AURORA, Colo. — A music room, places for sports, computers to use for homework – all ideas from sixth graders brainstorming what they want from Aurora’s new proposed youth center.
The kids, who are all students at Aurora West Preparatory Academy, also suggested more altruistic ideas such as a club to help pick up trash around their neighborhoods or a mental health room staffed with a counselor.
“Yeah, the counselors there can help you with what resources that you need. Some kids have different ways of speaking or communicating,” said Kahvaari, a student at the school, talking about the possibilities.
Aurora West serves grades 6-12 and is blocks away from the highest density of reported crime in the city, according to Aurora Police Department data in 2023. Aurora city officials want to hear from Kahvaari and his classmates as they plan a new youth empowerment center with the aim of curbing youth violence. Aurora set aside $2.25 million for the project with money coming from the sale of the Denver Broncos (the city received a return on its stadium investment) and from the Aurora Youth Violence Prevention Program, which receives its funding mostly through marijuana tax dollars.
City leaders say the center will focus on violence prevention and intervention. They hope it will become a central place for kids to receive support.
The center would be a departure from current efforts.
“What I see is silos,” said Aurora city councilor Ruben Medina. “We throw it to the schools because that's where [kids] congregate, right? Or we have an entity out here that does this for kids, but again, they're isolated.”
Two years ago, the city council approved the Aurora Youth Violence Prevention Strategic Plan around the same time the National Public Safety Partnership did an assessment of the police department and youth violence in the city.
Both measures provided similar recommendations for the city to reduce youth violence including a specific position for data analytics, a group violence intervention model and a youth empowerment center.
“I thought, could we create this concept of having it in one location? All these different amenities and opportunities for kids to be successful and be around mentors and that,” said Medina.
Aurora decided to move forward with an empowerment center in the new year. But before any building plans are drawn up, they want to hear from the community, stakeholders and, most importantly, the youth themselves.
“We can say what we think youth need, but I think all too often, especially in the last few years after the pandemic, I think us, as adults, aren't listening to youth as much as we should be,” said Joseph DeHerrera, the former Aurora Youth Violence Prevention program manager.
Starting in January, the city asked for public comment on the new center. They put paper surveys in the city’s libraries and publicized an online survey for anyone to fill out until March 29.
DeHerrera’s hope was to have something in place by the summer, even if it was just a pilot at one school.
Joseph DeHerrera in his office on Feb. 1, 2024. At the time he was the Aurora Youth Violence Prevention Program Manager and AuroraSAVE Co-Director.
Photo: Amanda Horvath, Rocky Mountain PBS.
Since DeHerrera’s initial interview with Rocky Mountain PBS, he left the job with the City of Aurora to serve as executive director at the 1st Judicial District/Jefferson County Juvenile Assessment Center.
After his departure, DeHerrera said the city could do better at having “protection of city staff from elected officials, like city council members,” and that the culture of the department he worked in was “challenging and wasn’t changing.”
Still, he hopes the youth empowerment center comes to fruition and that the city and his department still “go about it the right way.”
In a statement, a City of Aurora spokesperson said DeHerrera’s departure shouldn’t slow things down for the youth center and “the project is moving forward as planned.” The city also said they will be looking for DeHerrera’s replacement. The position has not been posted on the city’s job site.
Tackling youth violence in Aurora has taken many forms over the years. Since the pandemic, the city has focused on prevention. This includes establishing the Youth Violence Prevention Program, creating Aurora SAVE (Stand Against Violence Everyday), a group violence intervention initiative that partners with police and the community. The city also recently enhanced its partnership with Aurora schools to streamline data sharing about kids who are showing behavior issues.
“We can try to get in there with some resources and just more engagement with them before they potentially get to the point of being group involved,” said DeHerrera of early intervention.
Last year, the National Network for Safe Communities, did a problem analysis for Aurora and reviewed fatal and nonfatal shootings from 2022 to identify the most active groups in the city.
Officials use the word ‘group’ instead of ‘gang’ because not every gang is a group and not every group is a gang, according to DeHerrera.
“They found that there's 35 active groups within Aurora contributing to the majority of the violence,” he said.
Aurora police and the city define violent crime as robbery, sexual assault, aggravated assault and murder.
Data from the last five years of violent crimes committed by a juvenile show a drop during the first two years of the pandemic and then a spike in 2022. Aurora police have not finalized numbers for 2023, but the predicted numbers show a decline from the highs of the year before.
Data provided by the Aurora Police Department shows the trends of violent crimes with a juvenile offender or suspect since 2018.
Graphic: Amanda Horvath, Rocky Mountain PBS.
“I think the issues with youth have been around for millennia. I'm sure as generations come and go, I think there's just different obstacles,” said Medina, who draws data on youth violence from the Youth Violence Prevention Program as well as Children’s Hospital Colorado.
The young generation’s biggest obstacle is mental health, Medina said, especially given how the pandemic disrupted so much of their lives.
At least some of the sixth graders at Aurora West Prep Academy agree with Medina – mental health care topped their suggestions for the youth empowerment center.
“I think the mental health place is a really good idea because sometimes and I know, especially in this generation, like a lot of us don't have very good mental health, but that's mostly because of how we grew up and how it is,” said Mykaela, 12, who is in the sixth grade.
Mykaela’s classmate, Journi, suggested bringing in dogs and cats from an animal shelter to provide play time for kids and the animals and improve all their mental health.
The room buzzed with excitement over that idea.
Aurora West Preparatory Academy serves grades 6-12 and is at 13th and Del Mar Parkway.
Photo: Amanda Horvath, Rocky Mountain PBS.
Other interests and ideas from the Aurora West kids included art and music rooms, places for sports such as basketball and swimming, a computer lab to do homework, dance and baking classes, and so much more.
Throughout the discussion, insisted on making the place feel like a special club or place to go for the kids in Aurora.
“Because most things are in Denver,” said Adonis, one of the eight students who spoke with RMPBS. “But if it's in Aurora, then that means Aurora kids can actually have a chance to go somewhere. Like all the amusement parks, all the fun things, are usually in Denver.”
That also aligns with DeHerrera’s hope for the empowerment center – to make it special and to make it based on what the community and youth really want.
“My goal for this and I think a lot of others, like Councilmember Medina's goal as well, is to not make this look like a rec center or a government building or anything like that. We really want it to be unique,” he said.
Amanda Horvath is the managing producer at Rocky Mountain PBS. amandahorvath@rmbps.org.
