$1 Billion In Grants Offered By The US DOJ

Georgia State Collective - Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 31, 10:00 AM ET

Upcoming in-person meeting in Atlanta at The Carter Center
Date/Time: August 18 - Logistical details to come
Facilitated by Dietra Hawkins

Colorado State Collective Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 15, 3:00 pm MT, facilitated by Samantha Bunecke

Illinois State Collective Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 24, 2:00 PM CT, facilitated by Alexander Heaton

Oregon State Collective Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 21, 3:00 PM PT, facilitated by Andre Miller

Data Special Interest Group Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: August 19, 2026 10:00 AM PT

CAMBRIDGE - Majority of CARE responses not for mental health (Cambridge Day)

A civilian emergency response team created to provide an alternative to police, especially for people experiencing mental health distress, answered very few mental health calls last year – only three percent of the total, as measured by emergency dispatches.

Community Safety Department 2025 Impact Report

Cambridge started its Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) team in 2024 as part of a new Community Safety Department, to provide an unarmed alternative to police, especially for people in a mental health crisis. Even by the agency’s own “Impact Report” for 2025, only 43 percent of its calls involved “a behavioral health component,” according to Marie Mathieu, head of the Community Safety Department. And that was often not the reason responders were dispatched but was identified after they answered a call in a different category.