With the January opening of Eastside Espresso, at 5091 E. Colfax Ave., there’s now a comfortable spot to enjoy java sourced from several African countries alongside plates like ful — fava beans spiced with berebere, cumin and rosemary, topped with diced tomato, jalapeno and onion, and eaten by hand with loaves of French bread.

You’ll also find chechebsa, a sweet, spicy and savory dish made up of small slices of tortilla-thin teff flatbread served with honey and spiced butter. There are also sambusas, a decidedly vivid avocado salad, and breakfast burritos.

Eastside Espresso is neat and brightly lit, with scattered plants and cozy seating that����ap as good for work as it is for luxuriating over a latte. The owner, Azeb Leul, is often there preparing and serving food. The beverage list is full of the expected classics, including Americanos, mochas and drip coffee.

Millete Birhanemaskel, owner of Whittier Cafe, roasts the beans that Leul serves. She, Leul and three other women represent a growing community of Ethiopian-Tigrayan coffee sellers who are bringing one of the oldest coffee cultures on the planet to the Denver area, both with traditional practices and a commitment to exquisite beans.

On top of Whittier and Eastside, Senait Berihun is serving top-tier joe from Berihu’s Coffee, a counter inside the Capitol Market, 13650 E. Colfax Ave. in Aurora. Then there is the mother-daughter team of Freweyni Beyene and Hewan Kassa, who are roasting, bagging and selling coffee straight from Endless Grind, their cafe at 17070 E. Quincy Ave.

All four places like serving beans from across Africa, though only Birhanemaskel sources exclusively from there. Each place does its own rendition of an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, which traditionally includes roasting coffee beans in a pan, followed by hand-grinding and clay-pot brewing and serving. The ceremonies are used as a way to connect and to be social.

“Like Americans have dinner, Ethiopians have coffee. That����ap when you get together and talk through the good times and the bad times,” said Berihun. “It is big. When it comes to our community, coffee is a religion.”

And it’s no accident that the proprietors of these metro Denver coffee shops are women, since the ritualized ceremonies, held three times a day, are usually carried out by women in Ethiopia. But in the United States, there’s another reason why it’s important for there to be “a movement of Black-women-owned-and-operated coffee shops,” said Birhanemaskel.

“For me, coffee comes from East Africa. But here, especially in Colorado, [the industry] is very white and very male. There’s been this huge erasure that����ap happened,” she continued. “I didn’t open because I was trying to combat that trend, but I did open to teach people about coffee. I feel like our very existence is political.”

Birhanemaskel continues to source her beans from across Africa, but refuses to purchase from Ethiopia, citing the 200-2002 civil war, continuing unrest and humanitarian crisis in Tigray, the northernmost part of Ethiopia.

All four places hold a ceremony once a week: Berihu’s on Saturday and the others on Sunday. While each proprietor adds their own spin, the proceedings follow a general format. After folks are gathered, the hostess will light incense and hand-roast fresh, green coffee beans, before placing them in the jebena, a tall ceramic vessel. Over the course of one to four hours, she will pour three rounds, awol, kalay and bereka.��“You leave wishing them a blessing,” said Kassa, noting the last round’s literal translation.

“This is my dream, so I got my dream”

The Tigrayan coffee community is not new. Whittier opened in 2014, and Endless Grind three years later.

“When we opened, we were the only roasters in Aurora,” said Kassa, who cut her teeth at Whittier when Beyene, an old friend of Birhanemaskel, was first opening her shop. Berihu’s is newish, having opened in March 2025.

Eastside Espresso is also new, though its history runs deep. It occupies the same space as the former Africana Cafe, an institution Leul and her partner Titi Reda opened 23 years ago. “It was the spot. When it closed, we didn’t have anywhere to go,” said Birhanemaskel. But many former customers have returned to give Eastside Espresso some life.

While there are plenty of places to grab a quick cup, Whittier, Eastside Espresso and Endless Grind have all made a point of becoming community hubs. “I wouldn’t say that we serve the Tigrayan community so much as the Aurora community,” said Kassa, a sentiment echoed by each one of the other owners. “It looks so small wall to wall. There’s nothing special about it physically, but there’s so much that happens here and so much love,” she continued.

For all five women, the dedication to world-class coffee runs deep. Retaining a coffee shop is often as much about living out a lifelong dream as it is about representing the culture. Berihun immigrated to Colorado from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2009. She and her husband have operated a 7-Eleven franchise near Washington Park since 2007. She grew up around coffee; her father and four other partners ran a coffee processing company. “This is a love letter to my dad,” she said.

Beyene came to Denver from the city of Mekele around roughly the same time. She says she’s dreamed of opening a coffee shop since childhood, but life, as it often does, got in the way. Before opening Endless Grind, Beyene did ten years in cosmetology and still owns a beauty shop. “This is my dream, so I got my dream,” she said. Kassa, who came up with the name, says it’s a nod to the continuous hustle her mom had to display to get where she is now.

Endless Grind serves only fair trade and organic beans that are sourced quarterly from places like Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Sumatra, as well as Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Beyene roasts onsite two to three times a week and says bagged coffee is roughly 20 percent of the business.

Berihun hopes to one day buy a coffee plantation back in Ethiopia. Birhanemaskel says she would like to eventually open a co-roastery for Black women coffee owners. “That would be a party,” she grinned.

But which shows are actually worth seeing? Here’s a roundup of public, kid-friendly, totally-free concerts and performances you can catch over the next few months in the metro area, ranging from jazz and R&B to rock en español, reggae, hip hop, folk, bluegrass, tribute acts and country. In addition to those detailed below (we could only include so many), keep an eye out for in Green Valley Ranch, Northglenn, Louisville, Englewood, Westminster, Central Park and Greenwood Village.

Levitt Pavilion

The 8,000-capacity Levitt Pavilion boasts arguably the best free music series on the Front Range. This nonprofit amphitheater in Ruby Hill Park annually presents up to 50 free concerts from local and touring musicians, this year running May 23-Oct. 1. Early highlights include Brazilian Day (May 30), a Pride kickoff with Tiano Major9, Central City Opera’s drag show (June 5), Lettuce (June 20), and the Soul Rebel Reggae Fest with Black Uhuru (July 12). Visit for the full list, including late additions. RSVPs are encouraged but not required. 1380 W. Florida Ave. in Denver.

City Park Jazz

Despite the March 26 fire at the City Park Bandshell, which destroyed the historic structure and robbed this marquee series of its main stage, the 40-year-old jazz nonprofit has vowed to go on with a mobile stage. The previously announced calendar is staying the same, organizers said, so you can plan on bringing those blankets, folding chairs and picnic baskets to City Park on Sunday evenings between June 7 through Aug. 9. Shows include the DJ Williams Band (June 7), Spicy Pickles featuring Hannah Rodriguez (June 14), Denver legend Hazel Miller & The Collective (June 21), and Shane Endsley and the Denver Municipal Band (June 28). Visit for updates and to donate to offset the extra costs for this season. 3201 E. 17th Ave. in Denver.

Highlands Ranch Summer Concert Series

Organized by the Highlands Ranch Community Association, these free concerts run 6:30-8 p.m. on Thursdays, June 4-July 30 (with no concert on July 2). Bring your own refreshments or purchase from the food trucks on site. Early shows include Shelvis and the Roustabouts (June 4), Tumbledown Shack (June 11), Red Rock Vixens (June 18) and Northwoods Band (June 25). Visit for more. Highland Heritage Regional Park, 9651 S. Quebec St. in Highlands Ranch.

DIA’s Concerts on the Fly

We know you’re not likely to visit Denver International Airport unless you’re traveling or doing the drop-off/pick-up dance. But when you do find yourself there, the Aug. 2-Sept. 6 Concerts on the Fly series will give you something fun and free to do. The 1:30-5:30 p.m. shows are free, but guests must register in advance at flydenver.com/concerts. Tickets will be available starting July 21 at 10 a.m. and will be released one show at a time, at 10 a.m. Monday, the week before the concert. Food and beverages are, of course, available for purchase. Shows take place at Park on the Plaza, so you don’t need to go through security. (If you park at the airport, standard parking rates apply.) Visit for more. 8500 Peña Blvd. in Denver.

