Framing & Talking Points

We call institutions like the post office, schools, roads, and libraries public goods. These public goods are shared in common by all members of the community and are the things that “care” for them all, allowing for fulfillment in life, increasing opportunity, and creating freedom to live as you want. 

The BVHC is a long-time pillar of public life in the Front Range, boasting a 50-year history working for the common good in Boulder County. The care provided should be regarded alongside other welfare-oriented resources like Boulder public schools, the Boulder Public Library, the post office. Life is better for everyone in Boulder County, because of the services BVHC provides.  

Here’s examples of how you’d use this frame as a talking point:

• At Boulder Valley Health Clinic there aren’t any gatekeepers to high high-quality health care. This is a public resource, one everyone can benefit from. 

• Boulder County’s best public health care is at Boulder Valley Health Clinic. It doesn’t matter what service you need or how much you can pay. You’ll never get turned away and you’ll always get the best care and attention. 

• We don’t just provide some of the best public health care in the area, but also public education and events around sexual and reproductive health. We care for every part of your wellbeing and the wellness of our community. 

• The care and service BVHC provides sustains everyone in Boulder County—regardless of who they are or how much money they make. That’s what public goods do for us.  It’s vitally important to future generations of people living in the Front Range, and even across the country, that BVHC remains a part of the public’s daily life here.  

• Our care focuses on the WHOLE person. While most healthcare facilities treat patients like a collection of parts or symptoms, we prioritize your total wellbeing, from your relationships to your emotional state and beyond. 

• We are setting a new standard for reproductive and sexual health care, rooted in both deep compassion AND technical excellence. 

Here’s how you might use this frame at a community event or talking to everyday people:

• “BVHC is yours, it’s mine, it’s ours! No matter who you are or what you’re coming in for, you’ve got a home at BVHC. It’s a part of the fabric of Boulder, just like Chautauqua, the library or the rec centers.  And the care and service you get here? It’s the best.”

Here’s some additional “Keywords” to help fill out the public good frame: fair/ness, public resources, public service, peoples’ resource, health, common goods, social goods, services, help, need, all, benefits, together, legacy, ownership, care, essential, excellence, quality, best, top-tier, service, care, ours, welfare ce, care, ours, welfare

When people are under threat or have a dire need, the responsible reaction is demonstrating compassion. BVHC does this by taking empathetic action to protect and secure those peoples’ right to great healthcare.  Make no mistake that Boulder Valley Health Clinic, in addition to being a public resource, it’s also a local political institution; but through its care, education and outreach, and advocacy, it demonstrates responsibility for people in (or coming to) Boulder County in a direct, “everyday” way. In this gut-level way, BVHC is a safeguard for people whose civil and individual rights are under threat, and its reply to these sorts of threats are with a nurturing, compassionate, and practical responsibility. 

Here’s the responsible frame, as a talking point:

• The work BVHC does allows you to make the right choices for yourself. With the care and support you receive from our staff, you can take your life in the direction you want. 

• You’ve probably felt it yourself. There’s an escalating need in Colorado, and throughout the country, for affordable healthcare. At Boulder Valley Health Clinic, we’ve shown that we are responsible for helping people like you achieve some measure of healthcare security. 

• Politics, cost of living, the job market—when these things threaten to influence your life,  local institution Boulder Valley Health Clinic is on the spot, ready to protect you and bring stability to your life. 

• Ours is a whole-person approach where we attend not only to people’s physical health, but also the well-being of their mind, their community and their relationships.

• The clinic plays an important role in our civic life, and is responsible for protecting the individual liberties of many people in the Front Range and even from all around the country. 

• Boulder Valley Health Clinic is a part of the safety net which catches all kinds of people. They are responsible for securing the rights and health of people from all over who wouldn’t have an opportunity for care otherwise. 

• Our commitment to our patients’ individuality has always been the cornerstone of our clinic, where people of all backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations receive exceptional care, tailored to their specific needs. 

• Without our comprehensive services, many would be deprived of essential healthcare

Here’s how you might use the responsibility frame when talking to everyday people:

• “Bottom line, Boulder Valley Health Clinic is here to protect peoples’ right to be in charge of their own health care. That’s called responsibility. We’re going to keep being responsible for keeping choices about your body and what you wanna do with it free and fair, even when our back’s against the wall and all the others let you down.” 

Here’s some additional “Keywords” to help expand the responsibility frame: Protect/protection, fulfill, security, fairness, equality, secure, opportunity, safety, freedom, stable/stability, individual/individuality, liberty, rights, choice/s, compassion, civil, civic 

This may be the most potent frame for BVHC: simply put, communities are necessary if we want to live a healthy, fulfilling life. If you need proof, look no further than our recent past: during the pandemic, there were skyrocketing incidents of depression, substance abuse, and suicide because the communities we lived and thrived within, were taken from us (remember how that felt?). In a community, each of us become stronger—in body, in our minds and spirits, and in our individual civil rights— when we’re together. And when members of a healthy, functioning community share resources, know-how, and power, these things benefit one another and enlarge our neighborhoods and cities and towns in concrete and qualitative ways.  

Here are examples of the community frame as a talking point:

• Boulder Valley Health Clinic is a place where people from nearly every background and with almost every healthcare need can find a community that will help them grow and thrive. 

• How much you make or where you’re from isn’t as important in this community as making sure you’re healthy, and that your individual decisions are respected. Boulder Valley Health Clinic is here for you, no matter who you are. 

• Patients and staff come together at BVHC to create a community. And because BVHC is a community, we’re an antidote to the isolation and confusion so many of us feel in this healthcare system we have to deal with.

• Boulder Valley Health Clinic is committed to smashing stigmas and fostering a community embracing sexual wellness as foundational to personal well-being.   

• Our work doesn’t just stop at the clinic’s doors—BVHC shows up to talk and listen to people about health care all over Boulder County.

• Our commitment to community is plain to see in the community events we attend, the Q&A’s we do with students, and the overall presence we have in all the many places others don't make an effort to show up.

• A healthy community is a diverse community. BVHC both celebrates and nourishes their patients’ individual needs. 

• By embracing sexual wellness as foundational to personal health, our community is one in which every individual can unlock their fullest expression and vitality. 

• We aim for this community to be a safe haven, where you can be vulnerable, where you can learn, and together we can make the best choices for your individual life.  

• Our work doesn’t just stop at the clinic’s doors—BVHC shows up to talk and listen to people about health care all over Boulder County. The clinic’s commitment to community is plain to see in the community events we attend, the Q&A’s we do with students, and the overall presence we have in all the many places other health care providers normally wouldn’t make an effort to be present in. 

Here’s some ways you can use the community frame when you’re out talking to everyday people:

• “BVHC’s community is shame-free. Everyone’s on equal-footing here.”

• We’re interested in YOU. We want to know your questions about your health. —that’s our bread and butter in this community. When I see you, I see a person, not just my three-o-clock appointment.”

• “Diversity’s queen at BVHC. That’s because at BVHC we know we’re all individuals, with individual health needs.”

This is a list of “Keywords” that can expand the community frame: health/healthy, diversity, fulfillment/fulfilled, fairness, freedom, equality/equal-footing, share/sharing, individuality, together, our/s