News Release
[March 26, 2026 – Denver, Colo.]: Caring for Denver Foundation is proud to invest more than $13.5 million in 40 youth-focused organizations working to increase access and strengthen the network of community organizations dedicated to improving mental health and substance misuse care for young people across Denver.
These investments prioritize trauma-informed care for youth facing significant barriers, such as violence, housing instability, and systemic inequities, while expanding access to culturally affirming, supportive community spaces. The goal is to provide proactive, personalized care that affirms Denver’s youth while uplifting the families and communities who support them.
Founded and funded by the people of Denver through a sales tax initiative, Caring for Denver continues to invest in solutions that address the City’s mental health and substance misuse needs.
These grants are included in one of the Foundation’s core funding areas, Youth, which prioritizes care, crisis reduction, and increasing youth’s ability to manage life stressors. It also supports families, caregivers, and allies to ensure youth are supported in their care and healing.
“There is a higher demand for services that are relevant and accessible to our Denver youth. These programs will increase connections for belonging and provide more care in trusted and safe spaces for our youth and caregivers to heal in,” said Lorez Meinhold, Caring for Denver’s executive director.
These grants are designed to serve youth who are disproportionately impacted by systemic barriers, such as youth impacted by trauma and violence, youth experiencing housing insecurity, youth of color, LGBTQ+ youth, girls and young woman, and other underserved communities. With this funding, more young people can access supports in safe, trusted spaces.
Youth
Caring for Denver Foundation approved 40 grants totaling more than $13.5 million to community-based nonprofit organizations and City and County of Denver agencies in the Youth priority area.
Ability Connection Colorado– Providing trauma-informed, developmentally responsive mental health and wellness support to Denver-based youth facing barriers related to disability, poverty, race, ethnicity, and family instability to increase resiliency and address trauma.
City and County of Denver – Mayor’s Office of Social Equity and Innovation – Offering peer support and evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy training to community-based organizations to expand long-term capacity for serving high risk youth in Denver.
City Year Denver– Bringing cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness techniques to students in small-group sessions by incorporating additional mental health practitioners.
Colorado Black Health Collaborative – Delivering school-based Tier 3 one-on-one sessions, Tier 2 groups, and family-focused supports to help Black and Brown youth heal from trauma, reduce substance misuse risk, and sustain mental well-being through coordinated care across home, school, and community.
Colorado LiftED Foundation – Expanding accessible, identity-affirming mental health care for Denver youth, including therapy during the school day to promote lasting growth through culturally responsive care.
Colorado Perinatal Mental Health Project – Providing a community-based, bilingual perinatal mental health intervention that serves as an immediate entry point into supportive care for mothers and birthers, including affinity spaces for Black and Latinx mothers, bridging the divide between mental health systems and community.
Colorado Youth for a Change– Placing young adult mental health navigators in Denver schools to build trusting relationships with youth, share life-saving resources, reduce mental health stigma, build protective factors, and ultimately improve youth mental health and long-term wellbeing.
Denver Center for 21st Century Learning (DC21) – Offering one-on-one therapeutic interventions, crises response, group psychoeducation, and caregiver-specific behavioral health programming to support and improve students’ behavioral health.
Denver Children’s Advocacy Center– Strengthening the Mental Health Treatment and Assessment Program by supporting and expanding crisis-focused clinical intervention and enhanced trauma screening. Close coordination with the organization’s rapid response team ensures immediate identification of children needing urgent treatment.
Developmental FX– Supporting the mental health of Denver youth by making direct care more accessible through training and mentoring educators, caregivers, and clinicians to recognize how complex developmental profiles may impact a child’s mental health and develop the skills to improve mental health outcomes.
DSST Public Schools Foundation– Supporting the Youth Building Legacy Now program, a student-driven Tier II mental health intervention that fosters safe spaces for students to build healthy relationships, develop and practice social-emotional skills, and cultivate confidence.
Excel Academy– Providing equitable access to mental health and substance misuse services for all students impacted by generational trauma, poverty, gang violence, housing issues, legal involvement, incarceration, discrimination, and other social problems.
Family Resilience Center at CSU Spur– Expanding trauma-informed assessments, evidence-based treatment, and outreach for Denver youth and families through low/no-cost care, strengthened partnerships, and reduced barriers in underserved communities.
Friends of Denver Housing Authority– Offering individual coaching and mental wellness workshops to support Youth Employment Academy participants in achieving personal growth, emotional well-being, and long-term success.
Friends of the Children-Colorado– Providing long-term, trauma-informed mentoring to support youth in Denver to develop social-emotional skills. Enrolled youth will build coping skills as their families improve access to resources and services, resulting in improved stability and whole-family wellbeing.
From the Heart Foundation– Addressing the profound mental health and trauma needs within BIPOC communities, embracing a holistic, community-based approach by actively engaging community stakeholders to create a culturally sensitive support network.
FullCircle program, Inc – Providing peer-based recovery support and navigation services for youth in recovery and their families. Programming includes weekly peer-led 12-step support sessions for adolescents, young adults, and parents/caregivers, and weekly sober events.
