About Jonathan McMillan

Build a safer system that works in the real world.

Understand the problem, get the right people working together, and build a safety plan they can carry out.

Jonathan McMillan leading a discussion in Milwaukee

Lived experience and executive leadership

Good intentions need a system that can deliver.

You do not need another report, training, or program that sounds good but fails when it meets the realities of your community.

You need someone who understands how violence affects people, how systems respond, where those systems break down, and what it takes to turn good intentions into coordinated action. That is where I come in.

I am Jonathan McMillan, founder of The InCredible Messenger. I help public agencies, community organizations, schools, funders, and leaders design stronger approaches to violence prevention, public safety, leadership, and community change.

My perspective comes from more than 30 years across direct service, community intervention, policy development, government leadership, training, public speaking, and organizational management. I have worked with young people and families, advised elected officials, built public-sector offices, managed multimillion-dollar initiatives, trained professionals, and helped communities move from fragmented activity to coordinated strategy.

I bring both lived experience and institutional experience. I understand the street, the service system, the policy table, and the leadership room.

Work with Jonathan

30+

Years across community, government, public health, nonprofit, and national initiatives

$3M

Appropriated in 2021 for Colorado’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Jonathan later led

Read the law

2025

Coauthor of Colorado’s published Comprehensive Collaborative Community Framework

Read the report

Founding leadership roles in Denver’s youth violence prevention office and Colorado’s gun violence prevention office

What you gain from working with me

The right support for the work in front of you.

Gun Violence Prevention Model Design

Design a violence-prevention strategy that fits your community instead of copying someone else’s model.

I can help you

Assess your current approach and identify gaps
Select or design the right community violence intervention model
Align public health, public safety, community, and behavioral-health partners
Put the staff, agreements, funding, and decisions in place so the plan can reach people
Connect strategy to funding, data, accountability, and measurable outcomes

I founded and led Colorado’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, developing its strategic plan, grant program, resource bank, public-awareness efforts, and stakeholder-engagement structure in response to legislative mandates.

Youth Violence Prevention Strategy and Technical Assistance

Move from disconnected programs to a coordinated youth-violence prevention system.

I can help you

Identify the conditions contributing to youth violence
Strengthen prevention and intervention strategies
Improve coordination across agencies and organizations
Build meaningful youth and community engagement
Translate research and community knowledge into action
Develop implementation plans that staff can actually use

As Denver’s Youth Violence Prevention Coordinator and founding Director of the Office of Youth Violence Prevention, I helped build citywide infrastructure, partnerships, funding strategies, and implementation systems.

Public Policy Development and Implementation

Work with a policy partner who understands how to move from an idea to an operating system.

I can help you

Define the problem clearly
Develop policy grounded in evidence and lived experience
Build support with the people who can make the decision and the people who will live with it
Translate legislation into programs, structures, and responsibilities
Identify unintended consequences and implementation barriers
Create accountability measures that show whether policy is working

As a Denver City Council Policy Aide and Community Affairs Liaison, I helped develop policy responses focused on young men and boys of color, youth violence, and community safety. I also helped lead the council office’s role in developing a citywide, multiagency youth-violence prevention plan.

Speaking, Workshops, Training, and Facilitation

Make complex issues understandable, relevant, and actionable.

I can help you

Keynotes and expert panels
Leadership and workforce trainings
Violence-prevention workshops
Community conversations
Planning sessions with agencies and community partners
Facilitated planning and implementation meetings

Participants leave with more than inspiration. They leave with a clearer understanding of the problem, practical tools, and a stronger sense of what they can do next.

Jonathan McMillan speaking with participants at a Colorado public health and safety roundtable — Working through public safety challenges with people across the table.

Expert Insight on Gangs, Violence, and Public Safety

Understand the human realities and system-level conditions behind violence through lived experience, professional practice, research, and public-sector leadership.

I can help you

Gang culture and the process of leaving gang involvement
Youth and community violence
Gun violence prevention
Credible-messenger practice
Community violence intervention
Public health approaches to public safety
The relationship between trauma, opportunity, belonging, and behavior

My experience helps me explain both the human realities and the system-level conditions behind violence.

Direct Service and Reentry Support

Strengthen support for people changing their lives, grounded in what that takes in practice.

I can help you

Coaching and mentoring
Policy and program design
Practical reentry strategies
Coordination across service systems

Earlier in my career, I worked directly with young people and families as a gang-intervention specialist and outreach case manager. I conducted assessments, responded to crises, developed service plans, mentored young people, and coordinated support across systems. As a formerly incarcerated person who rebuilt my life, I also bring firsthand understanding of reentry, accountability, identity, and redemption.

Community and Law-Enforcement Relations

Help people with different experiences, responsibilities, and levels of trust work toward a shared public-safety goal.

I can help you

Improve communication and trust
Clarify rights, responsibilities, and expectations
Strengthen youth-police interactions
Facilitate difficult conversations
Identify shared solutions without ignoring real differences
Build relationships that can hold up during crisis

I have trained youth, community members, and police officers; organized community-law-enforcement forums; and served in public-safety governance and advisory roles.

Leadership that turns strategy into action

From direct service to statewide strategy.

Across these roles, I have built teams, managed budgets, developed policy, created offices, trained professionals, brought agencies and community partners together, and helped leaders make better decisions under difficult conditions.

Founding Director, Colorado Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Founding Director, Denver Office of Youth Violence Prevention
Director, Firearm-Related Harm and Violence Prevention Program Office
Denver City Council Policy Aide and Community Affairs Liaison
Chair, Denver Crime Prevention and Control Commission
Chair, Denver African American Commission
Governor-appointed member, Colorado Justice Assistance Grant Board
National speaker, trainer, facilitator, and consultant

The result

You leave with more than ideas.

You leave knowing what needs to change, who has to act, and how to check whether the work reaches people. I can help your team turn that understanding into a plan.

Work with Jonathan