Juneteenth Music Festival

Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, the historic seat of Black culture in the Mile High City, brings back the free Juneteenth Music Festival for its 15th year on Saturday, June 20. About 20,000 people are expected to gather along the heart of the Welton Street corridor for the 11 a.m. parade (starting at Manual High School), followed by musical performances, more than 100 vendors, drinks, food and other attractions. Headliners and the full schedule were still being finalized as of press time. Visit for details and updates. 2700 block of Welton Street in Denver.

2nd Saturday Street Fests

Historic Olde Town Arvada is back with a monthly concerts-and-culture series featuring food, drink and kids’ activities on Grandview Avenue in Arvada. The Second Saturday Summer Concert Series and Street Festival offers 16 bands performing on two stages and runs 5-10 p.m. on May 9, June 13, July 11. The lineup was still being finalized as of press time. Visit for more. Events take place between Olde Wadsworth Boulevard and Teller Street in Arvada.

Colorado Black Arts Festival

Free music is easy to find at this July 10-12 event in City Park, which celebrates African American arts, culture and community, organizers said. Three stages of entertainment will host diverse performances and music, including traditional African drumming, jazz, hip hop and R&B. This year’s headliner is three-time Emmy-nominated pianist Kofi B, with more acts to be announced. Also expect a parade, dedicated kids’ offerings and more than 80 vendors. . 3201 E. 17th Ave. in Denver.

Clyfford Still Museum Summer Music Series

Denver’s excellent Clyfford Still Museum invites visitors to set up on its handsome, tree-dotted lawn in the Golden Triangle for these 5-6:45 p.m. concerts, running this year on June 26, July 24 and Aug. 28. The no-registration, family-friendly events do not offer food and beverages, “so bring your favorite snacks and sips or stop by a local restaurant to elevate your picnic experience before the show,” organizers wrote online. They’ll also have a limited number of chairs if you arrive early, they added. See more details at . 1250 Bannock St. in Denver.

Riverfront Park Summer Sessions

This free Saturday series offers full-service food and drink, with beer, cider, cocktails and local bites on site. The shows take place 2-9 p.m. each month, with acts to be determined. Check them out at Riverfront Park on June 6, at Confluence Park on July 11 (theme: Crosscurrents) and back at Riverfront on Sept. 12 (Golden Hours). . 1610 Little Raven St. in Denver.

Broomfield Summer Concert Series

Free music on Wednesday nights will be joined by food trucks and activities starting at 6 p.m., with concerts running 6:30-8:30 p.m. Themed events include the Summer Kickoff at Anthem Community Park (June 10), Juneteenth Celebration at Anthem Community Park (June 17), another show at Anthem Community Park (June 24) and shows finishing up at Midway Park on July 8, 15 and 22. The series’ End of Summer Celebration for Kids and Families also takes place at Midway Park on July 29. Check for the updated lineup. 15663 Sheridan Parkway in Broomfield.

Littleton Museum Summer Concert Series

The front lawn at this south metro institution will host seven free shows June 3-July 22, featuring well-known acts such as Delta Sonics (June 24) and tributes like The Ninety Percent 90s (June 10). Visit for the full lineup. Space is first-come, first-served and attendees should bring their own seating, blankets and refreshments. 6028 S. Gallup St. in Littleton. ]]> 7485761 2026-05-08T06:00:51+00:00 2026-05-11T10:58:12+00:00 /2026/05/06/colorado-dragon-boat-race-returns-sloans-lake-2026/ Wed, 06 May 2026 13:12:36 +0000 /?p=7732074 The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival will return to Sloan’s Lake this summer, despite concerns about water quality that nearly forced the event to change locations.

The festival is the largest annual celebration of Asian and Asian American heritage in Colorado, according to the nonprofit group that runs it, as well as the largest Dragon Boat Festival in the U.S. Around 200,000 people attended in 2025.

But organizers were forced to move it back from its traditional late-July weekend to September last year due to safety and health issues raised by Denver Parks & Recreation, which manages the lake and surrounding park. Those concerns included dead fish, increasingly warm and shallow water, blue algae blooms, and a lack of filtration from untreated runoff pouring into the 177-acre lake.

A year earlier, the lake experienced a mass die-off of fish, with an estimated 5,000 going belly-up and washing ashore, according to the city. Algae growth encouraged by warm weather and low water levels drains the lake of oxygen, and its shallowness prevents cold, safe pockets for marine life to shelter during high-temperature days in the summer.

Sara Moore, executive director of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, told The Denver Post that she was notified earlier this year that parks officials “are doing everything within their power to ensure the health of the lake.”

This year, the festival will take place Aug. 29-30, at the park, which is located east of Sheridan Boulevard and north of 17th Avenue. Registration for racers is open now at . This year marks the festival’s 26th incarnation.

From a water quality standpoint, Sloan’s Lake is currently in good condition with no signs of blue-green algae blooms, according to Denver Parks & Recreation. Still, it’s closed to other events this summer, and won’t be open to event permits until the first weekend of September — or just after the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival.

“The primary challenge we’ve seen recently is reduced water inflow caused by ongoing drought, which has lowered water levels and could create future water quality concerns if conditions don’t improve,” said Stephanie Figueroa of Denver Parks & Recreation. “This week’s precipitation will provide some short-term relief.”

The parks department plans to work on phosphorus mitigation in advance of the festival to reduce the nutrients available to the oxygen-sucking algae, she added.

Without consistent spring and summer precipitation, however, the lake will return to its same sorry state in the coming weeks, said Kurt Weaver, executive director of the Sloan’s Lake Park Foundation.��“The drought situation already has it at its lowest water level in a while. It’s going to lack the oxygen and nutrients it needs, and we’ll see more fish kills and more problems.”

He believes the lake needs to be drained and dredged to increase depth and water quality, as well as adding filtration to the water that flows into the lake from various cities and districts.

Those range from Lakewood and Wheat Ridge to unincorporated Jefferson County — all of which need to approve the rehab project due to their individual rights to the water, Weaver said. His organization is working with all of them, as well as the city of Denver, to negotiate terms of the upgrades.

The Colorado Dragon Boat Race last year featured 41 teams navigating the lake’s course in elaborate, colorful boats. The designs and culture of Dragon Boat races have roots stretching back thousands of years to China’s Duanwu Festival, “which remains a traditional holiday in mainland China and Taiwan,” organizers wrote online. “Today, it has spread all over the globe.”

As the third most-visited park in the city’s system (behind City Park and Washington Park), Denver Parks & Recreation does a great job of keeping Sloan’s Lake’s grass and other features tended, Weaver said. But with an average depth of 3.5 feet, along with steadily rising sediment, the lake itself is in terrible health. So much so that the dragon boats may start scraping the bottom of Sloan’s Lake in the next couple of years.

That would be a shame, Moore said, since the Dragon Boat Festival and its race typically joined by dozens of vendors, more than 50 cultural performances, food, drink activities, and more.

The organization also helms the Dragon Boat Film Festival alongside Denver Film, which hosts screenings at its Sie FilmCenter. The event on March 22.

“We’re building our coalition and the city is helping with planning, so we’re excited to get that going,” Weaver said. “We’ll also have two cleanups a month now through November, which will help improve the park.”

Volunteers can sign up for cleanup days at , Weaver said.

An expert from Denver Health led the group in discussing which specific drugs are considered opioids and how to identify the telltale signs of an overdose, like clammy or cold skin, a limp body, and lips and fingernails that look purple or blue. The teens also learned how to administer the nasal spray, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, and then put their newfound knowledge to use practicing how exactly they would do it in the event of an emergency.

It’s scary stuff, but for many teens, it’s necessary knowledge in today’s world.

Suyash Shrestha, then a senior at Stargate School in Thornton, attended the event, but it wasn’t his first training. Shrestha spent much of his high school years trying to spread awareness about the concept of harm reduction to people his age. Harm reduction provides teenagers with honest information about drugs, along with advice for those who already use them about strategies for doing so more safely.

