BOULDER, Colo. -- The University of Colorado Boulder announced Thursday that it has received $6.5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund a five-year effort to reduce youth violence in Denver's Montbello neighborhood.

The project aims to reduce rates of serious violent crime and gang-related violence, in addition to self-reported rates of drug and alcohol abuse, gang participation, fighting, and bullying or being bullied in schools.

The CU-Boulder center will work closely with the residents of Montbello and a special community board to reduce violence among those aged 10 to 24 during the five-year period beginning Sept. 30.

"Montbello has more than 30,000 residents and is located northeast of I-70 and Peoria Street and south of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It has experienced longstanding problems with crime and gangs," according to the CU news release.

CDC is leading the initiative because youth violence is widely considered to be one of the most important public health issues facing today's teenagers and young adults. A 2007 CDC study found that homicide and suicide are responsible for approximately one-quarter of the deaths among persons aged 10 to 24.

The proposed grant received extensive community support when it was submitted last year, including letters of support from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

The principal investigator on the project is Delbert Elliott, director of the CU Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and a professor of sociology.

Currently, the responsibility of addressing youth violence falls primarily on the school systems and the juvenile justice system, Elliott said.

"We intend to create a novel combination of risk assessment and interventions in a broad partnership with the community, and in collaboration with a local hospital, to address the problem of high levels of violence," Elliott said.

The first year of the project will be spent collecting baseline data in the Montbello community and in the comparison neighborhood of Northeast Park Hill, establishing a community coalition and creating a community action plan.

The second through fifth years will involve implementing evidence-based programs and strategies chosen by the community board, monitoring the programs implementation and evaluating their impacts. .