Narratives are bigger than messages. They are the stories that make messages make sense.

Working with CIRC, SE2 developed a messaging framework around a simple idea: from many paths, one home.

Instead of beginning with immigration policy or responding to divisive rhetoric, the messaging begins with hope.

People come to Colorado wanting to put down roots, care for their families, and build a future. Those aspirations connect immigrant experiences to a much larger Colorado story, one shaped across generations by people searching for possibility and building communities together.

That framing allowed the campaign to move the conversation from “us and them” toward a shared identity: neighbors, coworkers, parents, business owners, and community leaders who all have a stake in the place they call home.

Communities Author Their Stories

Narrative change requires more than talking about people. Communities need the opportunity to shape and tell the stories that affect them.

That principle became central to The Colorado Story.

Rather than relying primarily on statistics to demonstrate immigrants’ contributions, the website introduces visitors to people whose experiences make larger issues tangible. Their stories include hope and opportunity, but they also reveal exploitation, instability, and the consequences of systems that don’t always live up to our shared values.

• Luis’ experience shows what happens when a worker’s hard work can be exploited because protections are out of reach.
• Sandra’s story demonstrates the human cost of spending decades contributing to a community while living without stability.
• Marge’s family history connects today’s conversation about belonging to an earlier chapter in which Japanese American families were forcibly incarcerated and stripped of their rights.

Each story stands on its own. Together, they reinforce a larger narrative about dignity, fairness, opportunity, and belonging.

Designing a Home for the Narrative

SE2 translated the messaging strategy into TheColoradoStory.org , creating a digital experience where the narrative could unfold through people, values, and stories rather than a conventional policy argument.
The site moves visitors from shared aspirations – we all want safety, dignity and the opportunity to build stable, joyful lives for our families – to individual experiences, then connects those experiences to broader themes:

• Economic fairness. When workers are treated fairly and have the opportunity to succeed, Colorado’s entire workforce and economy are stronger.
• Dignity and belonging. Everyone who calls Colorado home deserves to feel safe, valued, and respected.
• Collective strength. Colorado is stronger when people from different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences have the opportunity to contribute.

The Colorado Story website also gives the narrative room to travel beyond a single campaign. Visitors can share stories, attend or host screenings, and access messaging resources in English and Spanish.

Narratives rarely change because of one campaign, one website, or one perfectly crafted phrase. They change as people encounter consistent stories that reinforce a different way of understanding an issue.

That is what The Colorado Story was designed to support. The project gives CIRC and its partners a shared narrative and practical language they can return to again and again—one that acknowledges real barriers and injustice without allowing those barriers to define the people experiencing them.

Instead, the focus remains on what Coloradans share: our hopes for our families, our contributions to our communities, and our belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to build a good life.

Because immigration is part of the Colorado story, and from many paths, we can build one home.

Videos were produced in collaboration with Colorado-based video production company Degotelo Studios.