“Harm reduction is something that not a lot of teens or youth even think about or even know exists,” Shrestha said in an interview. “It ultimately creates that safer environment for the people who do need that information or do need those resources to come forward and get them… That����ap why we should continue pushing for that type of curriculum or education.”

Drug education, once ubiquitous in schools through the D.A.R.E. program, has struggled to find its footing in recent decades, even as changing cultural attitudes prompted marijuana legalization in many states across the country. In Colorado, a lack of consensus about approach and the logistical challenges of implementing curriculum have led to a patchwork of strategies where local control — which leaves it up to individual districts to decide the specifics of their health curricula — is the only standard.

The Denver Post is publishing a three-part series exploring why drug education has been slow to keep pace with the legalization of drugs like cannabis and psilocybin, and the ubiquity of deadlier substances like opioids. In the wake of the “Just Say No” movement of the 1980s and ’90s and a subsequent opioid epidemic, many local educators and organizations are embracing new philosophies about how to equip kids with the tools and information they need to lead successful lives.

Experts say drug education needs to be a more holistic endeavor — one that sees educators, community leaders, parents and youth working together to address the underlying causes of drug use and support healthier outcomes. For a generation of kids who have the world’s information at their fingertips, effective education must ditch fear tactics and instead rely on factual information presented honestly and transparently, they say, so that youth can make their own informed decisions.

As a member of the Rise Above Colorado’s Teen Action Council and Northglenn’s Youth Commission, Shrestha’s passion stems from hearing personal stories of Coloradans overdosing on synthetic opioids and from wanting to help anyone who might find themselves in a similar situation. After he first learned there was a medication that could literally save lives, Shrestha thought everyone deserved to know about it, including teens and other students.

Carrying naloxone was one way Shrestha saw he could potentially make a difference, and by teaching others to do so, he hoped to inspire his peers to be part of something meaningful — so that ultimately they make fewer harmful personal choices.

From ‘Just Say No’ to ‘just say nothing’

Putting trust into the hands of school students is a stark departure from historical norms. Traditionally, Americans have relied on school-based curricula and fear-based educational campaigns that aim to scare kids straight.

Stigmatizing drug and alcohol use as a black-and-white moral issue has a long legacy in the U.S., said Steve Sussman, professor of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, books such as and advocated bettering oneself and society by embracing purity, resisting temptation and finding a suitable partner.

The books, which were influential at the time, depicted two life paths for young men and women: They either grow up to be honest, decent citizens or, conversely, end up becoming degenerates depending on their life choices. For example, if , they would grow up to be honorable and venerable. However, if they choose to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, they would become moral and physical wrecks.

“There was nothing in between,” Sussman said. “, you’d either go the route of becoming a good mom, or you could end up going on the road to coquetry.”

Moral judgments like these became part of the school curriculum in the late 19th century, as the temperance movement gained momentum toward its goal of total abstinence. By 1901, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union had successfully lobbied every state in the union to mandate its Scientific Temperance Instruction in schools. The curriculum — which it����ap worth noting was criticized by scientists at the time — asserted alcohol was “a dangerous and seductive poison” and promoted total abstinence as the only solution for mental, moral and physical well-being.

Scientific Temperance Instruction waned after Prohibition ended in 1933, but fear tactics remained a hallmark of campaigns to combat drug use and abuse.

In 1936, the film “” warned parents about the dangers of marijuana, a “frightful assassin of our youth” more threatening than opium, morphine and heroin. Three decades later, in 1963, that narrative persisted when a presidential commission to warn teenagers that “although the use of a drug may be a temporary means of escape from the world about him, in the long run these drugs will destroy him and all that he aspires to.”

The most famous effort, though, is , or Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Started in 1983 as a partnership between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District, it leveraged uniformed officers lecturing classrooms about various substances they saw on the job.

The goal was to teach kids to “Just Say No” to drugs, gangs, violence and peer pressure, echoing the country’s first lady at the time, Nancy Reagan. And it caught on quickly with the adults in power.

By 1994, D.A.R.E. was the most widely used school-based prevention program, reaching an estimated 5.5 million fifth graders in more than 60% of the nation’s school districts that year alone, The program continued to grow, and by 2009, it appeared in .

Despite its popularity, though, studies showed that D.A.R.E. wasn’t effective and that program participants were just as likely to use drugs as non-participants. In some cases, it had the opposite of its intended effect.

After developing a new curriculum in the early aughts, called Take Charge of Your Life, researchers at the University of Akron in Ohio found that seventh graders and ninth graders who went through the program from 2001 to 2006 experienced by 11th grade compared to a control group, and there was no reported change in active marijuana use. One positive effect was that seventh graders who used marijuana at the time they went through the program were less likely to continue doing so by 11th grade, the study found. In response to criticism, D.A.R.E. America retooled its curriculum for elementary and middle school students, starting in 2009.

D.A.R.E. still exists today, though curricula focus more on social-emotional learning and “helping kids learn to make healthy and safe decisions for a better life,” said regional director Dennis Osborn. Core lessons no longer include information about specific drugs, he added, though there are specialized units dedicated to vaping, fentanyl/opioids and marijuana.

About 2,000 law enforcement agencies currently participate in the program compared to around 7,500 at its height, according to Frank Pegueros, CEO of D.A.R.E America.

However controversial the content, D.A.R.E. provided the infrastructure, training and standardization necessary for drug education to proliferate widely. When that structure began to be dismantled in the 2010s, though, school-based drug education faltered, effectively leaving the generation of kids that followed to navigate the waters on their own.

“We went from ‘Just Say No’ to ‘just say nothing,’” said Rhana Hashemi, a social psychology researcher at Stanford University and founder of , which helps schools implement harm reduction education programs.

At the same time, a lethal substance was gaining traction. From 1999 to 2023, approximately 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose, with a significant increase in the number of deaths attributable to illegally made fentanyl and fentanyl analogs saturating the illicit drug supply over the course of the last decade, . Overdose fatalities involving synthetic opioids (excluding methadone) increased from 3,105 in 2013 to 72,776 in 2023, accounting for 91.7% of all opioid-related deaths that year, .

The widespread tragedy galvanized parents and politicians, who realized the pervasive “just say nothing” culture wasn’t cutting it.

Making their own decisions

The reason D.A.R.E. didn’t work, Hashemi said, is because of a cognitive dissonance between the messaging and what kids saw in real life. Warnings about the negative outcomes like overdoses, “brain rot” and addiction simply didn’t resonate. That paradox persists in prevention-focused social media campaigns today, .

“It����ap a similar thing that����ap happening now online, where our PSAs are still stuck in an abstinence-only mindset emphasizing these very serious consequences. But those messages are coming up alongside kids having fun and glamorizing their use,” Hashemi said.

That����ap why Hashemi and other experts advocate providing teenagers with honest information about drugs and safer use strategies, known as harm reduction. “I would define it as both a set of strategies and knowledge, but also a philosophical attitude in how we should address things,” she said. “Our goal is not net sum prevention of use, it����ap prevention of harms.”

For example, it����ap helpful to know that a single serving of alcohol varies depending on whether you’re drinking beer, wine or liquor. That way, if young people choose to drink, they have a better understanding of how much they’re consuming.

“Young people are going to make their own decisions,” said Marsha Rosenbaum, a sociologist and harm reduction expert. “So we need to acknowledge that even if we don’t like the decisions they’re making.”

Rosenbaum helped introduce parents to the idea of harm reduction through a series of booklets entitled “Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education,” the first of which was released in 1999. Harm reduction was something of a taboo topic in the ‘90s, she said. And in many ways, it still is today.

Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of advocacy organization , believes that harm reduction has gone too far in normalizing substance use and abuse, and that it often sends the wrong message to America’s youth. While he supports making naloxone more accessible, other safer use initiatives, like supervised needle injection sites, do little to help drug users get treatment or work toward recovery, he said.

Conversations about beverages’ specific alcohol content, marijuana edible standard dosing and onset times, and the potentially therapeutic benefit of things like cannabidiol should be the responsibility of parents — not schools — Niforatos added.

