Cleveland Connect & Protect

The project will support underserved communities and promot effective strategies to identify and reduce harm to individuals with MHDs or co-occurring MHSUDs.

The applicant is the City of Cleveland, with partner applicants including the Cleveland Division of Police (law enforcement), and FrontLine Services (mental health agency).

The target population is callers to Cleveland’s 911 who may be experiencing a mental health crisis, or a situation of homelessness, substance abuse, or other mental or behavioral health situation.

The City of Cleveland is, located in northeastern Ohio, is the largest city in Cuyahoga County, the state’s most urbanized and populous county.  Cleveland has the second highest poverty rate of all big cities. It is estimated that 60-75% of impoverished citizens in some of Cleveland’s neighborhoods are in need of mental health treatment.

The amount of federal funding requested is $549,998.

The purpose of Cleveland’s program is to modernize Cleveland’s 911 system in order to better respond to crisis calls for service.

Primary activities include hiring clinician dispatchers, providing mental health training to all dispatchers, and, purchasing data collection software that can be used for information sharing by all partner agencies.

Expected outcomes are ensuring the most appropriate and successful response to mental health and behavioral health crisis calls for service. 

The service area is the city of Cleveland, Ohio

Intended beneficiaries are persons experiencing a behavioral or mental health crisis.