At the Nov. 6 meeting board staff reviewed the pool of 54 full applications and presented the cumulative top nine applicants, whose requests total about $801,988 — roughly 40% of the allocation the board set aside for top-scoring projects.

"The total funding for these top 9 scored applicants is 801,988," Crystal (board staff) said when presenting the top list. The board agreed to advance the nine listed organizations to the first funding tranche and then to use the 40/40/20 split to guide the remainder of awards: 40% to the top scorers, another 40% allocated across defined opportunity areas (for example, Northwest, Central Southwest, foster-youth, justice-involved and trans/non-binary youth), and 20% reserved for board- or partner-nominated discussions.

Board members then worked through opportunity-area deliberations. In the Northwest category the board favored advancing the Yampa Valley Autism Program (proposal included hiring an outdoor recreation therapist and access-oriented services for neurodivergent youth), contingent on applicants providing required contracting documents. In Central Southwest, reviewers favored Delta County's Nature Connection program (school-district partner model) and a Montrose-area recreation applicant that focuses on improved access in a largely rural region. For the foster-youth opportunity area the board moved forward Kids at Heart together with Matthews House (a top scorer). For the trans and non-binary youth area, members discussed Boulder Pride and Inside Out Youth Services; the pediatric-camp model and pre-camp staged programming drew praise for cultural responsiveness.

Board staff emphasized process details: each board member may nominate two applicants for the final discretionary round; partner agencies have the same nomination privilege; timekeeping will limit opportunity-area deliberations to keep the agenda moving; any final awards will be contingent on standard contracting documentation and legal review.

What happens next: staff will collect any missing documentation (W-9s and fiscal data), circulate the list of advanced candidates, and reconvene the board for final decisions. Members also will submit two applicants each for deeper discussion in the final discretionary round if they wish.