“I understand there has to be some level of teaching in the schools, but you have to be really careful about that line because, at the end of the day, it quickly traverses over the line into teaching someone how to use instead of educating them,” he said. “I think the message needs to start with ‘do not use’ and then support that message with evidence.”

Rosenbaum and other advocates dispute that characterization. Abstinence is part of harm reduction — in fact, it����ap the safest strategy of them all, she said. But presenting critical information about drugs in a nonjudgmental tone opens the door for trust building with kids and ultimately empowers them to make more informed choices, supporters say.

In a sign that public attitudes are changing, Rosenbaum turned “Safety First” into a comprehensive drug education and intervention school curriculum in 2017. It was subsequently acquired and revised by Stanford University’s REACH Lab in 2023, and ��for free. With lessons about cannabis, hallucinogens, e-cigarettes, opioids and more, public health experts hope Safety First can help set a new standard for evidence-based classroom instruction. The second lesson in the curriculum provides an introduction to harm reduction.

More than 629 schools across at least 46 states have used the curriculum, including schools within 15 Colorado districts, said Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, director of the REACH Lab. She estimates Safety First has reached more than 50,000 students, though it may be more than that since the curriculum is available for free online.

In broader efforts to prevent opioid deaths, naloxone has become widely available nationwide at hospitals, schools and even vending machines without a prescription. In Colorado, social media campaigns encourage young adults to by carrying the overdose reversal medication and testing their drugs for fentanyl.

Hashemi is encouraged by this shift, but she believes harm reduction needs to expand both beyond opioids and beyond the classroom. She hopes momentum continues and drug education addresses other prominent issues teens are dealing with, such as nicotine addiction and bad trips from psychedelics. She also wants to see social media campaigns, public service announcements and other digital campaigns reach kids online, where they already spend a lot of time. (A 2024 study suggests to explore.)

“When you expose the kids themselves to harm reduction education, they run with it,” Hashemi added. “But if we do not use fentanyl as a Trojan horse to do harm reduction around all drugs, this moment is going to sort of pass us, and we’re not going to be giving kids the comprehensive education that they’ve always deserved.”

This series was reported with support of the .

Billed as , 5280 Recovery serves about 100 teenagers who deal with substance abuse and addiction. The school uses strategies such as coaching and group meetings to help kids get sober — and stay sober — one day at a time, said Keith Hayes, who served as the school’s director of recovery from 2020 to 2026. Many of the staff are also recovering addicts with their own past troubles and life lessons to share.

On one “Winning Wednesday” last May, Hayes stood in front of bleachers full of students and handed out chips to those marking monthly milestones of continuous sobriety. It was the last Wednesday of the 2024-25 academic year and one well worth celebrating. That year, the student body boasted an average of 440 days sober from drugs and alcohol, the highest average since the high school’s opening in 2018.

“There is no chaser with anything that we do here at 5280. It is raw, it is uncut and it is real,” Hayes said in an interview. “The ability to be vulnerable with each other without judgment, without shame, is a beautiful thing. And I think the only way that real recovery works is that we can have difficult conversations about difficult things.”

After the presentation, recovery coach Brittany Kitchens then led a group discussion to talk about the challenges of staying sober during the summer without the structure and accountability of school weeks. She asked the teenagers in the room how they would fill their free time and who they would surround themselves with in the absence of their classmates.

Educators say it����ap critical to build trusting relationships between students and adults, and to entrust student leaders to help shape the culture in their communities. For some, this also means working closely with students who get into trouble as well, and instituting deeper forms of development than simple discipline or punishment.

But approaches remain a patchwork across Colorado since the state’s “local control” form of governance leaves it up to individual school districts to determine curriculum content. When it comes to drugs, state law only requires that some type of prevention education must be taught, though it lacks specifics about what that should look like.

That means the breadth and depth of information covered varies “dramatically” between districts, said James Hurley, comprehensive health and physical education content specialist at the Colorado Department of Education.

This is the second story in The Denver Post����ap three-part series examining how drug education has evolved alongside changing cultural attitudes towards substances like cannabis and psychedelics, both of which are now legal in Colorado.

The Post spoke with five districts, both urban and rural, about their approaches; we also attended classes, virtually and in-person, at two. Prevention and intervention efforts within these districts are fairly new. Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district, developed its programming in 2015 in response to marijuana legalization. Comparatively, the small Gunnison Watershed School District in southwestern Colorado hired its first student wellness coordinator in 2024 to oversee health programming and partnerships.

Normalizing sobriety

Educators said nicotine, cannabis and alcohol are the most common intoxicants they see and hear about among school-age kids, though awareness about opioids and psychedelics is growing.

In 2023, 20.5% of high school students reported they currently drink alcohol, according to the latest data available from the , issued every two years by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The survey found 12.8% of high schoolers use marijuana, 8.7% vape nicotine and 3.1% smoke cigarettes.

Additionally, 3.5% of respondents said they take prescription pain medicine not prescribed to them or differently than prescribed. (The 2025 Healthy Kids Colorado survey results are expected to be published in June.)

Some of those statistics mark a notable decrease from the prior survey issued in 2021, when 23.6% of high school-aged kids reported drinking alcohol, and 16.1% reported vaping. The percentage of students who reported abusing pain medication also dropped, from 5.9% in 2021. Marijuana and cigarette use remained flat.

Despite concerns that underage marijuana use would skyrocket after legalization in 2014, rates largely remained stable before decreasing significantly in recent years. In 2019, the use rate among high schoolers was 20.6%,compared to 21.2% in 2015, according to the survey.

The 2023 survey added a new question asking high school-aged kids if they had ever used psychedelics, and 3.8% reported that they had.

The data underscores that most local teenagers are not using drugs and alcohol — even though they often overestimate the number of their peers who are. For example, 42.8% said they thought a majority of their peers binge drank — defined as four or more alcoholic drinks in one night — compared to just 12.1% who reported having done so in the previous 30 days, according to the 2023 survey.

“We need to normalize sobriety,” Hayes said. “We need to normalize that it����ap OK to be comfortable in my own skin, I don’t need a social lubricant.”

A focus on trust and transparency

When talking to students about drugs, Colorado educators said transparency and trust are key to making an impact, especially for a generation with the world’s information at its fingertips.

During his tenure at 5280 Recovery High School, Hayes sought to create a judgment-free zone so kids felt comfortable being honest with their recovery coaches.

“Let’s stop telling people drugs and alcohol are bad because that’s not true. Because if they were so bad, would anybody be out here doing them?” Hayes said. “So we tell kids, ‘We love drugs, we know they’re phenomenal. We love alcohol. But if I truly work in an active program of recovery, that can be even more phenomenal.’ And that����ap the messaging. Kids dig that.”

In more traditional high school settings, the tone is typically more tempered. But educators still aim to create an environment where trust and honesty are reciprocal with their students. Having trusted adults to confide in is one critical factor that ultimately supports youth emotional and physical well-being, experts said, and well-being is inextricably linked to substance use and abuse.

At Ridgway Secondary School, where enrollment in grades six through 12 totals just 150 pupils, Shawnn Row has a unique opportunity to build a rapport with students and their families. In addition to being a health teacher, Row serves as the athletic director, an English teacher and outdoor education coordinator, so he sees the same kids in numerous capacities for many years.

As the ninth graders filed into health class on a chilly February morning last year, it was clear they were immediately engaged. For one, Row was speaking their language. The first slide on the day’s presentation about marijuana featured a meme with a picture of a young boy smiling, his head flanked by text. “4/20? Puff puff pass? I’d rather pass today’s math quiz, thanks.”

As the kids repeated the punchline and giggled, Row stood at the front of the room with a welcoming smile. “Today we’re gonna talk about weed,” he said.

Health is a year-round class here, though the subject matter varies with the semester. Students receive sex education in the fall and drug education in the spring. Row began creating all the lessons himself several years ago after finding that out-of-the-box curricula didn’t resonate. His presentations combine scientific information about the adolescent brain, the known benefits and risks of various substances, and personal anecdotes from his own life.

Row appreciates that his school leaders believe drug education should be a continuous conversation, instead of something that����ap relegated to a specific timeframe or initiative. That also gives him the flexibility to address what specifically interests students.

