Elizabeth Crowe

Deputy Director, Housing & Human Services | City of Boulder

Pronouns: she/her

Elizabeth is a former grassroots organizer and advocate who now works as the Deputy Director of the City of Boulder Housing and Human Services department. Among other programs and projects, she leads the city's Elevate Boulder guaranteed income pilot project, which launched in 2023. Elizabeth has been an active learner and advocate for social, racial and environmental justice. She joins others in the city and community nonprofit space to work to reduce disparities, promote justice and solve problems at the root cause. Elizabeth is a mom, and volunteer with local nonprofit groups focused on voting rights and democracy.

Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Decision-Making for Dignity: Transformation and Trust Through Direct Cash Assistance

Government agencies typically design programs for people in need. But what happens when we design programs with people in need?

For the City of Boulder, a new direct cash assistance program, Elevate Boulder, offered an opportunity to engage community members as collaborative decision-makers. The result so far has been a dignified, trusted program with greater power to transform the lives of program participants, and transform other city processes.

In this session, participants will hear about how the city centered the Elevate Boulder decision making process in the lived experience of community members; and established goals for a dignified, equitable process.

Participants will also engage in small groups to explore how the same elements of success could be applied to other kinds of city policies and processes. We will also explore how we can measure trust and transformative impacts to keep doing what works best for the people we serve.

Speakers: Elizabeth Crowe, Markisha Key-Hagan