Taking the Call: A National Conference Exploring Innovative Community Responder Models

Communities across the U.S. are launching new responses to emergency calls. They are redefining who answers calls for service involving mental health or substance use crises, homelessness, “quality-of-life” issues, and other low-level situations.

This event will bring people together from across the U.S. to explore how jurisdictions are serving as laboratories for innovation to ensure that emergency calls receive the appropriate response. The conference will explore the opportunities and challenges of these community responder models and whether or how the approach may improve community health, lessen the burden on law enforcement, and reduce unnecessary justice system contact.

There are two registration options associated with this event:

• Individual registration is appropriate for any person who is not part of a team as defined above but is interested in attending the event to learn more about community responder models across the U.S. 
• Team registration is appropriate for people from the same service area who are interested in having time during the conference to plan for the launch of a future community responder program or improve an existing community responder program. Teams will have access to free consultation during the event from national experts and existing community responder programs. After the conference, teams will have access to free, ongoing consultation to support their continued planning efforts, including help with identifying needed funding.