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Youth Impact & Learning Brief

November 21, 2023

Caring for Denver Foundation's Youth funding is focused on youth-informed and youth-led mental health, trauma, and/or substance misuse supports, which increase youth's (ages 0-26) ability to manage life stresses and pressures. It also provides support for families and allies of youth to better support youth in their healing. This brief summarizes the impact Caring for Denver's Youth grantees made from April 2022 to March 2023.

Caring for Denver Foundation Care Provision Learning Brief

November 16, 2022

We funded 22 organizations within our Care Provision funding area, to help Denveritesget mental health and substance misuse care that is easier to access, more equitable,higher quality, and better coordinated over time.This brief summarizes grantee insights from end-of-year reporting, providing a snapshotof key themes across experiences and expertise. We use these insights and othercommunity feedback to drive our decision-making and grantmaking priorities. 

Jointly Prioritizing Time for Social and Emotional Learning in Denver: One of Six Case Studies of Schools and Out-of-School-Time Program Partners

September 15, 2022

This case study is one of a series detailing how schools and out-of-school-time (OST) programs in six communities have collaborated to build students' social and emotional skills. The communities are participants in Wallace's Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative, which has brought together school districts and their OST partners to develop and implement mutually reinforcing social and emotional learning (SEL) activities and instruction across learning settings.The piece features the work of Cowell Elementary School in Denver and its afterschool partner, the Discovery Link program, which is located in the school. The school and program aimed to prioritize time for SEL by making social-emotional instruction and rituals part of the daily routine. The two accomplished this by investing in joint planning, collaboration, and professional development about SEL; dedicating time for SEL in each of their respective schedules, activities, and events; and sharing a social-emotional learning curriculum and rituals.This case study showed that by jointly prioritizing social and emotional learning: Explicit SEL instruction became more frequent. Staff members from both the school and OST program became part of the decision-making about SEL implementation. School and OST program staff members developed common goals and terminology about SEL.

Strengthening Students’ Social and Emotional Skills: Lessons from Six Case Studies of Schools and Their Out-of-School-Time Program Partners

September 15, 2022

This report presents cross-cutting lessons from a set of case studies detailing how schools and out-of-school-time (OST) programs in six communities have worked together to build students' social and emotional (SEL) skills. The communities are participants in a Wallace initiative that has supported elementary schools and their OST partners in incorporating SEL activities and instruction into both the school and OST parts of the day.For five of the case studies, researchers selected a partnership in each community that has done an exemplary job of addressing one of a series of challenges widely shared by participants in the initiative. In one of the cases, the partnership between the school and its OST programs was in an early stage of development, so the researchers focused on what took place during the school day.The case studies explore:developing a brand-new school-OST partnership focusing on SEL (Boston),developing an effective SEL committee that includes a school and OST partner (Dallas),finding and jointly prioritizing time for SEL in the school and afterschool schedules (Denver),engaging teachers, staff members and parents in SEL (Palm Beach County, Fla.),incorporating equity into SEL (Tacoma), andfocusing on adult SEL first (Tulsa). The report summarizes the case studies and discusses nine factors that facilitated progress in carrying out SEL programs and practices, each of which was common to at least two of the cases:Committed school/OST program leaders were the foundation on which SEL work was built.SEL committees guided and supported implementation.Prioritizing time for SEL in school and OST schedules was important to making implementation routine.Starting the efforts by building adults' social and emotional skills proved central.Short SEL rituals were often the first and most widely adopted strategy, setting the stage for more extended SEL instruction.Establishing trusting relationships enhanced the collaboration on SEL in school-OST program partnerships.Formal, written SEL resources facilitated a consistent approach within and across settings.Distributing "ownership" of SEL across staff members and students increased people's buy-in to the effort and its sustainability.Experience with SEL before the pandemic helped schools and OST programs adapt to COVID-19 disruptions.

Caring for Denver Foundation Youth Learning Brief

March 16, 2022

In April 2021, we funded 51 organizations working with young people ages 0-26 to provide innovative mental health, trauma, and substance misuse supports. These supports are intended to increase youth's resilience to life stresses and pressures, address mental health and substance misuse early, and provide supports for families and allies of youth to better support youth in their healing. The information below is a summary of insights collected from these organizations as part of their mid-year learning conversations with us.

Caring for Denver Foundation 2021 Annual Report

March 2, 2022

Caring for Denver was created by City ordinance to fund the following purposes:Mental health services and treatment for children and adultsOpioid and substance misuse prevention, treatment, and recovery programsHousing and case management services to reduce homelessness, improve longterm recovery, and reduce the costly use of jails and emergency rooms for those with mental health and substance misuse needsSuicide prevention programsCo-responder and alternative response program funding, and training on how to properly assess and handle people with mental health and/or substance misuse needsThese purposes are addressed through four community-identified, Board-approved funding priorities: Alternatives to Jail, Care Provision, Community-Centered Solutions, and Youth.

