Justice Briefing Live: Responding to Homelessness: Effective Strategies for Law Enforcement and Community Partners

POSTPONED: The Responding to Homelessness: Effective Strategies for Law Enforcement and Community Partners Justice Briefing Live event, has been rescheduled for TODAY, May 25 at 2pm.

People who experience homelessness often have frequent—and sometimes repeated—interactions with law enforcement. Police-Mental Health Collaborations are well-situated to intervene in these situations and provide vital connections to housing and supportive services, which can help break the cycle of homelessness and justice involvement that is especially common for people with behavioral health needs. 

This event will explore practical strategies communities across the U.S. are implementing to build and strengthen Police-Mental Health Collaborations to respond to homelessness. The event will feature a live demonstration of the newly revamped BJA Police-Mental Health Collaboration (PMHC) Toolkit, which includes several new modules specifically focused on responding to homelessness. It will also feature keynote remarks from top Federal agency leaders, people with lived experience with homelessness and the justice system, as well as a panel of practitioners from Sarasota, Florida and Wichita, Kansas who will share their experiences using collaborative, cross-system approaches to address homelessness in their communities. Finally, the event will conclude with an invitation to continue the conversation by joining a new virtual discussion forum on the topic for law enforcement practitioners and partners. 

The event is presented by the Bureau of Justice Assistance Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice in collaboration with The Council of State Governments Justice Center. It is free and open to the public; pre-registration is encouraged. This work is supported by the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration State-Based Capacity program. 

About the Police-Mental Health Collaboration Toolkit: The PMHC Toolkit provides resources for law enforcement agencies to partner with service providers, advocates, and individuals with mental illness and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The goal of these partnerships is to ensure the safety of all, to respond effectively, and to improve access to services and supports for people with mental illness and I/DD. Learn more at: https://bja.ojp.gov/program/pmhc  

Download the transcript