The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is requesting funds to continue to participate in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). Colorado has been an active participant in this data system since 2003, with data submission to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) beginning in 2004. Since this time, data have been used locally for planning, development of programs and policies, enhanced funding for violence prevention, and evaluation of prevention efforts. Strong relationships have been developed with data providers and data users throughout the state of Colorado.
The goal of the Colorado Violent Death Reporting System (CoVDRS) is to collect and disseminate data on violent deaths in Colorado in order to improve the planning, implementation, and evaluation of
violence prevention programs. To continue working towards accomplishing the goal, Colorado will: (1) Collect NVDRS data; (2) analyze, interpret, and disseminate NVDRS data annually to characterize trends in violence mortality, understand disparities, and inform violence prevention efforts; (3) conduct data-driven planning, monitoring and evaluation to support continuous surveillance improvement; and (4) build capacity for epidemiologic science, geocoding, and conducting linkage to data with information on social determinants of health or other relevant data. Additionally, Colorado will pursue the creation and enhancement of public-facing data dashboards to promote data access and dissemination.
CoVDRS has been collecting and disseminating data on violent death in Colorado for nearly 20 years. The new funding cycle will allow CoVDRS to build on that foundation and advance our original successes in order to improve current processes. Colorado will continue to be an active participant in the CDC’s efforts to demonstrate the value of the National Violent Death Reporting System.
