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2018-06-01
Police Executive Research Forum;
The Denver Police Department (DPD), Denver Public Schools (DPS), and community organizations in the Denver area have built a collaborative approach to school safety and positive youth development designed to combat the school-toprison pipeline. Together, these organizations advocate a comprehensive approach to safety in which schools' disciplinary policies avoid removing students from the classroom, social service providers are substantively included in ongoing safety efforts, and students within the juvenile justice system are included in youth engagement efforts. The goals are to establish positive relationships between students, faculty, school staff members, and school resource officers; prioritize student wellbeing; and involve police only as a last resort following efforts to de-escalate conflict.Early indicators show that Denver's approach is working: In the last five years, rates of student suspension, expulsion, and referral to law enforcement have declined despite a 6 percent increase in total student enrollment over the same period. From the 2012–2013 school year to the 2014–2015 school year, district-wide in-school suspensions declined by 35 percent, out-of-school suspensions by 15 percent, expulsions by 32 percent, and referrals to law enforcement by 30 percent. What's more, the total number of behavioral incidents reported to DPS declined by 9 percent over the same period, indicating that the number of potential safety risks to students has decreased following changes in policy and practice.Viewing these efforts holistically, this report identifies a number of promising practices and lessons learned thatpractitioners, policymakers, and researchers may consider when engaging with students around the country
2019-09-01
Working Poor Families Project;
This policy brief reports on the first three years of an initiative to work directly with five WPFP state partners in AR, CO, GA, KY, and NC to enhance their state's commitment and ability to serve and support adults and children collectively as well as drive local programs to do so by reviewing the efforts of the five state partners. After first providing more background on Two-Generation efforts across the U.S. in recent years, this brief discusses: 1) the WPFP concept and approach to the initiative; 2) the work of the five state partners, including the state systems identified for this work and specific items identified for improvement within those systems as well as progress to date; and 3) lessons learned and observations of this work with a clear recognition of the challenges and complexities inherent in undertaking systems change work.
2009-01-30
Colorado Trust;
This publication highlights the Safe2Tell program, including the far-reaching impact of providing students in all Colorado schools an increased ability to both prevent and report violence by making anonymous calls to 1-877-542-SAFE. It also illustrates through stories and interviews the value of Safe2Tell among families and communities, necessary steps and resources to implement the program, and the hotline's long-term sustainability achieved through legislation.
2009-12-15
Colorado Trust;
A preview to the forthcoming report on an analysis of health care reform and the impact on Colorado's economy. The study is being conducted by Len Nichols, PhD, of the New America Foundation and Henry Sobanet on behalf of the University of Denver's Center for Colorado's Economic Future.
2009-12-15
Colorado Trust;
It is critical to support Colorado's leaders in health care, business and government to build a culture of safety, ensure safe and efficient transitions of care, and foster the creation of a Patient Safety Organization. This summary -- developed by the Colorado Patient Safety Leadership Task Force with support from The Colorado Trust -- provides a roadmap for patient safety activities in Colorado. The complete agenda, Weaving the Fabric of Patient Safety in Colorado, is available from the Colorado Patient Safety Coalition.
2010-02-01
Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest);
This report presents information on the clients and agencies in the state of Colorado. The information is drawn from a national study, Hunger in America 2010, conducted in 2009 for Feeding America (FA) (formerly America's Second Harvest), the nation's largest organization of emergency food providers. The national study is based on completed in-person interviews with more than 62,000 clients served by the FA national network, as well as on completed questionnaires from more than 37,000 FA agencies. The study summarized below focuses on emergency food providers and their clients who are supplied with food by food banks in the FA network.Key Findings:The FA system in Colorado provides emergency food for an estimated 539,800 different people annually.39% of the members of client households in Colorado are children under 18 years old (Table 5.3.2).43% of client households include at least one employed adult (Table 5.7.1). Among client households with children, 82% are food insecure and 34% are food insecure with very low food security (Table 6.1.1.1).47% of clients in Colorado report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel (Table 6.5.1).35% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care (Table 6.5.1). 24% of client households in Colorado report having at least one household member in poor health (Table 8.1.1) At the administration of this survey, 5 food banks or FROs affiliated with FA operated in Colorado. Of the agencies that were served by those organizations, 926 agencies that had their operation within the state responded to the agency survey. Of the responding agencies, 574 had at least one food pantry, soup kitchen, or shelter. 72% of pantries, 63% of kitchens, and 45% of shelters are run by faith-based agencies affiliated with churches, mosques, synagogues, and other religious organizations (Table 10.6.1). Among programs that existed in 2006, 80% of pantries, 87% of kitchens, and 65% of shelters in Colorado reported that there had been an increase since 2006 in the number of clients who come to their emergency food program sites (Table 10.8.1). Food banks are by far the single most important source of food for agencies with emergency food providers, accounting for 76% of the food distributed by pantries,53% of the food distributed by kitchens, and 44% of the food distributed by shelters (Table 13.1.1). As many as 92% of pantries, 87% of kitchens, and 86% of shelters in Colorado use volunteers (Table 13.2.1).
