the best possible direction to address financial sustainability with an equitable business model.

We are excited to connect with thought partners through MIT Solve and be part of a broader community where we can connect with others and share what we are learning nationwide to support a better future for all individuals.

As discussed in the barriers section, we have strategies in place developed by our team with input from external consultants. We know that are objectives are shared by states throughout the country, and the challenges of change management and adoption of new technologies are not limited to this specific domain of talent development. Through partnerships with innovators who have realized success in other domains, we can apply the best thinking to My Colorado Journey and our overall approach so that all goals are exceeded and we can provide a blueprint for exploration systems nationwide.

Our team is open to regional, statewide, and national partnership opportunities. Specifically, additional content partners would continue driving relevance and therefore, adoption of the platform by residents statewide, additional partners should be engaged to create Outcomes specific to the needs of their stakeholders. This will allow the content writers to deliver important instructional materials and information to professional staff using the Outcome with stakeholders.

Influential groups such as the Colorado Rural Education Collaborative can amplify outreach and bring new user groups, specifically school districts, to the platform. Partnerships with national entities who can provide similar influence would be highly beneficial as well towards growing the user base.