Real Lives. Real Connection. Real Transformation.

Healing, mentorship, and opportunity for Denver youth through connection with adults who have walked the same road.

What is LEI?

Why LEI Matters

What Students Experience

The LEI Approach and Program Philosophy

LEI is an eight-week immersive program where students meet adults with lived experience in addiction, violence, incarceration, family trauma, and recovery and learn through storytelling, self-reflection, and guided mentorship.

More than 20,000 youth in Colorado are justice-involved or justice-adjacent.

  • Youth are more likely to open up and engage when speaking with adults who actually know what their lives feel like

  • Traditional systems often don’t have the relational capital to reach these students

  • Healing happens through trust, connection, and shared humanity

  • LEI helps students feel seen, heard, supported, and hopeful

  • Guest speakers with real lived experience

  • Small-group discussion circles

  • Food shared each session (community ritual)

  • A relationship-based mentorship environment

  • A culture of confidentiality and emotional safety

  • Guided reflection and self-assessment

  • Achievement recognized with certificates and celebration

  • LEI is built on the belief that young people change through connection, not compliance.

    Students are met as whole humans with voice, agency, and lived realities that deserve respect. By creating emotionally safe spaces grounded in confidentiality and care, LEI helps students feel seen and valued, often for the first time in a school setting.

  • LEI is experience-based and trauma-informed, led by adults who have walked similar paths and built stability and community on the other side.

    Through storytelling, dialogue, and shared reflection, students learn from people who understand addiction, incarceration, violence, and recovery firsthand. This approach allows learning to feel authentic, relevant, and rooted in shared understanding.

  • LEI helps students imagine and build what comes next. The program is intentionally future-focused, supporting goal-setting, self-reflection, and motivation through consistent positive reinforcement.

    Group experiences like shared meals, celebrations, certificates, and milestone rewards reinforce effort and growth.

Who Leads LEI?

LEI is led by adults who have survived addiction, incarceration, family violence, and system-impact, and have gone on to build stability, purpose, careers, and community.

Ways to Engage

Be a Guest Speaker

Do you have a lived experience story to share?

  • Join us for one session and speak directly with youth in our program.

  • We’ll support you beforehand and walk you through the process.

  • Your vulnerability could be the turning point in someone’s life.

Guest Speaker Interest Form

Become a Mentor

Join our 8-week mentorship cohort and work with students in small-group settings!

  • 7 weekly 1-hour sessions and one culminating 5-hour graduation day

  • Training and coaching provided. You will not be thrown in unprepared.

  • We are looking for mentors who are compassionate, reliable, and able to hold space with humility.

Mentor Interest Form

Bring LEI to Your School

If you’re a Denver school leader, mental health staff member, or administrator, you can host LEI on-site.

  • Free for schools

  • Adaptable to your student population

  • Fits into advisory or can count as elective credit

  • We work alongside your team, not separately

  • You identify 15–20 students and we facilitate the rest

  • We support student & parent permission processes

  • Staff can observe, participate, or fully engage — we welcome it!

We don’t arrive with a pre-set agenda. We design with you and for your unique student population.

If your school is seeing any of the following, we are here to help:

  • peer conflict

  • domestic violence ripple effects

  • substance misuse

  • truancy

  • self-harm indicators

  • gang involvement

  • emotional shutdown

School Interest Form

How to Know if LEI is Right for Your School

We want to encourage school leaders to self-identify. LEI may be a strong fit if:

  • you have students struggling with connection, trust, or self-worth

  • punitive discipline isn’t producing growth

  • your staff is seeking deeper culture-building tools

  • you need community-integrated support

  • you want SEL that isn’t superficial