Estes Park, Colorado Public Library
Written April 2023
“The more effort we put into convening the [conversations], the more likely we are to get diverse voices [in the conversations].” Eric White, Community Conversations project organizer
Estes Park, Colorado, a town in Northern Colorado situated at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park. With a population of 6,504, Estes Park is a small US city (small= population of less than 100,000). The median age of Estes Park residents is relatively high compared to the US average of 38 years old, with a median age of 62 years.
A few years back, community members and leaders recognized a lot of divisiveness between citizens and a need for more engagement between people with differing views, values, and experiences. Denise Lord, the Manager & Executive Director of the Restorative Justice Partnership, explained that in the community, there was no organization or process that helped bring people together and bridge divides outside of specific conflict situations. The community has faced some large-scale changes, including building a mountain roller coaster, which caused many residents to be outraged. Lord noticed that the community could have been better off if something existed on the front end to allow for deliberate engagement over topics such as this one.
The Estes Park public library collaborated with the Restorative Justice Program to create the Community Conversations Partnership to reduce such divides, unite community members, and provide for deliberate engagement. As the partnership’s web page explains, “Community Conversations focus on building local capacity to engage with difficult issues — more collaboratively and productively — through the use of deliberative engagement processes.” A central aspect of the community conversations program is using Living Room Conversations. The hope of the partnership and LRCs being offered through the public library was to provide something different that enabled the community to come together in conversation around potentially divisive topics. Lord also noted that the program could allow people to practice dialogue so that when a larger-scale issue impacting the community arose (such as the controversial rollercoaster mentioned earlier), people would have the experience and practice to voice their opinions and push for change.
For 2022, the Project organizers made a lofty goal to host 12 conversations, which they achieved by hosting 12 conversations on 18 topics with 124 attendees. One of the most successful conversations held thus far was on Guns and Responsibility. This topic was chosen because community members have strong views on both ends of the spectrum. This conversation went so well partly because of the groundwork organizers put in before the conversation. Such groundwork included reaching out to various community members and organizations on both sides of the spectrum, including a member of the police department, members of the local gun club, recreational hunters, and members of various social media groups. As Eric White, the Estes Park Library Adult Service Librarian and conversation facilitator, explained, “The more effort we put into convening the [conversations], the more likely we are to get diverse voices [in the conversations].” Other fruitful conversations held were on Mental Health and Gender.
The Guns & Responsibility conversation proved very successful. It resulted in newfound connections between people who aligned in different ways and held different views. A few participants of the conversation with diverse perspectives even went out to dinner together after the conversation to discuss the issues further and form a deeper relationship.
Project organizers chose conversation topics based on those that might attract the most participants and on community-level themes, including Conflict Resolution Month and Restorative Justice Week. As common among other LRC projects, many guides used were adapted to be most relevant and beneficial for the community. One conversation guide was created specifically for the Estes Park community regarding the convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the wildfires and related evacuations community members were facing.
The library plans to continue hosting Living Room Conversations. They are excited about the topics they have planned. Due to the high median age of residents, a conversation on Age and Aging will be offered soon. Denise mentioned the reason for choosing this topic: “It could be a robust conversation that feels relevant.” Registration for the conversation is already high, so they are excited about the outcome. Other future conversation topics include Mental Health, and Parenting & Empowering Children. However, as Denise explained, “We have purposefully not set our sights too far out because we want the ability to adapt and change as there is expressed interest where we might be able to chime in or be of value to the community.”
When asked what project organizers would change about the program moving forward, Denise and Eric expressed a desire to continue choosing relevant topics, adapting conversation guides to the community, and inviting community members with varying viewpoints to encourage diversity in conversation.
- Estes Park, CO. Data USA. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://datausa.io/profile/geo/estes-park-co
- Community Conversations. Town of Estes Park. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://estespark.colorado.gov/communityconversations
- Photo Credit: Home. Estes Valley Library. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2023, from https://estesvalleylibrary.org/
Written by Cassidy Weaver, Living Room Conversations Community Engagement Partner
