Community Assistance: Respond, Engage, and Support (CARES) Team

The City of Charlotte launched its Safety and Accountability For Everyone Initiative (SAFE Charlotte) in 2021 with the goal to implement public safety policy improvements through community conversations and participation. This work culminated in a set of six recommendations to reimagine policing within the community. Recommendation Four called for the expansion of the existing Community Policing Crisis Response Team (CPCRT), a co-responder model that pairs a licensed mental health clinician with a sworn officer to respond to calls for service involving behavioral health crises, and creation of a complementary civilian-led direct response model to resolve calls for service related to mental health and homelessness. The Civilian Assistance: Response, Engage, Support Team (CARES) was borne from this recommendation. CARES was soft launched in December 2022, with a full pilot beginning in March 2023 and concluding in August 2023. CARES is comprised of a team of two civilians with either a clinical license or master’s degree in a behavioral health discipline that can be directly dispatched to low-level mental health and homelessness calls for service. CARES can assist clients with information and referrals for service providers; crisis intervention; supplies such as blankets, snacks, and clothing; and resolution of transportation issues through provision of bus passes during its operational hours of 7:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday. The pilot evaluation revealed that officers wanted greater access to CARES as the team was better equipped to provide helpful resources in these instances and support the exploration of additional call types that would be appropriate to add to the workload. The pilot evaluation further revealed a need for dedicated case management capacity to service frequently encountered clients, referred to as “repeat consumers”. These promising findings support and expansion of CARES’s, which will require additional staff and resources. Awarded funding will support retention of four clinicians to serve on two CARES teams for expanded service hours, retention of a Program Manager to continue daily oversight of operations, training, administration, and community outreach, retention of a supervisor to oversee the clinicians, and the addition of a new a Case Navigator position to perform case management tasks for clients encountered. These goals, coupled with a new alignment with Mecklenburg County and its public health functions, will facilitate creation of a second team to work an additional shift on weekdays and on weekends, while enhancing the ability to provide wraparound services when required.