Youth Violence Prevention

An average of 700 young people less than 25 years of age are directly affected by gun violence in Denver annually. There are 13 deaths, 69 emergency visits & hospitalizations, and 616 victims of gun-related crimes annually.

In Colorado, annual homicide filings for juveniles have more than quintupled in the last 20 years, going from 13 in 2001 to 67 in 2021. Though annual homicides fluctuated between 2002 and 2015 — ranging from 15 to 44 each year — they’ve increased steadily over the last six years. Since 2016, every year but 2020 has set a new record for the most juvenile homicide filings in the last two decades

• Mental health has been identified as a public health issue across the nation.
• Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10-24.
• More than 90% of those who die by suicide had one or
  more mental disorders.
• Fifty percent of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by the age of 14 and 75% by the age of 24.