For 9News, Denver’s local NBC affiliate, Kelly Reinke reports on a new community violence intervention program in the city of Aurora, just outside of Denver, called Standing Against Violence Every Day. Aurora Police Division Chief Mark Hildebrend told the news station that he supports the program because he “wants to help before someone pulls the trigger [but that] he can’t do it alone.” Joseph DeHerrera, who oversees the CVI effort, explained to the news station that outreach workers “identify the specific social groups of kids in the highest risk of [gun violence], [and] meet the teens and their families in person to offer … mental health resources, housing resources, food resources, or resources to help participate in school more…[because] ‘we don’t want them involved in the criminal justice system, and we want them to be productive members of society.’”
