What happens when you bring people together in person to discuss the problems facing their community?

ESAL Executive Director Taylor Spicer and I (Al Licata, ESAL program manager) recently facilitated an in-person convening in Denver, Colorado, to learn the concerns and hopes that people in our network have for the state. On July 23, 2025, we met with 11 people with backgrounds ranging from textile recycling and science policy to corporate sustainability and public media, and brainstormed strategies to address local problems. 

How it came to be 

In reflecting on the current moment for people in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), we planned this event to learn more about how ESAL can support people in our network in the Colorado area. STEM professionals are both facing a time of unprecedented instability in their fields, and have valuable skills to bring to the table in a time of democratic backsliding and the compounding crises that are likely to come along with it. We sought to bring together a group to explore what people are paying attention to in their local communities and the needs and opportunities for STEM professionals. 

We recruited participants from our networks to attend, asking them to share their backgrounds and concerns. Rocky Mountain Public Media helped us secure one of the conference rooms at Buell Media Center in downtown Denver to host the convening.

In bringing people together in person, we wanted to make connections between folks that share a geographic community. We started with an activity encouraging participants to find as many commonalities with the people they talked with as possible. Once we started to get to know each other, we shifted gears to talk about a strategic framework for community engagement and action. Taylor introduced a framework building a campaign by establishing aims, strategy, tactics, a plan for execution, and evaluation. With these campaign elements in mind, we discussed problems and opportunities facing the city of Denver and the state of Colorado. The group chose three topics to discuss: fire mitigation in Jeffco County, tracking rates of homelessness in Denver, and opposition to proposed funding cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) impacting the local workforce. 

To practice collaborative problem-solving, three “action committees” were formed to develop campaign strategies and tactics for each issue. Midway through the activity, we simulated adding STEM professionals with specific skills to their action committees and asked the groups to consider how they might incorporate those new members into their strategies. Each group took a different approach, focusing on different aspects of the problems and opportunities in front of them. The group working on mitigation strategies for potential funding cuts to NOAA focused on a systemic approach, emphasizing the importance of coordination between systems. The fire mitigation group outlined a complement of strategies from risk analysis to resilience and infrastructure planning. The group working on homeless rate tracking in Denver zeroed in on the need for better data collection and coordination with those most impacted to better advocate for affordable housing solutions. Adding simulated team members had a mixed effect, in some cases adding capacity in others adding specific network connections, resulting in varied impacts to the groups’ strategies and tactics. 

What we learned

Meeting in person matters. This is the feedback ESAL has received in multiple settings, including this convening. When asked about what they hope to see from ESAL in the future, there was strong support for more in-person gatherings. Participants also wanted these meetings to be action-oriented, striving toward working on a project or toward a concrete goal. There was a call for a follow-up to the meeting we hosted and a desire for deeper connection with other participants. This aligns with what we had expected: relationship building is a core part of how we can come together for collective action. 

People affiliated with STEM want to take action. It was clear from how the group engaged and wanted follow-up actions that people affiliated with STEM, either through their work, professional networks, or areas of interest, are motivated to make a difference in their local communities. Everyone approached local issues with thoughtfulness, creativity, and compassion and each person’s unique perspective brought valuable insights to the table. In the difficult political moment we find ourselves in with democracy itself on the line, it was encouraging to see how bringing people into a room together can bring forth movement and inspire civic action. 

Moving forward

The ESAL team plans to support a second gathering of this group. We have the tools at our disposal to virtually support organization of participants through our existing connections and the use of our new online platform, ESAL Community. The local hubs on the platform are an ideal space to connect folks in a single online location to share resources, ask questions, and organize events. Given the positive reception of the convening, we hope to organize others in different communities in the United States with small groups of interested people. If this is something that you would like to see in your community, please reach out and let us know.