“Usually at the beginning of eighth grade (and) ninth grade health, I say, ‘Hey, write down topics you’re curious about or you’ve seen somewhere or you’ve heard about,’ and I’ll try to integrate them into the lessons I have planned already,” Row said.

Row’s lecture about cannabis didn’t sugarcoat the fact that it is widely available in Ridgway, a town of about 1,200 residents and three recreational dispensaries near downtown. The students were well aware of that, of course. You can smell it “walking around on any given Tuesday,” one said during class.

Row broke down the differences between cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol, explaining the psychoactive effects and how those distinguish the CBD products in grocery stores from the THC products in pot shops. He also shared a study tracking youth use and later life outcomes, and a story about how Kansas police once pulled him over and searched his car because of his Colorado license plate.

After class, then-freshman Izzy Katz said she learned a lot from the presentation, but still wasn’t sure if she considered marijuana good or bad. Some drugs, like fentanyl and heroin, have very clear harms, she said. Cannabis didn’t seem similarly dangerous, but it also didn’t seem benign like Vitamin C.

“I feel like marijuana is kind of put in that grey area where people don’t know how to categorize it,” Katz said. Her sentiment exemplifies the challenge of discussing once-demonized drugs that are now being reframed in light of legalization.

“I really hammer away on (the fact that) the teenage brain is not fully developed, and no matter what substance it is you put in your body, it����ap going to have a bigger effect on you than it will on a 25-, 30- or 35-year-old,” Row said in an interview. “That is kind of the challenge with the legalization of weed and now psychedelics is, if adults don’t see it as harmful, the kids are less likely going to, as well.”��

Row navigated this again when he tackled psychedelics during an April health class. While substances like psilocybin and LSD aren’t as popular as vaping, cannabis or alcohol, Row believes kids have been exposed to them enough through movies, social media and the news to warrant a discussion. And he’s probably right.

The freshmen were noticeably excited the morning they arrived and saw a presentation titled “psychedelics/hallucinogens.” After discussing the role of the brain’s thalamus and how psychedelics suppress its ability to filter all the sensory experiences of the world, one student suggested that this may be a good thing in moderation. After all, The Beatles “took LSD all the time and they had fire music during that timeframe,” she said. Another said she has read that microdosing ‘shrooms can help with anxiety.

Yes, psychedelics could boost creativity in some cases, and yes, research has shown they can be beneficial in therapy, Row responded. But the effects are not all just fractals and rainbows.

“If our thalamus wasn’t working, we would be in sensory overload all the time, and when people do acid, do mushrooms, usually once they wear off, they are completely depleted,” Row told the class. It can take a day or more to recover from a single 8- to 12-hour trip, he added.

Youth leaders cultivate culture

Three hundred miles away, substance prevention specialist Leah Raffa is tasked with disseminating drug education to the 89,000-plus Denver Public Schools students. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here. Instead, Raffa and her colleagues in the Exceptional Student Services sector, which addresses mental health and student well-being, curate a menu of prevention resources and give each school autonomy over the best ways to serve their unique student populations.

Offerings include curricula that focus specifically on vaping, cannabis, prescription drugs and opioids, as well as programming designed to help students cope with stress and create meaningful connections with peers and adults at their schools. Where intervention is needed, DPS will deploy school social workers and psychologists to work directly with individual kids.

Perhaps one of the more interesting ways the district seeks to address whole child well-being is through a program called . The program, which resurfaces throughout elementary, middle and high school, teaches kids to identify and draw upon their personal strengths as a means for creating healthy habits and lifestyles.

At the high school level, Sources of Strength is an extracurricular activity intended to cultivate a group of peer leaders who effectively act as positive influences in their schools. At Denver South High School, the group includes about 10 students, freshmen through seniors, who work with onsite social workers on initiatives that amplify inspiring stories and build community within the student body.

While this program doesn’t directly educate kids about drugs, it works as a prevention mechanism by empowering students to shape their school’s culture and build a peer support network for those who might be struggling, Raffa said.

Rose Negler, who graduated from Denver South last spring, spent several years participating in Sources of Strength and said the most impactful projects were often some of the smallest. For one initiative, students wrote down the name of a positive friend on a slip of paper and then collectively linked them into paper chains that decorated the hallways. The skills she learned also benefited her theater class once when a student went missing. Negler was able to talk to other students who were stressed and help diffuse the situation.

“A lot of my Sources skills came in handy there because I knew what to do in that kind of crisis and I was able to handle it,” she said.

At 5280 Recovery High School, the students even sponsor one another. “We can talk to the kids ‘til we’re blue in the face about what we did to get sober, but it hits different when it’s a 16-year-old who has your same experiences and got their way out of that hole,” Hayes said.

Whole child solutions

In some districts, the most significant evolution has come in how educators react and intervene when students are caught using. In the Montrose County School District on Colorado’s Western Slope, strategies revolve around identifying environmental or circumstantial factors, such as food insecurity, that may be causing students’ drug use and connecting them with community organizations to help remedy those, said Megan Farley, the district����ap manager of student health and safety.

“What we find is (a student) might be using nicotine or something, but that����ap the tip of what����ap actually happening,” Farley said. “We go in with a whole person, whole family approach. Like if it����ap food that you need from the food bank, we hook you up with deliveries from the food bank.”

The district began shifting its approach in 2018, in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and injured 17 others. A decade ago, Montrose had no school social workers in a district serving roughly 6,000 students. Today, Farley manages a team of up to 20 nurses, therapists, social workers, behavior coaches and school resource officers to support students’ needs.

The district also maintains partnerships with local organizations, like Hilltop Community Resources, so that young people can be connected to specific groups or specialists they may need for support. All someone within the district has to do is express concern about an individual kid and Farley’s team will jump into action.

This ethos applies if a student gets in trouble for something other than drugs, too, said district spokesperson Matt Jenkins.��“A child who is in crisis is not going to go away. We’re not going to expel our way out of that problem. We have to find an intervention and find the solutions in concert with that family to turn the corner.”

Most of the educators who spoke to The Post said they were reevaluating discipline methods in hopes of finding long-lasting solutions. Instead of pushing kids away with punishments like suspension, these educators want to bring the students closer.

Here, again, is where trust comes into play, said Hayes. Given that students at 5280 Recovery High School are in recovery, relapse is a real possibility. When that happens — as it sometimes does — the staff works to comfort and support the individual, connect them with groups and assure them they are not a moral failure.

“A lot of us come into recovery with so much guilt and shame for the things that we’ve done. These kids need love — lots of love and lots of grace and lots of understanding,” Hayes said. “Being able to be there for them and supporting them and encouraging them to keep going is very important.”

This series was reported with support of the .

The organization’s Board of Directors sent a letter to members, volunteers and alumni last week to alert them to its commitment to halt “all programs that teach and portray Native American dancing, riding or history in all our performances.”

“We have heard the concerns expressed regarding how Indigenous communities have been portrayed in some of our performances,” said the letter, signed by each of the nine board members. “While our intent has always been to celebrate aspects of Western heritage and horsemanship, we recognize that intent does not always equal impact. When any individual — past or present — feels unheard or disrespected, it matters and it deserves our attention.”

The Westernaires board also committed the organization to better listen to diverse perspectives, evaluate programming with cultural awareness, and “evolve in a way that reflects both our values and the community we serve today.”

The letter is a pivot from the board’s previous attitude about scaling back Native American representation in programming and performances. In an email earlier this year signaling the end of the dance program, the board bemoaned the move as not being its “preferred outcome.”

Board president William Schleicher declined an interview request from The Denver Post to speak about what led to the changes.

“The letter is legitimate and we consider the situation closed,” he said. “We are not interested in following it up any further.”

The Westernaires have taught horsemanship to young people in Colorado and performed equine entertainment with Wild West themes for more than 70 years.

But the organization has faced criticism from the Indigenous community for decades for its perpetuation of cowboys-and-Indians stereotypes, including performing a reenactment of the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn and its Indian dancing program, which dressed up predominantly white children in Native-inspired regalia to perform sacred Indigenous dances.

