Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment extended its geospatial data and resource library to encompass a wide range of COVID-19-related data, including: hospital data, incidence and epidemic curve data, outbreak data, and surveillance data. Daily state-level data keeps policymakers informed with up-to-date information on COVID-19-related indicators. The department’s open data portal also maps operational community testing sites that receive COVID-19 testing resources from the state.
In 2019, the Colorado Governor’s Office and the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab at the University of Denver co-designed the Linked Information Network of Colorado (LINC) to facilitate data sharing for research and analytics purposes as a way to improve state policies and programs. LINC, through the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, produces informative evidence about the impacts of state programs, and those reports are shared with agency leadership and staff during cabinet working group meetings. Using this data, the lab and state agencies have collaborated on projects to improve outcomes in areas such as education, renewable energy, reentry and racial disparities in criminal justice, prenatal health, and the early childhood education workforce.
In addition, the Colorado Department of Higher Education was the first state agency in the nation to partner on a pilot project with the U.S. Census Bureau to match federal unemployment insurance data with postsecondary degree completion data. At the state and county level, the Colorado Department of Human Services’ C-Stat performance management system facilitates data sharing among its 64 counties by providing dashboards to track key metrics and Performance and Partnerships Exchanges to facilitate sharing of best practices.
The Colorado Department of Public Safety worked with The Division of Criminal Justice to gather, analyze, and publish multi-agency data, prompting recommendations improving criminal justice outcomes and equity to be made by the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.