Attorney General Phil Weiser announces $12 million in grants to expand opioid prevention, treatment, recovery, and peer support statewide

July 6, 2026 (DENVER) – Attorney General Phil Weiser today announced $12 million in grants to 27 organizations across Colorado through the Department of Law’s Resilient Colorado Grant, investing opioid settlement funds in community-led solutions that prevent substance use, expand youth treatment and recovery, improve reentry support for people leaving prison, strengthen Colorado’s rural and underserved behavioral health and peer workforce, and support families across the state.

Since taking office, the attorney general has secured more than $912 million in opioid settlements from manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and other companies for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic. Today’s awards represent the latest investment of those funds in communities across Colorado.

“Colorado’s opioid settlement funds are helping us build a comprehensive response to the opioid crisis grounded in evidence, accountability, and collaboration,” said Attorney General Weiser. “These grants are part of a broader portfolio of investments that supports local leadership, strengthens statewide infrastructure, and expands prevention, treatment, recovery, and peer support across Colorado.”

The Department of Law received 287 applications requesting more than $171 million, making this the department’s largest and most competitive funding opportunity to date. The selected projects will serve communities across every region of Colorado.

Promoting youth well-being and prevention by encouraging connection and healthy behaviors

  • Harmony Acres Equestrian Center ($210,000): Expands peer mentoring and resilience programs that help youth build protective factors against future substance misuse.
  • Mosaic Unlimited ($265,000): Uses evidence-based parenting education and family support to reduce substance use risk among children of formerly incarcerated and teen fathers.
  • Tepeyac Community Health Center ($625,000): Launches a culturally and linguistically tailored prevention program serving Hispanic and Latino youth and families in Denver’s Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea neighborhoods.
  • Trail Lamp Youth Services/Business Art Mentorship ($300,000): Provides arts-based mentoring, leadership development, and prevention programming for youth facing elevated risk factors for substance misuse.
  • Vuela for Health ($460,000): Delivers culturally responsive mental health and prevention programming that strengthens resilience among Spanish-speaking youth and families.
  • YMCA of Metropolitan Denver ($535,000): Expands after-school programming that builds resilience, social-emotional skills, and healthy decision-making for youth in under-resourced Aurora neighborhoods.

Addressing gaps in substance treatment for youth

  • Antelope Recovery LLC ($380,000): Expands trauma-informed outpatient and intensive outpatient treatment, family therapy, and Spanish-language services for adolescents with substance use disorders, particularly in rural communities and for justice-involved youth.
  • Colorado FullCircle Recovery Centers ($535,000): Expands peer-led recovery services, support groups, sober activities, recovery navigation, and internships for youth across five Colorado recovery centers.
  • University of Colorado Denver* ($295,000): Expands one of the nation’s first pediatric addiction consult services, connecting youth and families to treatment during hospital and emergency department visits.
  • YouthZone ($220,000): Provides screening, counseling, restorative justice, family education, and recovery navigation for rural and justice-involved youth.

Growing Colorado’s rural and underserved behavioral health workforce

  • Catholic Health Initiatives Colorado (Mercy Hospital) ($400,000): Develops behavioral health career pathways and paid internships to strengthen the workforce serving youth and families in southwest Colorado.
  • Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative ($175,000): Expands training that equips health care providers to deliver compassionate, evidence-based care for pregnant and postpartum people with substance use disorders statewide.
  • Delta County Memorial Hospital District ($700,000): Creates a structured behavioral health career pathway to strengthen addiction treatment services in rural western Colorado.
  • SummitStone Health Partners ($405,000): Builds rural behavioral health capacity by training bilingual prevention specialists and expanding mobile harm reduction services.

Building recovery and reentry systems for justice-involved individuals

  • Community Anchor Academy ($525,000): Expands peer-led recovery coaching, workforce training, and employment pathways for justice-involved individuals in El Paso, Pueblo, and Teller counties.
  • Friendly Harbor Community Center ($370,000): Expands peer support services for justice-involved individuals by connecting participants to treatment, housing, employment, transportation, and recovery resources.
  • Health Solutions ($630,000): Increases access to medication-assisted treatment, telehealth, and recovery supports while expanding the behavioral health workforce in Pueblo, Huerfano, and Las Animas counties.
  • Larimer County Sheriff’s Office ($600,000): Creates a coordinated jail-to-community recovery system with peer support and reentry planning to reduce overdose risk and improve long-term recovery.
  • Recovery Cafe Longmont ($405,000): Expands peer-led recovery and reentry services while growing Colorado’s culturally responsive peer workforce.
  • Rooted 303 ($235,000): Expands wraparound recovery services, housing support, medication-assisted treatment, and family counseling for individuals reentering Denver communities after incarceration.
  • Stout Street Foundation ($575,000): Increases long-term residential recovery services for justice-involved individuals through peer mentorship, workforce training, and evidence-based treatment.

Supporting families, caregivers, and children

  • Illuminate Colorado ($650,000): Expands free childcare for parents receiving substance use treatment and peer support programs that strengthen families in recovery.
  • Invest in Kids ($530,000): Strengthens trauma-informed support statewide for young children and caregivers affected by substance use through evidence-based home visiting and parent-child interventions.

Empowering and sustaining Colorado’s peer leadership

  • Colorado Providers Association* ($420,000): Strengthens Colorado’s behavioral health workforce by expanding peer specialist credentialing, statewide workforce resources, and support for rural, BIPOC, and justice-involved professionals.
  • Serenity Recovery Connection ($625,000): Expands Colorado’s peer recovery workforce through no-cost training, paid internships, career navigation, and advanced peer coaching pathways.
  • The Family Center/La Familia ($380,000): Expands culturally competent peer recovery and prevention services for Latino and Hispanic individuals and families in Larimer County.
  • Yarrow Collective ($550,000): Expands peer support training, mentorship, and education to strengthen Colorado’s recovery workforce, particularly in rural and underserved communities.

*Grant funding pending contract execution.

This grant is the fourth funding opportunity supported through the state share, which represents 10% of Colorado’s opioid settlement funds under the Colorado Opioid Settlement Memorandum of Understanding (PDF). Together with investments made by Colorado’s 19 Regional Opioid Abatement Councils and the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council’s infrastructure share, these grants are part of a coordinated statewide strategy to address the opioid crisis through prevention, treatment, recovery, workforce development, and community support.

Community-Rooted Opioid Response Grant applications now open

The Colorado Department of Law is seeking applications from organizations for community-driven projects that reduce the negative impacts of substance use, prevent substance misuse, and reduce the risk of opioid overdose in communities disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis. Funding is available for organizations created by and for the communities they serve. Learn more at coag.gov/funding-opportunities.

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Media Contact:
Mallory Boyce
Communications Specialist
720-219-1898 (cell)
mallory.boyce@coag.gov