A few years ago, leaders in a New England city of approximately 30,000 people were concerned with persistent public drug use, frequent overdoses, and increasing housing instability. C4 collaborated with the city to create a team of community responders to partner with first responders to support people in crisis during select 911 calls.

We convened meetings with city partners and people who would benefit from a community responder team and worked together to write a strategic plan and logic model focused on long-term, measurable outcomes. We supported regular communications with public safety and law enforcement leaders as well as recruitment and hiring for the new role. After completing a landscape analysis, key informant interviews, gathering insights from key partners, and identifying viable models that reflect community priorities and lived experience, we also helped lay a foundation for a Peer Advisory Council to support the team.

In the two years since the launch of the community responder initiative, team members, including people with lived and living experience, have completed over 13,000 engagements with more than 1,500 unique individuals, launched a coordinated partnership with the public safety dispatch, and received over 4,800 total visits to its community space.