Holistic Life Foundation– Utilizing trauma-informed, culturally responsive school-day supports that reduce crisis, improve regulation, and connect Denver youth to care through embedded Mindful Moment rooms and one-on-one sessions.
Homies Unidos Denver– Continuing trauma-informed character development, healing circles, media arts, one-on-one mentoring and more. By centering healing and identity, the program strengthens youth’s mental health, builds resilience, and helps young people grow as leaders while offering positive alternatives to violence.
La Pinata del Aprendizaje – Continuing resource navigation, education, connection and direct support for this organization’s community; so that team members, parents and caregivers may learn together and practice techniques to maintain and improve their mental health and the social emotional health of children in their care.
Make A Chess Move– Expanding trauma-informed, youth-led mental health supports that reduce crises, build coping skills, and strengthen recovery for Denver youth.
Movimiento Poder– Expanding culturally rooted mental health supports for Latine immigrant youth and families in Southwest Denver, offering therapy, caregiver education, peer learning, and healing circles to reduce stigma, strengthen family bonds and communication, and build resilience.
Muslim Youth for Positive Impact– Offering culturally competent and trusted mental-health services to reduce stigma and create safe spaces that build dialogue, trust and connection among youth, families, leaders, and providers.
PlatteForum – Providing under-resourced, creative high school youth with mental health support including clinical therapy, youth support groups, mental health workshops, and experiential outings with therapists.
Rise Above Colorado – Supporting a youth-led collaboration between Rise Above Colorado and Denver Health promoting youth mental health supports through trained youth leaders that spread healthy coping strategies through identified under resourced populations that foster access to resources and connection.
Riseup Community School– Delivering an education that includes the substance misuse supports youth need in order to thrive.
Rocky Mountain Preparatory Schools – Reducing youth substance use and strengthening middle schoolers’ protective factors and decision-making skills to foster resilience and healthy choices through network-wide prevention and SBIRT intervention programming, while empowering parents through education.
Rooted303 – Hosting individualized peer and group peer support for Denver youth impacted by substance use disorder and are ready to reclaim and rebuild their lives, with a focus on Denver youth aging out of foster care.
Scholars Unlimited – Providing upstream, trauma-informed mental health supports through supervised psychology interns and a contracted psychologist, strengthening belonging, emotional regulation, and well-being for Denver youth.
Second Wind Fund, Inc. – Connecting at-risk Denver youth to culturally responsive, clinically appropriate therapists, ensuring timely, life-saving mental health care regardless of insurance or income.
Servicios de La Raza – Providing long-term, trauma-informed mentoring to support youth in Denver to develop social-emotional skills. Enrolled youth will build coping skills as their families improve access to resources and services, resulting in improved stability and whole-family wellbeing.
The ROCK Center– Bringing no-cost, trauma-informed mental wellness into schools and community spaces, teaching concrete coping skills through circles, mindfulness, and art in a consistent weekly rhythm. This model expands access for those who are traditionally not served by the mental wellness system.
The Spring Institute – Offering refugee and immigrant youth a coordinated system of support that connects them with relevant mental health care through culturally and linguistically responsive behavioral health case management.
The Village Institute – Implementing a culturally grounded mental health project supporting newcomer youth and families through peer-led wellness circles, leadership pathways, and wraparound CARE navigation – building resilience, belonging, and stability across generations.
Thriving Families – Increasing access for mental health services for underserved and underrepresented pregnant/postpartum women and teens in the Denver area in an inclusive, supportive, two-generation community where children, parents, and families flourish.
University of Colorado Foundation– Sustaining the Creative Journey program, which supports youth as partners, engages school social worker/youth teams in youth participatory action research as a group therapeutic intervention, and fosters healing and hopefulness by advocating for improvements in youth mental health within school contexts.
University of Denver – Making individualized, trauma-informed, evidence-based mental health services for youth and caregivers easily accessible in the community through a partnership between DU’s Mental Health & Wellness Collaborative and the Valverde neighborhood.
Warren Village – Continuing mental health interventions to strengthen single-parent families through a trauma-informed, culturally responsive two-generation approach to address the needs of resident children and young parents who have experienced housing instability and poverty.
Young People In Recovery – Implementing bilingual youth and young caregiver programming in Denver, providing school-based psychoeducation groups, caregiver cohorts, peer coaching, All Recovery Meetings, and wellness events to reduce harm, combat stigma, build coping skills, strengthen resilience, and increase access to support.
Youth on Record – Bolstering this organization’s existing integrated mental health strategy for youth participants by expanding access to licensed clinical service providers, enhancing one-on-one mental health supports provided by trained staff, and equipping youth advocates to provide peer support.
About Caring for Denver Foundation
Caring for Denver Foundation was founded and funded by the people of Denver with overwhelming voter support to address Denver’s mental health and substance misuse needs by growing community-informed solutions, dismantling stigma, and turning the community’s desire to help into action. Guided by community input, the organization has funded more than $242 million in the areas of alternatives to jail, community-centered solutions, youth, and special initiatives since it began.