CFCU volunteers ( Alana Smart, Susan Oakes, Jerry Paul and Joan Bradt ) helped celebrate the first graduating class of Denver’s Handgun Intervention Program at the Lindsey Flanigan Justice Center on Jan. 9.

Denver’s Handgun Intervention Program (HIP) is a comprehensive services alternative to incarceration for youth convicted of first time firearm offenses.  It was uplifting for CFCU volunteers to see six youth complete their parole; clear their records; and move forward on a new path.

Following extensive research on youth gun violence prevention, CFCU’s Public Health Strategies Team identified HIP as a program where we could provide support. Since August of 2021, CFCU members from six congregations have volunteered on the program’s Community Accountability Boards (CAB).  Since this is a founding effort, volunteers have also been providing constructive suggestions to strengthen the program and help provide meals at CAB meetings.

HIP is now beginning its 5th cohort and looking for additional volunteers.  The Handgun Intervention Program gives non-violent juvenile offenders the opportunity to attend a six-week educational program as part of six months’ probation. If they successfully complete both, their record is expunged. The program is open only to select juveniles whose gun offenses were non-violent in nature. A key component of the program involves community members who attend four of the six two-hour meetings. They work with the youths to devise a plan to move in a healthier direction and to present that plan to the judge.

Here's the schedule for the next session:

• Training on Implicit Bias by Judge Karen Steinhauser - Monday August 22, 2022 @ 5:30PM First Mennonite Church, a CFCU member (430 West 9th Ave. Denver 80204)

• First Meeting with assigned youth - Monday September 12, 2022 @ 5PM First Mennonite

If you enjoy working with youth and a wide range of community volunteers and want to help reduce the number of guns on the street, contact alanaks@aol.com to learn more about HIP.

Hats off to CFCU Members Who’ve Volunteered for HIP so far

Joan Bradt – Columbine Universalist Unitarian

Marcia Lambe – First Universalist

Nancy Litwack Strong – Temple Micah

Susan Oakes - First Plymouth

Jan and Jerry Paul – Montview Presbyterian

Alana Smart and Howard Tishler – B’nai Havurah