The all-volunteer organization��ended the dance program in February after mounting pressure from the National Western Stock Show President and CEO Wes Allison and Denver City Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore. At the time, the group did not address the future of other Native American programming, particularly the Battle of Little Bighorn reenactment.

Last week’s letter offered the first public explanation about the situation from the Westernaires.��“To our members and alumni who have shared concerns in the past and may have felt they were not fully heard, we want to acknowledge that we can — and must — do better,” the board wrote.

While Indigenous groups long have been critical of the Native American representation, a family of young Native girls who joined the Westernaires in 2022 reignited the movement.��

Justice and Jamilah Maldonado, 11 and 12, respectively, joined the Westernaires after their grandmother, Marjorie Lane, signed them up to ride horses.

The girls — members of the — loved riding and making friends, but they were horrified when they saw their peers wearing Native-inspired clothing performing Indigenous dances and acting out the — a major defeat of U.S. forces in what is now Montana that is also known as Custer’s Last Stand or, to Natives, the Battle of the Greasy Grass.

The girls and Lane asked the Westernaires through different channels to stop appropriating Native culture, but the organization didn’t listen, Lane said.

In January, Gilmore invited Justice to speak at a Denver City Council meeting attended by Allison, who was there for a proclamation honoring the 120th National Western Stock Show, which the Westernaires traditionally perform at.

Justice shared her disappointment about the Westernaires’ lack of respect for her and her sister. Allison and Lane connected at the meeting, and Allison later told Lane that he let Westernaires’ leadership know they might not be able to perform at the stock show if they continued their Native programming.

The Westernaires board’s letter last week referenced the Maldonado family’s activism, but did not name them.

“A former member of our organization recently provided personal feedback to the Denver City Council regarding her experience in Westernaires,” the board wrote. “Her words reflect a deeply felt personal experience, and it is important that we take a moment — as a community — to listen, reflect and reaffirm who we are and who we strive to be.”

Lane felt conflicted about the Westernaires’ actions, she said in an interview with The Post. She was pleased they finally made the changes she and her granddaughters advocated. But the organization didn’t contact her about the changes, nor did they credit her granddaughters in their communication, she said.

“Do you thank people when they stop acting in a racist manner?” Lane said. “The way they rolled this out made it pretty obvious that it had nothing to do with how my granddaughters were feeling or even anyone in the Native community… I guess they did what we asked for originally. That may be all that matters right now. Why they did it and how they did it may not be that important.”

Lane reached out to Allison to let him know about the changes and thank him for the role he played, she said — and he told her he already knew because the Westernaires’ leadership had hand-delivered a hard copy of their letter to him.

“That spoke volumes to me,” Lane said.

When reached for comment, Allison referred The Post to the Westernaires.

In a statement, Gilmore, the Denver councilwoman, praised the Maldonado girls for speaking up for themselves.

“Never quit,” Gilmore said. “And that is exactly what the community did, by continuing for decades to demand change by this organization. I commend Justice and her family for speaking truth to power, carrying forward others’ voices. Listening, learning and then letting community lead is how good change begins.”

The state in January contracted with , a Denver firm that specializes in probing workplace issues, to investigate complaints within the department, according to a copy of the agreement obtained through an open records request.

While the department declined to elaborate on the nature of the $25,000 investigation, a review of internal complaints and interviews with seven current and former agency leaders and workers paint a picture of a toxic work environment that impacted the mental health of its staff. Leadership was abusive, inappropriate and demeaning, employees told The Denver Post. Several high-ranking members of the agency left under strained circumstances, with the state paying them money to avoid litigation.

“Not only are they ruining people’s lives,” said one former employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they still work for the state, “they’re destroying the state’s second-largest agency.”

All told, the Department of Human Services has paid departing employees nearly $2.8 million in settlement agreements since 2019, when Gov. Jared Polis’ administration took the reins. These cases have concerned alleged pay, age, gender and disability discrimination, whistleblower protection violations, and retaliatory firings, among other accusations.

“That place is a trainwreck,” said Mark Schwane, an employment attorney who frequently represents state workers. “It’s a disaster.”

Department of Human Services officials declined an interview request for this story and did not respond to a list of questions from The Post. In a statement, a spokesperson said the department does not comment on personnel matters, including any investigations tied to individual employees. The external probe remains ongoing.

Employees have a variety of resources to address workplace concerns, including submitting grievances or complaints to leadership, requesting mediation or submitting discrimination or workplace violence reports, said Haysel Hernandez, a department spokesperson.

If an investigation finds that a staff member violated policies or the law, the department takes “immediate action to remedy the situation,” she said in the statement.

“The Colorado Department of Human Services strives to establish a respectful, healthy workplace where all employees are valued and treated fairly,” Hernandez said.

‘So many concerns’

The Colorado Department of Human Services is a sprawling state agency with more than 4,800 employees, trailing only the Department of Corrections in size.

It’s the department of “people who help people,” leadership says, responsible for providing services to children and families, the disabled, and older adults. The agency also manages the state’s child welfare system, 12 youth detention and commitment centers, and two state mental hospitals.

The department’s first stated value: people first. But individuals who worked there say the agency’s own staff don’t seem to get that same treatment.

Those who have been interviewed as part of the outside investigation told The Post that the questions have largely centered on one person: , deputy executive director for operations and strategy.

Morrison referred to her leadership style as “slap and tickle,” which employees who spoke to The Post said made them uncomfortable. She also made inappropriate comments about people’s work statuses, staff said, reminding them that they could be fired at any time.

One staff member said Morrison told them they lacked “executive presence” and recommended they dress in such a way that required them to go beyond the organization’s official dress code. Others said the leader was known for making fun of others in team settings.

“She was very abusive as far as I’m concerned and used her power to intimidate people,” said the former employee who spoke of leadership ruining people’s lives.

Two former high-ranking department members specifically called out Morrison in internal complaints after leaving the agency.

AnneMarie Harper, the department’s former director of communications, cited “hostile and inequitable working conditions” that Morrison created and maintained “through a pattern of inconsistent expectations, inappropriate conduct and professional undermining and communication failures,” she wrote in an appeal and dispute form before the , which was obtained by The Post.

Harper declined an interview request for this story.

In January, another top official filed a complaint with the department’s Civil Rights Unit, alleging Morrison and two other leaders forced her to retire by creating an “intimidating and psychologically harmful (workplace) such that it affected her physical well-being.”

Kristen Withrow, the former associate director for the , which operates the state’s juvenile commitment and detention facilities, said she was left out of meetings, publicly humiliated and scapegoated for safety issues that went on in the youth centers. Her treatment at the end of her tenure was so bad, she wrote, that she applied for family and medical leave for the first time in her 30-year career to care for her health.

“I have so many concerns in the last nine months,” Withrow wrote in a February email included in her complaint. “…I’m just so sad about all of this.”

Withrow declined to talk to The Post about her departure.

Employees say they chose to work for the Department of Human Services because they cared deeply about the agency’s mission to help those less fortunate. But the longer they worked there, the more they realized that their own mental health suffered as a result.

Multiple people told The Post that their sleep suffered while in the job. Others began going to therapy to deal with all the work stress. One former staffer said they burst into tears during a job interview when asked why they left the department.

“The values espoused and printed all over the place, we don’t seem to know how to live those out,” said a current employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they still work for the department.

While Morrison received the bulk of the attention from the outside investigators, many of the former staffers said her boss, , also bore responsibility for the department’s toxic culture.

“If you’re not stopping it, you’re part of it,” the current employee said. “I think she is complicit. Katy can only do what she’s allowed to do.”

Barnes and Morrison, through a department spokesperson, declined interview requests for this story.

Millions in settlements

Barnes has also overseen the agency’s practice of paying out high-dollar settlements to departing staffers who challenged their terminations or brought claims in court or with the state personnel board.

The Post obtained all settlement agreements involving the Department of Human Services that concerned monetary payouts to employees since Polis took office in 2019. The department, during that span, reached financial agreements with at least 69 staffers, paying out a total of $2.8 million.

Those agreements spanned $500 on the low end to more than $400,000 to settle claims with a worker who filed a federal lawsuit.

