Mayor Mike Johnston
City and County of Denver
1437 Bannock St.
Denver, CO 80202

September 1, 2025

Dear Mayor Johnston,

As community organizations, service providers, faith leaders, advocates, and residents of Denver, we strongly request that you include $10 million in the 2026 City budget to establish a Community-Led Public Safety Grant Program that would strengthen and scale community-led efforts in violence prevention, intervention, victim support, and recidivism reduction.

Community members are often the first to recognize emerging challenges, and are trusted to respond with culturally relevant, relationship-driven approaches. These efforts are essential to any comprehensive public safety strategy, especially because most incidents of harm are never reported to law enforcement, and even when reported, most are not resolved through arrest.

Despite being underfunded and overburdened, community-based organizations continue to deliver safety through care, trust, and innovation. A robust community-led grant program would allow these efforts to be sustained, scaled, and better integrated into Denver’s public safety infrastructure.

This is an opportunity for Denver to lead boldly, by embracing a solution brought forward by the very communities most impacted by crime and a lack of public investment. It’s a tangible, actionable step toward building safer neighborhoods and stronger families citywide.

We know this approach works because we’ve seen it succeed.

The State of Colorado has already embraced the community-led grant model. State-funded programs like the WAGEES Reentry Grant Program, the Crime Prevention Grant Program, and the Community Crime Survivor Grant Program have proven the power of investing in community. These initiatives have demonstrated impact through trusted intermediaries, sustainable investment, and deep community engagement. They are rooted in equity, informed by lived experience, and proven to deliver results. That’s why the state continues to fund them. During your time at the Capitol, you supported the state’s shift toward these kinds of community-centered investments. Now is the time to bring this model home to Denver.

We can’t rely on philanthropy to fund what should be a core function of city government. Private donors can’t provide the scale or long-term commitment needed to meet the city’s safety challenges. And it’s not right for the City to refer residents to nonprofit services without resourcing the organizations providing that care.

Community is the missing piece in Denver’s public safety strategy. While the city funds some prevention and intervention-focused initiatives, they are typically run by city agencies, with little to no funding directed to community partners. What’s missing is sustained investment in the trusted relationships, cultural understanding, and on-the-ground experience that only community can bring.

Real public safety can’t be built without community at the table, and private philanthropy alone won’t get us there. Without meaningful public investment in community-led programs, Denver will continue to fall short of the safety every resident deserves. This situation is only going to be made worse by the deep cuts in federal funding, including the recent rescinding of a $2.7 million DOJ grant for youth violence prevention and intervention in Denver.

We urge your administration to:

• Allocate $10 million in the 2026 budget to support a community-led public safety grant program.

• Utilize an experienced nonprofit to serve as the third-party grant administrator, a model used in all three state grant programs mentioned above. This structure reduces the administrative burden of managing the grant program. It strengthens impact by providing grantees with ongoing capacity building, data collection, and fiscal oversight – features not integrated in City-managed grant programs.

• Sustain the investment over time to ensure meaningful, long-term impact, not just one-time pilot funding.

We are committed to building a Denver where every individual, regardless of race, income, or zip code, can live with dignity, opportunity, and safety. We urge your administration to partner with community and make this critical investment.

We understand this is a tough budget year, but safety can’t be on the chopping block. When resources are tight, it’s even more important to fund what works. Community-led prevention, intervention, healing, and recidivism reduction are not luxuries; they are the backbone of a modern public safety approach. The people of Denver are ready and willing to lead – it’s time the city invests in their leadership.

Sincerely,