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A ��ɫ��Ƶ-led initiative to reduce youth violence in hard-hit Denver neighborhoods was associated with a 75% decline in arrests for murder, assault, robbery and other youth crimes in recent years, .

“We now have concrete data to show that when communities come together and mobilize, we can prevent youth violence, even in urban settings with a very high burden,” said senior author Beverly Kingston, director of CU’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV).

The study, published in the American Journal of Criminal Justice, assesses the efficacy of the Youth Violence Prevention Center - Denver (YVPC-Denver), one of five established by the Centers for Disease Control after the 1999 Columbine High School shooting.

Documentary filmmaker Antoinette "Ajay" June films Game Changer Janaya Frilot in Denver.

The centers have remained one of the only long-term federally funded efforts to address what the agency has termed the “serious public health issue” of youth violence.

Homicide is the third leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 24 and the leading cause of death among Black youth, according to the CDC.

Now, p threaten to shutter the Denver center, housed at the CSPV, as early as next month.

“Thanks to this funding, we have been able to bring violence down in Denver while a lot of communities around the country have not,” said Dave Bechhoefer, project director for the YVPC-Denver. “To have it go away just when it is starting to get traction could have a huge impact.”

A ‘violence prevention infrastructure’

In 2011, YVPC-Denver began working with community organizations in Montbello and Park Hill to get at the root cause of youth violence plaguing the neighborhoods and come up with and implement solutions. They used a framework called Communities That Care, which hinges on two things: science-backed interventions and community involvement.

“It’s all about building a violence prevention infrastructure,” said Kingston. “Just like we have roads and bridges that we put money toward, we need to build an infrastructure that supports violence prevention throughout the life-course.”

Partner coordinator Troy Grimes, left, helps Game Changer Quavon Mosley with his new, donated tuxedo before a documentary screening.

In partnership with elementary schools, after-school programs, and faith and sports organizations, the program provided more than 3,000 youth ages 6 to 18 with training on how to handle anger and peacefully resolve conflict.��

The initiative also worked with pediatricians to develop screenings for kids and get them help if they seemed at high risk of committing violence and provided mini grants to local groups matching positive adult role models with teens.

Perhaps the most visible outgrowth of the program has been the Power of One campaign, a sweeping youth-led effort in which dozens of youth, known as the Game Changers, use social media, podcasts, neighborhood block parties and more to send a message that violence is not normal.

One group of Game Changers, known as VIBEE (Violence Intervention Building Education and Empowerment) produced a film “Breaking the Cycle: Stories of Strength and��Survival of Gun Violence,” which will screen in Denver this week and at ��ɫ��Ƶ this fall.

Others recently rolled out an app that connects youth with peers for help handling food insecurity, mental health issues or gang violence.

“Sometimes the people who are causing the violence are just youth having trouble at home and having a hard time getting the help they need,” said Game Changer Annecya Lawson, who joined the program after a friend was fatally shot her sophomore year in high school. “When these kids see somebody their age, who looks like them, doing stuff for the community, it can have a big impact. They’re more likely to think before they act.”

Crunching the numbers

For the study, ��ɫ��Ƶ researchers analyzed arrest data from the Denver Police Department for the five years prior (2012–16) and five years after (2017–21) Communities that Care was implemented in Park Hill.

They found that arrests fell 75%—from 1,086 per 100,000 people in 2016 to 276 per 100,000 in 2021.��

The Game Changers stand with community members at the Expressions of Hope Art Therapy event in Denver in April.

The authors acknowledge that other pandemic-related factors, gentrification or violence prevention efforts could have contributed some to the declines. But rigorous statistical analysis suggests that program is "the most plausible explanation for the sharp decrease."��

On average, across 74 Denver neighborhoods, youth arrests fell 18% between 2016 and 2021.��

Montbello, which had implemented Communities that Care several years before Park Hill, had already established lower violence rates and maintained them throughout the study period even as they climbed sharply elsewhere amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

This suggests the violence prevention infrastructure had lasting impacts.

“In the 15 years we have been working in these communities we have seen many times, anecdotally, what can happen when communities come together to prevent violence. But to be able to have the data behind it now is incredibly exciting,” said Kingston.

Kingston recently got word that the final year of funding for the center's current five-year grant cycle is at significant risk of being revoked. Loss of the $1.2 million would jeopardize the existence of the Game Changers and make it impossible for the YVPC – Denver to continue.

“Losing this funding would be devastating,” said Kingston. “Not just for Denver but for communities nationwide looking to replicate this success.”