Our Work
Rise Above Colorado has been a successful leader in promoting healthy youth behavior and preventing substance misuse since its inception in 2008 as the Colorado Meth Project. Our public awareness work in correcting misperceptions about youth substance use is called Positive Community Norming. This evidence-based approach is based on The Montana Institute’s Science of the Positive framework and leverages Rise Above’s unique insight and experience in effectively communicating with teens in a compelling, relatable and accurate way. Rise Above Colorado, with its shared risk and protective factor approach to prevention, connects with and educates teens using honesty and data, ultimately paving a path to a healthy future for Colorado’s teens without the negative influence of drugs.
Rise Above Colorado offers expertise and collaboration to communities across Colorado through our Colorado Constellation Project (CCP), based on the constellation model of collective impact created by the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. The CCP is a network of youth and adults across the state who implement substance misuse prevention efforts in a meaningful and authentic way. Rise Above serves to align resources and approaches between partners at the community and statewide levels, allowing for youth substance misuse prevention strategies to be coordinated and have maximum impact across the social ecology and geography of Colorado. Shared objectives of the CCP are: coalition support, co-creating and leveraging a Positive Community Norms approach, leveraging Rise Above Colorado educational resources, and utilizing our youth civic engagement model called Lead the Change Colorado (LTCCO).