In that 2020 suit, a psychologist working at the at Fort Logan alleged that her supervisor demonstrated “abusive and authoritarian behavior” toward the female psychologists at the facility and used false claims to demote her and go after her professional license.

In a 2019 federal complaint, the director of nursing at a Wheat Ridge facility for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities said she was paid less than her white and non-Asian colleagues for the same work. The director, who is Asian, said leadership retaliated against her after she brought grievances over the discriminatory pay.

The Department of Human Services ended up paying her $383,750 to settle the nursing director’s claims.

Over the past two years, the department has reached 26 agreements with staffers to avoid litigation. Many did not involve money and only dealt with whether an employee’s departure was designated as a termination or resignation.

Fourteen of these deals, though, involved state payouts, to the tune of $381,900. Only the Colorado Department of Corrections paid out more money — $502,702 — to its workers during the last two years.

Harper received $95,000 to resolve her claims. Another worker got $26,500 after alleging their termination was discriminatory. A third person negotiated $122,000 after saying his separation was retaliation in violation of the . One staffer obtained nearly $40,000 to resolve civil rights and charges based on disability discrimination.

Some, though not all, agreements involved nondisparagement clauses, which prohibit the sides from making negative statements about each other. Several also included nondisclosure language, mandating that neither side discuss the settlement negotiations with a third party.

The Department of Human Services needs wholesale change at the top, said Schwane, the employment lawyer. The department rewards loyalty over quality of work, he said, which results in anyone giving negative feedback being pushed out.

“They’re reliable sychophants,” Schwane said.

Settlement agreements are used for a variety of reasons, and do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing by the department or employee, Hernandez, the agency spokesperson, said in a statement. These deals “ensure a fair process, and, when needed, a reasonable opportunity to resolve disagreements or provide a supportive transition out of the agency,” she said.

“The department continues to welcome feedback from staff and is committed to a positive, productive and successful workplace culture that helps employees conduct their best work,” Hernandez said.

Heather Wilcox, a 20-year state employee, said she was administratively discharged��from her communications job with — part of the Department of Human Services — after she took an extended leave following the deaths of both her parents and one grandparent.

Her supervisors questioned her about her leave and rejected her accommodation requests when she tried to return to work, she said in an interview.

Wilcox lost her hearing as a child and received cochlear implants — a fact that made her deaf but “not deaf enough” for some in the community, she said. A job helping Colorado’s deaf and hard-of-hearing was a dream come true. Until it wasn’t.

“The whole thing was horrifically abusive,” Wilcox said. “My own community did this to me.”

Wilcox lost health insurance for her and her daughter. She says she feels blackballed as she applies for other jobs.

She filed a claim with the state personnel board, alleging her discharge was discriminatory. In March, the state agreed to let her resign, removed disciplinary memos from her file, and paid her $40,000 plus attorney fees to avoid a protracted legal dispute.

Wilcox wonders how she became so disposable after spending her entire career in public service.

“How do you treat people like that at CDHS?” she said.

While this stereotype persists, it doesn’t paint the complete picture.

Chess clubs across the country, including in Colorado, are thriving with players of all ages, and the benefits they offer span from early childhood through retirement — making chess one of the few activities that deliver lifelong cognitive and social rewards.

Breaking the age barrier

Although chess has a reputation as “an old person’s game,” that perception is changing.

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a chess boom, with reporting a sixfold increase in membership during lockdown, and the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” turbocharged interest in the game and drew more women and girls to it.

This renaissance revealed what chess educators have known all along: chess isn’t just for retirees–it����ap a game that benefits players at every life stage.

Young minds, rapid growth

Children are uniquely positioned to excel at chess. Their brains work like sponges, absorbing patterns, strategies, and concepts at remarkable speed.

Kevin McConnell, and president of the Colorado State Chess Association, works with over 1,500 kids per semester across more than 70 schools in the Denver area. In addition to before- and after-school programs, Pals offers two weekly Mastermind chess clubs for children ages 6-15.

Pals accepts children as young as 4, with one key insight: keep lessons fun, funny, and short.��“Lessons are about 10 minutes,” McConnell said. “The rest of the time is guided chess play. They learn as much or more from that.”

The results speak for themselves.��Children who attend chess clubs see a 5 to 10% improvement in math scores, while those who participate in rated chess tournaments experience a larger math gain of 30 to 50%, along with a 10 to 20% improvement in reading, according to a 2024 study.

These benefits also reach beyond academics. Chess teaches planning, strategic thinking, and understanding the consequences of your actions–skills that translate directly to life decisions.

Perhaps most importantly in our fast-moving digital age, chess requires something increasingly rare: the ability to slow down and think.��“It����ap fundamentally the opposite of TikTok or video games,” McConnell said. “You can’t do it fast. To do well, you need to sit and think. Kids don’t do that as much as they once did.”

A recent Masterminds meeting attracted a group of young chess players who excel at one-on-one games.

“I like the challenge of scanning the board and remembering the plays,” said Gabriel Harden, 14, who has been playing chess for two years. “I like the strategy and learning how to scan the board and try to see what����ap coming.”

Louis Haase, 11, who has been playing for three years, said he started by teaching himself, but improved his skills after his mom bought him a chess book. Now he enjoys reviewing the games with an instructor to identify areas to improve.

And while McConnell hopes the one-on-one matches help slow the kids down, players like Haley Ameter, 9, like the challenge of speed.��“I like to win and to go as fast as possible,” she said.

The social element: More than just moving pieces

While chess may seem like a solitary pastime — two players locked in silent combat — chess clubs offer something that online play cannot: genuine social connection, said Earle Wikle, president of the Denver Chess Club.

With 80-120 active members and monthly tournaments drawing up to 80 players, the club thrives on human interaction. While players may not talk during matches, the post-game analysis creates chances for connection.

“You go to another side area and basically go through the game together,” Wikle said. “You get an understanding of where you might have gone wrong. It����ap one of the social aspects–analyzing your game. It����ap like analyzing a math problem together, figuring out how you could play it differently.”

This face-to-face interaction contrasts with online chess, where players often encounter trolling and unsportsmanlike behavior.

McConnell doesn’t recommend online chess for children without disabling the chat function.

Over the board, players make friends, develop long-term rivalries, and learn the invaluable skill of sportsmanship.

Lifelong cognitive benefits

For older adults, chess clubs offer cognitive benefits that may help preserve mental sharpness.

Wikle, 62, banks on the long-term effects: “Hopefully it will pan out for me medically. Keeping your mind active is important.”

The cognitive workout chess provides includes reasoning, calculation, memory, visualization, and assessment skills. Chess puzzles–where players try to solve potential move sequences — require imagining pieces in different positions, a form of mental gymnastics that keeps the brain engaged and active.

The game also teaches practical life skills at any age: time management (most games are timed), emotional control under pressure, and maintaining composure in competitive situations. These qualities transfer to other activities, helping players become less reactive and more thoughtful in their daily lives.

The chess community is also working to become increasingly inclusive. While the game has historically been predominantly male (the Denver Chess Club reports about 10-15% female membership), initiatives such as Pals Chess’s all-girls chess camp–featuring female instructors and a woman grandmaster — are helping inspire the next generation of female players.

Colorado Chess Clubs

Denver Chess Club

When it meets: Tuesdays, 6:30-10:30 p.m.

Location: Hope Fellowship Christian Reformed Church, 2400 S. Ash St., Denver

Website:

Aurora Chess Club

When it meets: Saturdays, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Location: All Saints Lutheran Church, 15625 E. Iliff Ave., Aurora

Website:

Boulder Chess Club

When it meets: Wednesdays, 6-9 p.m.

Location: CU Boulder UMC Building, first floor, North Dining area (colder months); Foothills Community Park (warmer months)

Website:

Colorado Springs Chess Club

When it meets: Tuesdays, 6 p.m. (opens), 7 p.m. (play starts)

Location: Acacia Apartment Building Ballroom, 104 E. Platte Ave., Colorado Springs

Website:

Chessmates Fort Collins

When it meets: Thursdays, 5-6:30 p.m. (advanced club); Wednesdays, 5:30-6:30 p.m. (academy club)

Location: Various school locations and year-round clubs

Website:

Colorado State Chess Association

Website:

Provides information about chess clubs and tournaments throughout Colorado

Sara B. Hansen is a Denver-based freelance writer.

debuts this weekend, giving locals a chance to preview the dancefloor, food and drinks ahead of opening more regular hours. The venue, at 2201 Lawrence St., takes over the space formerly home to Mile High Spirits’ distillery tasting room, .

