In this issue of the digest:

• Office Of Gun Violence Prevention Hosts Colorado's First Roundtable on Taking a Public Health Approach

• Protecting Faith-based Events and Houses of Worship—Guidance from the Department of Justice

• CFCU Gathers Clergy for Lunch and Conversation on Gun Violence

• Webinar on Firearm Suicide Prevention from a Public Health Approach

• Guns to Gardens: In the News and on the Ground, Dismantling Firearms

• Our Featured Congregation: St. Thomas Episcopal Church

Office Of Gun Violence Prevention Hosts Colorado's First Roundtable on Taking a Public Health Approach

Over 100 public health professionals, and government and community GVP leaders participated in the first Public Health Roundtable on Firearm-Related Violence Prevention in Colorado Springs  on June 5 and 6.  This event was convened by the Colorado Office of Gun Violence Prevention and Trailhead Institute with the support of The Colorado Health Foundation, The Colorado Trust, Rose Community Foundation and Caring for Colorado  CFCU Co-Chair, Alana Smart attended as CFCU’s representative and long-time CFCU activist Dr. Mike Earnest participated on the planning committee.

The round table included:

• A presentation on what a public health approach looks like

• A preview of a survey of 1000 participants to identify trusted messengers and effective messages about preventing gun violence.  Findings will be used to develop an effective public education campaign about ERPO and safe storage

• Initiation of a Directory detailing all the organizations working on GVP in Colorado

• Small group work to identify risk and protective factors associated with suicide, domestic violence, community violence, and mass shootings.  Briefings were presented in each of these areas along with the following Rapid Learning Fact Sheets, developed by Wellstone Collaborative Strategies  

• ·Firearm-related death overview

• Community violence

• Domestic violence

• Mass and targeted violence

• Suicide 

Along with taking initial steps to build a comprehensive, community-based approach to firearm violence prevention in Colorado, the roundtable sought to foster the multi-sector relationships needed to implement a public health approach.  Based on listening to community and youth leaders in areas impacted by gun violence, a major take-away for Alana was the need to broaden the GVP focus to include more upstream issues like the lack of economic opportunity and behavioral health services for youth.

Article contributed by Alana Smart, B’nai Havurah

Protecting Faith-based Events and Houses of Worship—Guidance from the Department of Justice

 As we know too painfully from mass shootings like  the Tree of Life Synagogue, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Mother Emanuel AME Church and First Baptist Church in Texas, houses of worship have been desecrated by hate-fueled gun violence.  Federal law enforcement continues to work to ensure that houses of worship and members of faith-based communities across the United States have as much information as possible to assist them in protecting against potential acts of hate and violence.   

Special thanks to Jillian Dardani with the United States Attorney’s Office | District of Colorado for sharing this life saving information

Additional Resources

Safety for faith-based events and houses of worship resource guide
DHS security self-assessment
FBI active shooter resources
Protecting Places of Worship Forum Facilitator Guide for Community Leaders
Upcoming events

Article contributed by Alana Smart, B’nai Havurah

CFCU Gathers Clergy for Lunch and Conversation on Gun Violence

David Livingston welcomes the guests to the Clergy Luncheon.

Thirty-five people attended the Clergy Luncheon sponsored by CFCU on June 1 at Henderson Community Church. It was the first in-person gathering since 2019 and it was a joy-filled event. Getting reacquainted with CFCU was the underlying theme of the meeting.  Our Steering Committee and Action Teams have continued to meet and work together via Zoom during the pandemic years and it was time to meet with our members to share what we have accomplished in the last four years and what is new.

Information about organizational changes to our four Action Teams was shared. We now have teams for Advocacy, Public Health Strategies, Communication and Outreach.

The Advocacy Team reviewed the recent Legislative session and the gun safety bills that have been passed and signed by the Governor in this session.  Stephanie Greenberg presented information about the Profile of Gun Violence in Colorado report, which contains important statistics in Colorado. 

The Communications Team has added the monthly CFCU Digest which contains information about recent and upcoming events and opportunities for members to become involved.  The new website is also very important and the best place to keep up to date on the work of CFCU.

Three important projects that the Public Health Strategies Team has been working on are ERPO public education programs for congregations, Handgun Intervention Program (HIP) for youth who have possession of an illegal firearm, and Guns to Gardens, a gun dismantling program, hosted by congregations to dismantle unwanted firearms. The gun parts are made into garden tools based on the scripture of “beating swords into plowshares.”

CFCU will be hosting this event again in 2024 and details will be available next spring based on a survey of the attendees of this recent event.

Article submitted by Susan Oakes, 1st Plymouth Congregational Church UCC

A roundtable panel discussion of innovations from CFCU included (from right to left): Alana Smart, Julie Meyers, Susan Oakes, Susie Pappas, Joan Bradt, Rita Niblack and Daryl Foelske.

Firearm Suicide Prevention

from a Public Health Approach:

an Upcoming Webinar with CU Anschutz Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative

CU Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative invites you to attend a webinar in which the public health approach specific to firearm suicide prevention will be examined. The webinar is on July 11, 2023 at 11 a.m. MT.

Scientists will discuss data and risk factors for firearm suicide, the current state of research, and effective practices focused on secure firearm storage (in-home or temporarily out-of-home), using trusted messengers, and Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs). We invite you to continue learning and discussion on this important topic. Please share with other friends and colleagues who may be interested! Register here for the Firearm Injury Prevention Webinar

Guns to Gardens: In the News and on the Ground, Dismantling Firearms

Deacon Clarence McDavid shares the dedication of the Guns to Gardens June 10 event with volunteers. June 10 Guns to Gardens was dedicated to Kalvin James Ross and Lamonte Monroe, son and grandson of Sheba Ross.

Thirty-five guns including four assault style weapons were dismantled on June 10 at Cure D’Ars Catholic Church in Park Hill. There were a total of 53 volunteers from 16 different faith organization, drawing people together from different backgrounds, ages and faiths for a common goal—to make the world a bit safer by ridding our neighborhood of weapons.

“We need people to speak about it to stand up and speak about it in a strong way, in a way that says we can do better than this,” said Deacon Clarence McDavid, of Cure D’Ars Church in an interview with Denver 7 News.

More events are in the planning stages! Please go to the Guns to Gardens Metro Denver website, where events will be added as they are confirmed.

CFCU Steering Committee member Cheryl Fleetwood waves to traffic and welcomes people who are driving into the parking lot to dismantle weapons.

Guns to Gardens Denver has been in the news! Read and watch the latest articles and film clips below.

Denver 7 News Clip

Turning semi-automatics into mattocks: How faith communities in Colorado are fighting gun violence (Colorado Sun)

Stuck with Guns You Don't Want? Surrender Them for Grocery Cards (Denverite)

Article contributed by Rita Niblack, Most Precious Blood Catholic Parish

Our Featured Congregation: St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Park Hill

Article contributed by Rita Niblack, Most Precious Blood Catholic Church.