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Caring for Denver Foundation Invests More Than $14 Million to Expand Care Over Incarceration Programs Across Denver

News Release

[July 27, 2026 – Denver, Colo.]: Caring for Denver Foundation is proud to invest more than $14 million in 18 organizations working to expand mental health and substance misuse care that helps prevent unnecessary involvement in the criminal legal system and supports long-term recovery for Denver residents.

These investments prioritize timely, person-centered care for individuals experiencing mental health and substance misuse challenges, ensuring they can access treatment, peer support, recovery services, and other behavioral health resources in their communities rather than cycling through incarceration. The funded programs strengthen alternatives that address the root causes of justice involvement while helping people build stability, improve well-being, and remain connected to their families and communities.

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, Care Over Incarceration, formerly known as Alternatives to Jail. The updated name reflects the Foundation’s commitment to supporting community-based behavioral health care that reduces reliance on incarceration by expanding access to treatment, recovery, crisis response, and long-term supports.

“Everyone deserves access to care that meets them where they are,” said Lorez Meinhold, Caring for Denver’s Executive Director. “These organizations are expanding trusted, community-based services that improve mental health, support recovery, and create pathways to stability while reducing unnecessary involvement in the criminal legal system.”

These grants support Denver residents who face some of the greatest barriers to behavioral health care, including individuals experiencing mental health challenges, substance misuse, housing instability, trauma, and reentry following incarceration. By strengthening community-based care, these investments help ensure more people receive the support they need before, during, and after times of crisis.

Care Over Incarceration

Caring for Denver Foundation approved 18 grants totaling more than $14.8 million to community-based nonprofit organizations and City and County of Denver agencies in the Care Over Incarceration priority area.

  • Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado  – to expand its partnership with Denver specialty courts to provide brain injury screenings, psychoeducation, specialized addiction counseling, and reentry support for brain injury survivors.
  • Breakthrough Alliance of Colorado – to provide a continuous pathway of mental health and substance use care from incarceration through reentry with in-facility programming and post-release peer support.
  • Brink Literacy Project – to deliver non-clinical mental health and recovery programming for justice-impacted youth and adults in Denver, providing storytelling-based cohorts across the justice continuum to build emotional regulation, reduce substance misuse, decrease stigma, and prevent justice involvement.
  • City and County of Denver – Department of Public Health & Environment – for the STAR Program, a person-centric, trauma-informed civilian response team dispatched by 9-1-1 that pairs a behavioral health clinician with a paramedic/EMT and includes post-crisis support for people in crisis related to mental health, substance use, homelessness, poverty, and other non-violent situations.
  • City and County of Denver – Denver Human Services – for FIRST, a father-centered behavioral health and re-entry support program for Denver fathers involved in, exiting, or at risk of involvement with the criminal legal system, connecting participants to care, recovery supports, and family stabilization.
  • City and County of Denver – District Attorney’s Office – to provide culturally competent services that repair the harm caused by crime to victims and the community, increase social competency skills of offenders, and help to reduce the likelihood of further involvement in the court system.
  • Fully Liberated Youth – to provide relationship-centered, trauma-informed care as an alternative to incarceration for Denver youth, improving mental health, reducing substance use, and increasing engagements in supports for long-term stability and wellbeing.
  • Hazelbrook Community Center – to operate a low-barrier recovery stabilization program that bridges the gap between crisis and long-term recovery through residential care, recovery coaching, and care management.
  • Life-Line Colorado – to provide court-ordered, peer-led mental health and substance misuse programming to Denver adults referred by Specialty Courts as an alternative to jail, supporting recovery, improving mental health, and diverting individuals from the criminal legal system.
  • Realness Project – to deliver trauma-informed, connection-based recovery and mental health programs for Denver residents in correctional and community corrections settings, building emotional regulation, accountability, safer re-entry, reduced recidivism, and stronger relationships with children and families.
  • The Don’t Look Back Center – to deliver trauma-informed mental health and substance use interventions for justice-involved Denver residents through peer-led support and addiction counseling to support sustained engagement in care, prevent incarceration, and reduce further involvement in the legal system.
  • The Road Called STRATE – to directly address the needs of the justice-involved population by screening for traumatic brain injuries, substance abuse, and mental health needs, as well as providing comprehensive counseling, re-entry support, and peer-to-peer support.
  • Third Way Center – for expanded therapy in this organization’s Lincoln Apartment Program, a semi-independent living facility for youth undergoing treatment as they resolve trauma, improve their mental and behavioral health, build life skills, avoid incarceration or recidivism, and achieve emancipation.
  • Turning Point of the City – to provide clinical and non-clinical mental health supports addressing substance misuse, family dynamics, and youth risk factors to complement current programming which offers intensive case management, educational support, and system advocacy to youth who are justice-impacted.
  • WellPower – to divert adults with severe mental illness and substance use needs from legal system involvement into an evidence-based, ACT-modeled outpatient team providing psychiatric care, community support, and intensive case management in partnership with the 2nd Judicial District.
  • Work Options – to expand access to mental wellness and substance misuse services for justice-impacted Denver residents pursuing culinary employment, trauma-informed mental health and substance misuse programming will be embedded into this organization’s workforce training to strengthen pathways to long-term stability.

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 Foundation has now awarded more than $256 million through 720 grants to 294 unique organizations since its inception.