Build Pagosa Inc

Supporting Career & Technical Education in Southern Colorado 

The gap between the educational offering available in rural Southwest Colorado and the urgent needs of the labor force is vast. In Archuleta County and beyond, the 501(c)3 Build Pagosa, Inc. (BP) is bridging that gap and creating economic opportunities across the region by providing the facilities, equipment, and instructional resources for evidence-informed Career & Technical Education (CTE). Through regional partnerships with education, industry, and community organizations, we invest in high-impact CTE programs and connect students from a wide socioeconomic spectrum with employers to create dignified, living-wage jobs. Our work amplifies the impact of community education partners including the CTE Pathways program at Pagosa Springs High School (PSHS), Stackable Credential programs offered by Colorado Community College Systems (CCCS), and summer apprenticeship and job placement programs, which we manage in partnership with the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC). 

Our Students and Context 

In a region that is rural and economically distressed (OEDIT), the over 500 CTE students that Build Pagosa has supported are diverse and representative. 25% are Hispanic, 21% Indigenous - Jicarilla Apache Nation and Southern Ute Indian Tribe – and 55% are female. Barriers to employment include minimal access to CTE programs, long waitlists in existing programs due to limited space for courses, limited technical job placement programs, geographic isolation, and limited broadband access. At any given time, more than 100 students from the Jicarilla Apache Nation travel to PSHS, rather than attending school in their home counties. 

As we expand our offering to include more collaboration with the CCCS, we are actively planning for the participating learners to grow to include adults and other community members.

How BP Amplifies Impact 

BP’s primary focus is on empowering existing secondary and tertiary education programs with the facilities, resources, staffing and coordination needed to be truly successful. The Colorado “Secondary Pathways” and “Colorado Career Cluster Model” are already being implemented in our region, but resources and space are a limiting factor. Investment in these pathways drives long-term impact by fostering partnerships with longstanding existing institutions. 

We are also investing in “Stackable Credentials”, which recent evidence from Colorado and Ohio demonstrate positive economic returns for low-income certificate earners (Daugherty, 2023, https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA2484-1). This cites the qualitative finding that “insufficient access to equipment and instructional resources” is a frequent barrier. This evidence supports our own ‘experiential evidence’ collected through stakeholder meetings we have facilitated in our region, and informs our objective of supporting CTE programs with additional space. 

The ‘Regional Workforce Center’ 

Using funds from a recently awarded grant, Build Pagosa has facilitated numerous stakeholder engagement meetings to align our efforts with the priorities of the communities for whom we work. These sessions, along with careful analysis of the constraints that limit program effectiveness, point to a clear need for a community space to host CTE programs. This demand is driven by educational partners including the Pagosa Springs High School and the Colorado Community College System, and also fills a key need that has been identified by partners at the CDC, the local hospital, and many other other community organizations. Pursuant to that assessment, we have hosted a Design Charette for early 2024 which was facilitated by the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University, and attended by over 50 regional community members from the city, county, education partners, industry partners, neighboring counties and many more. 

This project is ambitious and will be transformative for our region’s workforce. Working with local architects at Reynolds, Ash & Associates, we estimate that the project will require ~$4.5M to complete. The community support we’ve received so far has been remarkable. Through grant funding and donations, we have raised >$2.3M in support of this building. The Archuleta County School District has extended that support through an MOU which provides Build Pagosa with a 5 acre parcel of land adjacent to Pagosa Springs High School valued at >$1.2M. They have further committed to provide 75% of the funds needed to maintain the building (utilities, security, maintenance, etc).