Community Organizing for Prevention | Injury & Violence Prevention Center

Overview

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.

Vision

A future where people and communities across Colorado are healthy and thriving.

Mission

We conduct evaluation and build local capacity to advance equitable systems changes and primary prevention efforts so that people and communities across Colorado can be healthy and thriving.

Values

Community Collaboration

We work as partners and collaborators with communities across Colorado to amplify and celebrate local strengths, skills, and expertise.

Equity and Anti-Racism

To build healthy and thriving communities, systemic inequities and injustices must be addressed. We are committed to combating systems of oppression, including white supremacy culture, to advance equity in our evaluation and prevention science efforts.

Whole-Person Approach

We take a whole-person approach to our lives. We honor that our roles at work are not the only ones that we hold. We encourage holistic wellbeing in the personal and professional realms, and we strive to work from a place of rest to bring our best to this work. Focusing on the whole person includes having trust, empathy, and understanding.

Equitable Evaluation

We strive to make our evaluations rigorous, relevant, and equitable. We aim to provide actionable, meaningful, and accessible data and evaluation support to help communities complete the puzzle when it comes to building strengths and finding solutions.