Community Climate Awareness Program Assessment | City & County of Denver Office of Climate Action, Sustainability & Resiliency

Designing, administering, and analyzing bilingual community surveys to measure climate action program impact

From 2022-25, IBE guided the assessment for a new equity-driven climate change education initiative led by the City & County of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability & Resiliency (CASR). The goal of the two-year program was to raise awareness, knowledge, and action related to extreme heat and water scarcity. The initiative was focused on underserved neighborhoods that are the most vulnerable to impacts from climate change, including several predominantly Spanish-speaking communities. Five Denver-based community organizations facilitated education and outreach campaigns using the Promotoras model, in which trusted individuals empower their peers through in-person engagement.

CASR hired IBE to provide an assessment framework for the climate literacy program. IBE established community engagement metrics and created a community survey that was voluntarily adopted by all five community organizations. Using a collaborative process, IBE worked closely with CASR staff and the organizations to design the survey to meet CASR’s needs while providing invaluable community insights to inform each organization’s programming. The survey measured awareness, understanding, and perceptions of climate change issues, and willingness, barriers, and motivators to adopt climate strategies. IBE designed and administered surveys, in English and Spanish, at both the start and end of the two-year program, lightly customizing them to each organization’s unique needs. IBE’s comparative analysis of baseline and end-of-campaign survey results illustrated that the program was a great success with notable increases in understanding, confidence, and willingness to take action, and increases in actions taken.