03/25/2016 02:17:49 PM MDT

A $10 million pledge will help the University of Colorado create a new center dedicated to improving mental health services in Colorado.

The university announced Friday that the five-year commitment, one of the largest gifts ever to the university’s Anschutz Medical Campus, will finance a new National Behavioral Health Innovation Center in Aurora.

The gift came from The Anschutz Foundation and is designed to create what the university calls a “virtual center” to help people in Colorado and across the nation gain mental health training and expertise. The center does not plan to treat patients.

“We’re trying to work with existing services,” said Matt Vogl, executive director of the new center.

Part of its role, he said, will be to help businesses, schools and first responders recognize signs of mental illnesses early, when they are easiest to treat.

He likened that role to backstage workers at a theater production.

“We’re just there to get them up and running,” he said, “helping do whatever needs to be done.”

In a 2014 series, The Denver Post reported that Colorado spends relatively little for mental health services, that tens of thousands of people who need treatment get none and that prisons end up housing many people with advanced mental illnesses.

In December 2014, Colorado received a $65 million grant for mental health programs.