For the 19-year-old Patterson, the bar is a natural evolution of his Instagram page – one that offers a chance to build a community IRL and revive what he sees as a nostalgic pastime. Additionally, the bar will feature a retail component where locals can check out Broken Bow’s hats, button-down shirts, bandannas and more, all of which feature Patterson’s original artwork and designs.

“Really what we always post about in the main thing is just the great places and people and cultures of America,” said Patterson, whose love of country music came from summers spent listening to CDs and tapes with his grandfather in Missouri. “It came to a head where it’s like, man, I don’t know how we’re going to keep saying this or pushing this stuff out there if we don’t have something to show for it in real life. And I realized I wanted to build a place that was like one of these old places that played the type of old music that existed in America.”

Colorado, of course, is not short on country musicians or venues that play their music, but Patterson hopes to add his unique spin to Broken Bow Western Bar and Dance Hall by showcasing artists he’s collaborated with and curating an aesthetic that mimics his Instagram page. Inspired by venues like Denver’s Grizzly Rose and Austin’s Broken Spoke, he helped shop for decor to ensure it felt authentic.

Broken Bow previously designed T-shirts for bands such as and , and recorded live performances with the likes of the Honkytonk Wranglers, Josh Meloy and Kade Hoffman. Patterson hopes there will be all-ages nights that he and his peers can join in the fun.

A venue “just seemed like the most logical next step, given that we had all these people we formed relationships with over the years. We wanted something to represent that and a place for them to play or new artists that usually wouldn’t get play time,” Patterson said. “Pretty much just a place to physically represent Broken Bow.”

Given Patterson’s age, he won’t be involved much in day-to-day operations of the Broken Bow venue. Instead, the concept is funded and run by , which owns bars like and in LoDo, and mini-golf bar. (Patterson’s father is an investor in HB Hospitality.)

To that end, the food available at Broken Bow will resemble RiNo Country Club, with a mix of cheeseburgers, wings and other pub fare. The bar is expected to serve a no-frills lineup of beers and mixed drinks.

Moving offline and into Denver’s live music scene may seem like a bold move. But for Patterson, who opted against attending college to pursue his Broken Bow dream, it����ap a risk worth taking.

“There’s a lot of stuff I do where it is a big risk,” he said. “This is the next step and to me there’s no doubt in my mind it’s the right thing to do.”

Broken Bow Western Bar and Dance Hall hosts a preview weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Events are free to attend, with . On Saturday and Sunday, the venue will be open to all ages until 8 p.m. For more information, visit .��

As the Summit drew near, Denver drew a line in the sand. And dared the rest of the U.S.A. to cross it.

“I think it’s intoxicating, that environment you just feel,” Summit FC goalkeeper Abby Smith said after Denver’s home opener ended in a 0-0 stalemate with the Washington Spirit. “And I think just our supporters were behind us, cheering the whole time. We heard them constantly.”

With 63,004 packed into Empower Field, they were hard to miss. No U.S. market has ever drawn that many people for a professional women’s sports event in this country — let alone a soccer event.

Leonardo da Vinci himself couldn’t have drawn up a sweeter draw. The 14ers banged drums and danced like no one was watching. A “Trans People Belong In Sports” banner hung in front of the south stands. A poodle in cool shades watched from a warm lap at midfield.

Denver didn’t just set a new record for the largest attendance at a professional women’s sports event. The Front Range shattered it by 22,913 patrons.

Take that, Bay FC.

on the way out, Chicago Stars.

“It was a shocking revelation to imagine that a city like Denver didn’t have a women’s team,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said before the match. “I’ve spent time in Denver through my days at the NHL and my days at the National Lacrosse League, (and) anytime I’m here, I feel like the culture is one that screams, ‘inclusion.’ And it is not surprising when you think about that, as well as the success of US Women’s National Team when they come here. And so (Summit controlling owner) Rob (Cohen’s) vision to bring a women’s professional team here had to happen. And we were just proud to be the ones to make that decision.”

You listening, WNBA?

How about you, PWHL?

Just because the NWSL was first doesn’t mean they should be the last.

“It’s incredible to see Denver supporting women’s sports in this way,” Summit fan Karen Hohnecker, who turned up wearing an “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” t-shirt, told me just after a record crowd was announced. “And it’s just part of this bigger wave of everyone getting involved in women’s sports — much beyond women, but also men, boys, little kids. Everybody’s going to be raised watching women’s sports and not thinking of it as anything different than men’s sports. It’s a really exciting time.”

A few rows over, Genni Williams didn’t have a dog in the fight. But she did have a dog in her lap.

Williams and her wife, Julie, both of Lakewood, sat in Section 123 inside a sweltering Empower Field with their senior poodle Janelle, a 13-year-old service dog with poor hearing and no teeth. They even brought tiny sunglasses for Janelle, the coolest pup in the place, to watch the Summit and Spirit duke it out from the midfield concourse.

Julie’s the soccer fan in the house. Genni is … learning the game. The couple bought season tickets to Summit FC recently, although, they admitted, the origin story of that one is a little hazy.

“I didn’t even remember that I had bought them because they called, (and) we were in the lottery, right?” Genni Williams said. “(They had) called right after I just had a back surgery and was not super clear-headed. I thought I had made it up until I saw (a note), I found an email, and I was like, ‘Oh (expletive), I did buy season tickets.”

“So now you’re into this franchise, win, lose or draw,” I said.

“Oh,” Genni replied, raising an eyebrow, “you can end on a tie?”

Yep. 0-0. Everybody drive home safe.

“It’s like ballet with aggression,” Cheri Brichacek leaned over and explained to Genni. “The footwork is so phenomenal. The precision of the footwork — just watch that and you’ll enjoy the game. You don’t even have to know their roles. Just watch for (the feet).”

Brichacek sat to the Williams’ left with her mother, Noreen, who turned 89 last month. Cheri grew up playing soccer in Maine, moved to the Front Range about 30 years ago try it for a few months, and never left.

“(Mom) hasn’t been to a big soccer game since Pele,” Cheri explained.

That would be the Brazilian legends’ last game with the old New York Cosmos — all the way back in October 1977 at what was then Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

“She scalped tickets under a bridge,” Cheri recalled. “She took me and a soccer ball. It was hysterical.”

“We went across to get the tickets because it was pouring rain,” Noreen added. “I mean, it was pouring rain.”

Noreen’s a hoot. She got three letters in high school athletics, including one for 6-on-6 basketball, a long-defunct iteration of the sport in which three players from each team play only on the offensive or defensive side of the court. Ask your great aunt from Iowa about that one.

“I said, ‘When I croak, I want my letters to go with me,'” she chuckled.

Cheri, meanwhile, watched the Summit make history with her mom to her right and a USA soccer hat dangling from the seat in front of her. It belonged to Michelle, her late wife, who passed away last year after a battle with ovarian cancer.

“Phenomenal soccer player,” Brichacek said. “Speedy.”

Mother and daughter rose with the crowd in the 81st minute as a cross from the Summit’s Caron Pickett was headed just wide over the left post by Melissa Kossler.

In front of them were younger generations of mothers and daughters, who’ll tell their own Summit tales three or four decades from now. The green smoke. The flames. The flyover. The noise.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Noreen said of the crowd. “Biggest match we’ve been to for women’s soccer. It’s phenomenal … the effects that they used (in the pregame) were beyond stunning. Just beyond stunning. And the women deserve it.”

Darn straight.

“I’m not going to say (they’re) ‘The 12th (Man)’ yet, because I went to (the University of Texas),” Smith cracked. “So I’m going to say it felt like we had 15 people in the field. Because everybody was there and everybody was in it with us.”

To the end, 63,004 strong. Marching to the Summit as one.