Youth mental health is moving from school hallways to the political spotlight, as Children's Hospital Colorado and Healthier Colorado team up on Mind Our Future Colorado, a statewide coalition pressing the next governor to treat the crisis as a top-tier priority. The group is assembling a policy playbook, crisscrossing the state for listening sessions, and lining up public events that are all aimed at locking in concrete commitments from candidates. The effort is set to peak with a televised gubernatorial forum on May 28 that will put each contender’s mental health plans directly in front of voters.
The campaign, launched in March, already counts more than 40 partners, including health systems, early childhood organizations, and community groups, a roster organizers say reflects the size of the problem. “Colorado has the opportunity to be a leader in confronting the ongoing national child and youth mental health crisis,” Children's Hospital Colorado CEO Jena Hausmann said in the launch announcement. Hospital leaders also pointed to the more than 14,400 pediatric patients who received mental health treatment last year in the hospital’s integrated System of Care as evidence that the state needs deeper, systemic fixes, according to Children's Hospital Colorado.
The Numbers Behind The Push
State data help explain the urgency. The Colorado Health Institute reports that in 2025, 14% of Coloradans ages 5 to 21 said they experienced poor mental health, and surveys show 26% of high school students and 24% of middle schoolers reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness. Rural communities are hit even harder, with youth suicide rates roughly 35% higher in rural areas than the statewide average. Those trends have pushed the campaign to emphasize early-intervention programs, workforce development, and insurance coverage reforms, according to the Colorado Health Institute.
What Mind Our Future Is Asking For
Mind Our Future has outlined three core areas for policy change, framed as “health foundations for young minds,” “a mental health system built for kids,” and “mental health within reach for kids and families.” Coalition leaders say those big buckets will be broken down into specific, actionable proposals that candidates will be pressed to endorse. The group plans to circulate candidate questionnaires, host youth and rural roundtables, and publish a policy playbook intended to hold leaders to their promises. Those tactics are part of a broader statewide engagement strategy detailed on the campaign’s site, according to Mind Our Future Colorado.
Gubernatorial Forum Set For May 28
The coalition has organized a gubernatorial forum on May 28 focused exclusively on child and youth mental health, with CBS Colorado set to moderate and stream the event. The two Democratic candidates, Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, have committed to attend, organizers and broadcasters said. The forum will give voters a rare side-by-side look at how each campaign proposes to invest in schools, clinics, and mental health workforce pipelines if elected. Details on the event and coverage plans are available from CBS Colorado.
Rural Gaps and Workforce Shortages
Advocates keep coming back to geography. In many rural counties, mental health workforce ratios are several times worse than in metro areas, and local clinics often wrestle with long wait lists. The Colorado Health Institute has warned that these workforce and access gaps, combined with insurance and cost barriers, leave many children who need care without it. Philanthropic partners have started to seed local solutions, and the Boettcher Foundation recently listed support for rural roundtables linked to Mind Our Future in its latest round of grants, a sign that funders are putting money behind the outreach, according to the Boettcher Foundation.
How To Get Involved
Organizers say they want ideas and stories from parents, educators, and young people, not just the usual crowd at the statehouse. Mind Our Future is recruiting coalition partners and volunteers through its website, where the campaign lists ways to join local roundtables, sign up for updates, and download policy materials ahead of the May forum and the fall election, according to Mind Our Future Colorado.
Whether the campaign’s playbook turns into new laws or fresh funding will hinge on how candidates respond on stage and whether Coloradans keep youth mental health at the center of the conversation through Election Day. For now, organizers say they are trying to turn years of advocacy and research into a lasting engine for statewide change.
