The Injury & Violence Prevention Center was contracted by the Violence and Injury Prevention - Mental Health Promotion Branch at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to provide technical assistance in evaluation and to
conduct the statewide evaluation of Community Organizing for Prevention (COFP) from 2021-2026. The objectives of the statewide evaluation are to understand how the core components of COFP are being implemented and changing over time and to understand
what impact these changes have on risk and protective factors and long-term outcomes in communities in Colorado.
Community Organizing for Prevention (COFP) is a statewide initiative that takes an upstream, primary prevention approach to reducing substance misuse and violence among youth through a shared risk and protective factors approach rooted in deep equity
and systems change. From 2021-2026, 34 communities in Colorado are organizing for prevention, with representation in rural and urban areas, from the Eastern Plains across the Rocky Mountains to the Western Slope.
COFP builds on the Communities That Care (CTC) model, which was implemented in 46 Colorado communities between 2016-2021. In that initiative, communities made substantial progress building coalitions with strong operational capacity, grew youth and community
membership, collaborated across agencies and sectors, created community action plans, integrated equitable approaches into their efforts, and laid the foundation for successful systems change.