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How can Colorado address its escalating youth violence crisis?

Ask Colorado youth.

That鈥檚 the idea behind a thriving CU Boulder-supported initiative which has brought together nearly three-dozen Denver-area youth, ages 14 to 25, to help get at the root of the violence they鈥檙e witnessing in their schools and communities and take concrete steps to combat it.

鈥淎 lot of times people say they have answers, but then nothing really happens,鈥� said 19-year-old Kaliah Yizar, a recent graduate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College in East Denver and member of the Game Changers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important that the solutions come directly from those who are experiencing violence,听because not only are they experts, they鈥檙e the ones who have to witness it.鈥�

The group, which will host a series of events for this week鈥檚 Youth Violence Prevention Week, was formed in 2023 by the -Denver (YVPC-Denver), an outgrowth of CU鈥檚听.听YVPC-Denver is one of only five such centers nationwide, expressly funded by the Centers for Disease Control to confront what the agency calls a 鈥渟erious public health problem.鈥澨�

For years, CU scholars have been studying community-based youth violence solutions and supporting coalitions with Denver neighborhoods, including Montbello and Park Hill, to put prevention strategies in place.

With their latest five-year $6 million CDC grant, it鈥檚 time get more youth involved.

鈥淲e鈥檙e taking the science about what works, getting it into the hands of the youth and then having them put their spin on it so it resonates with their peers,鈥� said Dave Bechhoefer, project director for YVPC. 鈥淭hey are fantastic. They have an endless appetite to do more.鈥�

Getting at the root cause

Each day, according to the CDC, 13 youth die from homicide and more than 1,300 are treated in emergency departments.

In Denver, murders perpetrated by juveniles have risen 210% since 2010, while aggravated assault is up 17% and robbery is up 12%.

These numbers, youth violence experts say, are only the tip of the iceberg.

Bechhoefer stresses that youth have not somehow become inherently more violent.听

鈥淏ut they now have easier access to guns so everything is amplified, and COVID and all the mental health issues around that didn鈥檛 help,鈥� he said. 鈥淎 lot of our educational systems and juvenile justice systems have also failed them.鈥澨�

Social media has played a role, too, with online feuds sometimes bleeding into real life.

鈥淏ack in the day, you didn鈥檛 have as much access to stuff happening across the world or in another state,鈥� says Game Changer Keshon Nunn, a senior at Emily Griffith Opportunity School who has lost childhood friends to youth violence.

Some kids get in trouble when they lose hope.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e 14 years old and you don鈥檛 see yourself graduating high school, you don鈥檛 have a lot of hope for your future, so you think 鈥榃hat is the first thing I can do that can make me feel something,鈥欌�� says Yizar. 鈥淭hey might find that connection in gangs or drugs.鈥�

Putting words into action

The Game Changers meet weekly, devising ways to re-ignite that hope.

They鈥檝e hosted block parties and poetry slams where they鈥檝e taken the mic to open up about what they鈥檝e seen and share their vision of a better future. Some have created around the Black history often missing from K-12 school curriculum.

Others have developed public service announcements around youth homelessness and hunger or crafted social media campaigns. This听summer, the group plans to unveil a new app that will help connect kids in trouble with peers and supportive adults who can help.

On Thursday, they鈥檒l host a screening of a documentary film they helped make, about the suicide of a Denver youth many of them knew. Afterward, they鈥檒l host a panel discussion around mental health in the Black community. On Saturday, they鈥檒l host a conference.

Ultimately, many Game Changers say, the key to addressing youth violence is to listen to youth while also holding adults and institutions accountable for breaking the cycle. That includes keeping guns locked away, supporting mental health throughout the life cycle and providing positive role models for kids when it matters most.

Yizar, now a first-year-student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., pursuing her dream of becoming a civil rights lawyer, hopes to be one of those role models.

鈥淢y goal is to come back to my community some day and offer my services and continue to work with the Game Changers however I can,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 wait to see what they do next.鈥