About Boulder County Public Health

Guiding Principles

The following key principles describe the actions we will take to conduct our public health work in order to make significant and sustainable improvements to health in Boulder County

1. Use data and community input to identify factors that significantly impact equity, health, and quality of life. Employ evidence-based strategies and evaluation to inform decisions, assure quality, and demonstrate outcomes in policies and programs.
2. Initiate, enhance, and promote efforts to address the social determinants of health to ensure health equity for people in Boulder County. Support community capacity in leadership and organizing that demonstrates collective power to affect change and influence public health programming, policy, and systems change efforts.
3. Promote primary prevention and a population-based approach to maximize health impact at the broadest possible level, while intentionally targeting prevention resources toward populations that are experiencing inequities.
4. Collaborate across sectors to initiate and strengthen partnerships toward making a collective impact to ensure common goals, shared measurement, coordination of activities, and reduced duplication.
5. Clarify appropriate roles of Boulder County Public Health and our partners in the public health system.
6. Ensure that people in Boulder County are empowered and equipped to make informed decisions for adopting healthy behaviors.
7. Educate and influence policy makers so they are able to set policies that protect and enhance the health of individuals, families, communities, and the environment.
8. Implement strategies in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.

Essential Services

• Monitor the health status of the population and the environment, and identify community health problems.
• Prevent and control the spread of communicable disease.
• Promote positive health behaviors and environmental practices.
• Mobilize community partnerships to solve identified health problems.
• Enforce laws and regulations that protect the health of the public and the environment.
• Counsel and support high-risk children, youth, and families.
• Assure access and provide linkages to personal health services.
• Provide alcohol and drug treatment services.
• Develop policies that support and protect the health of the community and the environment.

Boulder County Public Health’s 2024 – 2029 Strategic Plan is a roadmap that will provide strategic guidance and direction for our agency over the next five years. Developed through a comprehensive planning process, this plan identifies priority areas to focus agency efforts, outlines what we plan to accomplish within each priority, and how we will monitor progress. The six priorities for this strategic plan are:

• Mental and Behavioral Health
• Climate Action and Sustainability
• Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery
• Health and Racial Equity
• Community Engagement
• Sustainability, Transparency and Stewardship

BCPH 2024-2029 Strategic Plan- Summary

• Plan Estratégico – Resumen

BCPH 2024-2029 Strategic Plan- Full Document

Boulder County aims to ensure all digital content and documents are accessible. While efforts have been made to maximize accessibility, some types of content have inherent technical limitations. For alternate formats or accommodations, please submit an ADA Web Accommodation Request Form or email ADA@bouldercounty.gov, or call 303-441-1386. View the county’s accessibility statement.

Boulder County Public Health – 2025 Budget

This document explains Boulder County Public Health’s (BCPH) 2025 budget. It follows local and state budget rules.

Public health funding can vary widely from year to year. In response, BCPH has improved how we manage and track our budget. This year, we made a few important updates:

• Created a formal policy for savings (reserves)
• Strengthened financial oversight
• Better matched the budget to how money has been spent in the past

This document is used in several ways. It helps guide the Board of Health’s decisions, supports day-to-day staff work, informs county partners, and keeps the public informed. We include data and charts to make the information easier to understand.

For 2025, BCPH expects about $24.4 million in total revenue. Overall funding is expected to decrease slightly (less than 1%) compared to 2024. This is mainly due to slower revenue growth.

In 2025, we will continue to align our work with the Board of Health and County priorities, guided by our values and community needs. Our goal is to support a Boulder County where everyone has access to health, well-being, and a healthy environment.

Budgeted 2025 Revenues by Source, Detail

• State Funding, $7,191,524
• Boulder County Appropriation, $7,000,000
• Fee Funding, $2,227,121
• Reserve Funding, $2,126,339
• County Passthrough Funding, $1,672,171
• County Tax, $1,510,683
• Local Funding, $1,121,205
• Federal Funding, $908,628
• Private Funding, $655,773
• Holding, $14,490

2025 Budgeted Expenditures by Division

• Environmental Health 26%
• Administration and Finance 20%
• Community Health 16%
• Family Health 16%
• Communicable Disease and Emergency Management 11%
• Strategic Initiatives 11%

Boulder County Public Health is part of the Metro Denver Partnership for Health. This group includes public health agencies from seven counties: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson.

About 3 million people—around 60% of Colorado’s population—live in this region.

The Partnership works with leaders across many areas, including health care, human services, behavioral health, environment, education, business, local government, and philanthropy. Together, they aim to improve health and make sure everyone has a fair chance to be healthy.

In 2016, the Partnership set four main focus areas:

• Sharing data
• Promoting healthy eating and active living
• Improving behavioral health
• Better aligning partners and working together

These focus areas help guide the group’s collaboration to improve health across the region.

• Metro Denver Partnership for Health