The Alternatives to Jail funding area seeks to prevent people with substance misuse, mental health, and trauma needs from unnecessarily interacting with the criminal legal system.
Donor Name: Caring for Denver Foundation
State: Colorado
City: Denver
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/06/2026
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Alternatives to jail funding supports And to support those who are involved in the criminal legal system through their recovery by providing access to a wide range of mental health and substance misuse care to prevent re-entry.
Goals
Applicants must explain how their work will support at least one of the shared impact goals below, and, if possible, how they intend to measure their progress toward impact.
- Reduced substance misuse (including a maintained healthy relationship with substances)
- Improved or maintained positive mental health (including reduced harm to self and others)
- Increased equity in mental health and substance misuse outcomes.
Priorities
The Foundation will prioritize funding for projects and programs that address Denver’s mental health and substance misuse challenges in at least one of these areas:
- Inclusive Access: Helps people access mental health care and substance misuse support in ways that make sense for them, in places that feel comfortable, and at times that fit their schedules, so they are better able to participate, build skills, and apply what they have learned in their daily life.
- Attention to Fit: Ensure those providing mental health care and substance misuse support treat those seeking care and support with respect, help them feel connected and understood, primarily through offering culturally designed and matched care options. These projects also support the mental health and substance misuse needs of those providing support, so that they can be at their best as they support others.
- Care Over Time: Improve care transitions, making them easier to navigate and more seamless for people. The goal is to minimize the starts and stops in mental health and substance misuse care that often happen when needs change, prevent the trauma that comes when people must re-tell, or re-document their journeys, and increase stability.
Key Considerations
These considerations are based on additional feedback they have gathered through our learning activities specific to this funding area. Grant decisions will favor programs/projects that:
- Have demonstrated trust and experience working with those at risk of entering Denver jails and prisons, or those involved with or exiting Denver jails and prisons
- Support individuals in crisis (e.g. suicidality, overdose) with mental health and substance misuse stabilization and safety needs
- Provide intensive mental health and substance misuse care that supports individuals who have high needs, including severe and persistent mental illness, and are involved or at risk of involvement with the criminal legal system
- Strengthen transition support from the criminal legal system to community-based recovery resources including residential treatment and care beds
- Support solutions that utilize peer support specialists and value lived experience
- Adapt programming to respond to the unique behavioral health needs of the people being served.
Funding Information
The total amount available for all grant awards in this funding area is $15.1 million including a minimum of $5.3 million available to City and County of Denver agencies per our founding ordinance.
Eligibility Criteria
Projects and activities supported by Caring for Denver’s grantmaking must serve or support only residents of the City and County of Denver (“City”). Caring for Denver’s general definition of residency is derived from the State of Colorado Medical Services Board Rule 8.607.1(F) around Areas of Service. The following individuals will be considered City residents by Caring for Denver:
- An individual who physically resides or presents and intends to stay in Denver full time, without regard to their housing status, national origin, immigration, or citizenship status, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
- An individual under 18 years of age and has at least one parent/legal guardian who is a Denver resident (can also have an out-of-home placement as long as not in custody of another county’s Department of Human Services);
- An individual physically residing part-time in the City, under 21 years of age, and in the custody of Denver Human Services (“DHS”);
- A non-City resident who is placed in a mental health or substance abuse program while in the custody of the City and County of Denver’s legal system; or
- A non-City resident registered as a Denver Public Schools student participating in a DPS program/project funded by Caring for Denver Foundation.
For more information, visit Caring for Denver Foundation.
