In December 2024, questions were raised as to whether Caring for Denver has “delivered change to the mental and behavioral health needs” of Denverites and whether several organizations who received grants have the history or licenses to provide such care.

As leaders of two organizations that have received funding from Caring for Denver, we can vouch for both the urgent need for community funding and for the innovative approach Caring for Denver has taken.

Over five years, while we have benefitted from approximately $9 million in funds from Caring for Denver, that represents less than 5.5% of what the organization has granted over the past five years — $170 million to over 200 organizations in our community.

We can share the evidence that Caring for Denver dollars have, in fact, had impact and that the demand for mental health and substance misuse services has been and still is greater than our city has the capacity to deliver.

Denver Health utilized one grant in 2022 to create the Transforming Health by Reducing Inequities for the Vulnerable (THRIVE) program. THRIVE focuses on improving the quality and equity of evidence-based behavioral health services such as peer support, substance misuse treatment and mental health therapy, leading to decreases in self-harm, hospitalizations, emergency department visits, suicide and overdose deaths and arrests among Denverites — particularly at-risk youth, people experiencing homelessness and recently incarcerated individuals. In 2023, THRIVE helped 16,000 patients and decreased the outpatient waitlists for mental health care by 92%.

Another Denver Health program, Therapeutic Response and Urgent Stabilization Team (TRUST), works directly with DPS students. Through a Caring for Denver grant, we were able to provide therapy and psychiatric services to nearly 500 DPS students from 55 different schools who were experiencing mental health safety concerns.

This program reached deeper into the community of students of color than the traditional healthcare system—with nearly 78% of the students treated identified as BIPOC. In addition, we were able to substantially reduce wait times for school-based behavioral health services.

An additional example of what Caring for Denver is accomplishing can be seen at 5280 High School through a pioneering peer-based method to tackle addiction. 5280 offers a compassionate, integrated approach that addresses substance use, mental health and underlying trauma. Our track record of establishing and maintaining sobriety among youth is strong: 83% of students have 90+ days of sobriety, and students self-report maintaining an average of 62 sober peers and an increase in quality of life of 150% from the time of enrollment to the end of the academic calendar year.

At 5280, students are also assessed for measures of change in four areas of risk (internalizing psychiatric disorders, externalizing psychiatric disorders, substance disorders, and crime & violence) using the widely accepted GAIN-SS instrument. We have seen our model contribute to a majority of GAIN-SS scores that drop by half and that no longer fall within the high-risk range within six months of engagement.

These data demonstrate the accountability organizations like ours commit to in receiving Caring for Denver grants. Recently, some critics have questioned whether emerging organizations using innovative and nontraditional methods are worthy of funding. As leaders of nonprofit organizations and board members at Caring for Denver, we believe that there is no one solution or organizational model that fits the diversity of our clients.

Caring for Denver has sought to identify grass roots organizations that have the potential to grow provider capacity in Denver and fund them, in addition to larger, more-established organizations and to look at outcomes that are being made in serving a diverse set of needs. Learning from these organizations and measuring their outcomes helps us to expand services and evaluate alternate methods to treating these complex problems.

Donna Lynne is the CEO of Denver Health and the former Lt. Governor of Colorado. Keith Hayes is the director for recovery at 5280 High School, a DPS school that serves students who struggle with substance abuse, self-harm and other destructive behaviors. Both Donna and Keith are members of the Caring for Denver Foundation board of directors.