A decade ago, youth arrests for violent offenses in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood were alarmingly high, translating to one in every 100 teens being arrested in a single year.
In response, the Youth Violence Prevention Center–Denver embarked on an innovative intervention program aimed at reducing crime rates by fostering community connections and addressing at-risk youth.
The results have been significant, showcasing a 75 percent reduction in youth arrests for violence in the targeted areas.
“Seeing that 75% reduction … that drastic decrease was very wonderful,” said Beverly Kingston, the director of the prevention center and one of the key leaders of the initiative.
Despite the promising outcomes, this long-term study—which has been over a decade in the making—faces a significant threat as potential cuts loom over its funding.
Both the youth violence intervention and its accompanying research rely heavily on funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has been targeted for defunding and dismantling under the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts.
The research initiative is under the purview of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado Boulder, focusing on identifying effective interventions that lead to meaningful reductions in youth violence.
“This kind of research is rare, and I wish it wasn’t this way because it is so valuable to do work this way.
We’re working in partnerships with the community, so there’s this implementation part of it,” said Kingston.
The intervention effort studied two neighborhoods in Denver, starting with Montbello in 2012 and later expanding to northeast Park Hill in 2016.
The program ran until 2021 and aimed to bolster community cohesion through initiatives like media campaigns and social development strategies.
“Being bonded to your community, having those kinds of identification with place? That can be a protective factor,” noted Kingston, emphasizing the crucial role of community attachment in steering youth away from trouble.
Additionally, the study collaborated with local medical professionals to implement a standardized screening tool designed to identify youths most at risk for violent behavior.
“If kids score high, prior research shows that they’re at higher risk for violence one year later,” Kingston explained.
The philosophy behind the intervention is to offer support to these young individuals before they feel the urge to engage in violence.
The researchers employed data tracking across 76 other neighborhoods in Denver to measure the effectiveness of the intervention.
While arrests for youth offenses did decline across those neighborhoods during the study, the impact was minimal—fewer than 100 arrests.
In stark contrast, northeast Park Hill saw a remarkable reduction of more than 800 youth arrests, highlighting the program’s effectiveness in that community.
The CU Boulder violence prevention center was established in the wake of the Columbine High School shooting, catalyzing national efforts to investigate youth violence.
However, the precarious situation around funding remains a significant concern.
With proposed cuts to the CDC staring down the funding, layoffs are already affecting the workforce, and the Division of Violence Prevention has experienced severe staffing reductions according to Kingston.
“The whole infrastructure, the staff that worked in partnership with us for years all lost their jobs,” she lamented.
Currently, the center operates on a five-year grant from the CDC, with the final year’s $1.2 million funding set to conclude by September 30.
However, uncertainty looms over whether this funding will actually materialize.
“We’re told that the funds are not going to be released, but it’s not been official,” Kingston said, adding that there’s apprehension about future grant availability.
Kingston emphasized the importance of the last year of the study, which is crucial for quantifying and finalizing the research findings gathered over the years.
“To demonstrate that impact, the final year is all about evaluation and being able to then collect the data, analyze the data, and then disseminate the findings,” she explained.
Without this funding, the potential for transformative insights and strategies to prevent youth violence could be lost.
As the effects of the Trump administration’s budget proposals continue to unfold, the fate of the Youth Violence Prevention Center and its innovative research remains in jeopardy, raising concerns about the future of community-based violence prevention efforts in Denver and beyond.
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