Caring for Denver Foundation Community-Centered Solution Learning Brief

October 13, 2021

In November 2020, we established partnerships with 26 organizations to deliver community-based programs that support improved mental health and reduced substance misuse for Denver residents. These programs are working to improve access to care, ensuring people have resources to support wellness in the places and spaces that make sense for their daily lives. They are also helping to improve the quality of care available by offering interventions that are imagined, created, and delivered by communities themselves. Through these programs, we hope to support increased engagement in wellness activities, increased community connections that reduce isolation and stigma, and improved mental health and substance misuse outcomes for those reached.

Alternative Dispatch Programs: A Strategy for Improving Emergency Responses and Reducing Police Violence

June 4, 2021

Approximately 240 million calls are made to 911 every year in the United States. Only a small fraction of these calls are for serious or violent crimes. Even in communities with high homicide rates such as Baltimore, Camden, New Haven, and New Orleans, fewer than 4 percent of 911 calls are related to violent crimes. Instead, the majority of these calls are related to incidents of disorderly conduct, noise complaints, suspicious people or cars, mental health issues, substance use, and homelessness.Programs that deploy public health professionals and crisis workers to situations involving mental health, substance use, and homelessness—referred to as alternative dispatch programs—offer an emerging solution that can save lives and provide critical services to those in need. Alternative dispatch programs utilize first responders who are specifically trained to resolve the emergencies that most commonly arise in communities with methods that address root problems and minimize the risk of force or deeper involvement with the justice system. These programs provide communities with a critical means for addressing crises, while also freeing police to focus on preventing and solving serious crimes.

Caring for Denver Foundation Alternatives to Jail Learning Brief

April 14, 2021

In July 2020, we established partnerships with 23 organizations to deliver programs that support alternatives to jail as a way to address the substance misuse and mental health needs of those currently or formally involved in Denver's criminal justice system or at risk of justice system involvement. These programs and projects are helping to support the community's request to (1) reduce entry, (2) reduce recidivism, and (3) increase post-release supports in community for persons experiencing mental health and/or substance misuse issues.This document is a high-level summary of key reflections from grantees, who participate in learning calls every six months to share their progress and provide feedback to us about the field.

Caring for Denver Foundation 2020 Annual Report

April 13, 2021

Caring for Denver was created by City ordinance to fund the following purposes:Mental health services and treatment for children and adultsOpioid and substance misuse prevention, treatment, and recovery programsHousing and case management services to reduce homelessness, improve longterm recovery, and reduce the costly use of jails and emergency rooms for those with mental health and substance misuse needsSuicide prevention programsCo-responder and alternative response program funding, and training on how to properly assess and handle people with mental health and/or substance misuse needsThese purposes are addressed through four community-identified, Board-approved funding priorities: Alternatives to Jail, Care Provision, Community-Centered Solutions, and Youth.

Food Over Fear: Overcoming Barriers to Connect Latinx Immigrant Families to Federal Nutrition and Food Programs

December 1, 2020

This report sheds light on why many immigrant families are forgoing vital assistance from federal nutrition and food programs and lifts up recommendations aimed at ensuring that all families and individuals, regardless of immigration status, are nourished and healthy.While the findings of this report are informed by a series of focus groups conducted from November 2019 to January 2020 (prior to the onset of COVID-19), the need to connect immigrant families to nutrition programs is arguably of even greater importance given how COVID-19 is fueling unprecedented food insecurity and ravaging communities of color and immigrant communities at disproportionately high rates due to unique barriers faced by families that include noncitizens.

Cross-Community Evaluation Findings 2019: for the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative

July 1, 2020

Four years into this collective effort to aggregate and analyze data of communities in the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, we are beginning to yield some findings that are consistent year-over-year—and actionable. This report presents the findings of evaluation work completed during the 2018–2019 program year and homes in on those findings most ripe for appreciation and action.There is a strong correlation between teens' connection to Jewish values and and the influence those values have on the livesteens choose to lead. Substantive Jewish content creates a sense of belonging, a desire to do good in the world, and a platformfor teens to build friendships—these peer relationships also contribute to strong Jewish outcomes overall. Importantly, the report concludes with recommendations applicable beyond the 10 community-based teen initiatives, informing any organization committed to effective teen programs, professional development for youth professionals, and affordability of programs for parents.The report draws from a variety of sources to offer a snapshot of a moment in time, and evaluation alone cannot provide the full picture of tectonic shifts occurring on the ground in these 10 communities. Extremely complex efforts involving stakeholders, implementers, and the communities are making lasting and positive changes to the culture impacting teen engagement.We encourage you to read the complementary case studies documenting the work, along with previous reports, all found onthe Learnings page of TeenFunderCollaborative.com.