2010-02-18
Colorado Trust;
Trusted Hand is a new approach to enrolling traditionally hard-to-reach children in public health insurance programs. While the most common locations for enrollment assistance are state and local social service agencies and health clinics, many states are increasing their network to include a variety of community-based organizations that typically have not been involved in public health insurance. This Issue Brief, prepared by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver, details the advantages, as well as the challenges of this promising new strategy.
2010-10-14
Colorado Trust;
A new issue brief commissioned by The Colorado Trust, and authored by the two lead staff members of the Colorado's Blue Ribbon Commission on Healthcare Reform (the 208 Commission), Tracy L. Johnson, PhD, Health Policy Solutions and Sarah Schulte, MHSA, Schulte Consulting, shows that there is significant agreement between our state's recommendations and the new federal law.
2010-11-01
Colorado Trust;
Research shows that experiences in the earliest years of life affect lifelong health outcomes and that those early years are full of opportunities to strengthen healthy physical and mental development.1,2This issue brief offers policymakers an action checklist for developing state policies and practices that support the healthy mental development of young children, and provides examples of such policies and practices already in place in Colorado. As well, the brief lists federal funding available to bolster state and local efforts to improve children's healthy mental development.
2011-07-31
Colorado Trust;
The Colorado Trust launched its Early Childhood Council Health Integration grant strategy in 2008. Through this effort, the Early Childhood Councils developed strategies to better integrate health practitioners and health care services into their work, along with their already-established focus on early care and education, and family supports. The goal of this grant strategy was to support sustainable efforts by the Councils to change the way local resources were coordinated, reduce service duplication, increase access to health care services and contribute to improved health outcomes for children (ages 0-12 years) across the state. To realize this goal, The Colorado Trust provided the Councils with grant support and technical assistance to engage in the development of plans to achieve integrated childhood development systems in their communities. This case study discusses the successes, challenges and lessons learned from the Early Childhood Council Health Integration planning grant process. Using qualitative data collected through focus groups and key informant interviews, the report details how the planning process was structured, what worked and didn't work as the Councils developed their systems-building plans, and provides recommendations for funders to consider when conducting a systems-building planning process. Key themes include:Grantees learned about systems change and developed plans to achieve such change. The planning process provided Councils with the time, resources and guidance necessary to learn about and develop well-thought-out plans to build connections and develop the infrastructure to help support and sustain programs for children and families across multiple systems. Community-level data is essential in fostering collaboration and planning. Even as it was difficult to access key data for certain populations or geographic regions, many Councils were able to use local data as a tool to coalesce new partnerships and develop a shared vision for change. Integrating new partners into an established system requires planning. For many Councils, the planning process timeframe was essential in conducting outreach to local health partners, especially with regard to developing a shared vision and common language.Funders need to require and support systemic change. It was important that The Colorado Trust explicitly required grantees to engage in activities that supported effective implementation of high-quality programs and connections across systems as opposed to solely focusing the funding on individual programs. While this work was new to most of the Councils, they reported that having a funder willing to support systems-building was a welcome change that better enabled them to tackle a complex scope of work and to address unanticipated challenges.
2005-12-13
Colorado Trust;
Summarizes findings on the structure and services of the state's refugee resettlement program from document reviews, interviews, and focus group discussions. Makes recommendations for case management, employment, data, ethnic associations, and planning.
