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 **The Salt Lake City Community Connection Center:Three Teams, One Center** November 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 10
  Police officers and first responders work with a variety  of people, calls, and situations in the course of their duties. Aside from  criminal activity, officers respond to complaints and calls for service regarding  individuals who are impacted by homelessness, substance abuse, and mental  health crises. Agencies and stakeholder groups have found that involving social  workers in addressing these issues leads to higher success in delivering services  or appropriate treatment and improves the response to individuals experiencing  homelessness or a mental health crisis. In 2011, the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) created  its Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST), an innovative program developed in  collaboration with homeless service provides to disrupt the cycle and address  the underlying causes of homelessness. Since the HOST program’s inception, the SLCPD  has continued to innovate and expand its services and collaborations in support  of vulnerable populations. In 2016, SLCPD opened the Community Connection Center  (CCC), a joint effort of specially trained police officers and social workers,  who provide a safe environment for individuals experiencing homelessness or a  mental health crisis to access individualized care, support, and appropriate  community services. The CCC houses three teams that work  together: the Community Connection Team (social workers), HOST (police  officers), and Crisis Intervention Team (CIT police officers). The center is also located  right across the street from one of the city’s largest homeless resource  centers. Salt Lake City social workers support the officers in making  connections with individuals in the community to build rapport in hopes of  connecting them to services or treatment.  The Community Connection team of social workers comprises  one program manager, one office technician, five case workers and three therapists.  These team members have a variety of specialties and have become liaisons  between frontline police work, social  service providers, and individuals and families  experiencing homelessness or crisis. Services provided by the Community  Connection team include intermittent, short term therapeutic interventions; care  coordination and case management; and housing assistance and employment  resources. In addition to office and referral services, staff at the CCC  also support vulnerable individuals in the field by responding to calls for  service with co-responder teams made up of social workers and police officers.  These co-responder teams have been used since 2017 to conduct direct outreach  in the community and connect clients and community service providers.  Co-response and outreach provide individuals an opportunity to talk with a  social worker as a means of diversion from other outcomes, such as  incarceration for minor crimes such as trespassing, drug use, or unsafe  behaviors. Co-response and outreach provide individuals an  opportunity to talk with a social worker as a means of diversion from other  outcomes, like incarceration for minor crimes such as trespassing, drug use, or  unsafe behaviors. Scenarios in which the teams do co-response or outreach  include the following: Complaints about homeless camps
          Independent work to find those in need of assistance,  such as searching for encampments to talk with individuals experiencing  homelessness
          Referrals to detox beds and transport to the  detox facility
          Response to mental health calls such as suicide  attempts or threats and individuals experiencing symptoms from various  disorders
          Welfare checks *A CCC Success Story* Once introduced to the CCC via one of the teams or as  a walk-in, individuals can come into the center for a variety of services. In a  comfortable space and environment, social workers help clients navigate  housing, documents, and a variety of community services. The team also has  therapists who can provide short-term therapy or counseling services for  individuals and families. CCC team members were able to help one young man  obtain housing after he had been homeless for an extended period of time. As a  result of support and stable housing, the young man is now working two jobs and  has an apartment. He expressed appreciation for an opportunity to have some  positive choices: “The [CCC] treatment saved my life and I was grateful that I could be clean during  the time when my child was born. I am living in my own spot and working and am  still active in recovery with Odyssey House.  [My CCC  case worker] was the one that  made it happen. She was willing to help me, check-in with me, and help me get  into treatment. She offered support such as vouchers for furniture and food.  I’m doing well, I’m clean, I’m not in prison, and I am off parole.”
 Another goal of the SLCPD’s CCC is to identify individuals  in Salt Lake City who are the highest users of emergency services and connect them with longer-term support services. The most  frequent users of emergency services in Salt Lake City—typically  people with multiple nuisance offenses or untreated mental health issues—are  placed on a ‘Top 50’ list, which is updated quarterly. In 2018, these 50  individuals had a combined 571 calls for service and 595 arrests. The CCC teams  track interactions with the Top 50 individuals and maintain regular contact  with these individuals to build trust and work to address short- and long-term  needs, with the end goal of decreasing their   reliance on  emergency services. By responding to homelessness or mental health crises  calls for service, the CCC teams free up valuable patrol officer time to  address other safety issues and calls for service. To date, in 2019, the CCC  officers have taken 317 patrol calls from dispatch, allowing patrol officers to  be available for other situations. Further, the CCC officers can offer their  experience and expertise in specific calls that come through dispatch and coordinate  appropriate services and contacts, depending on the situation. Another benefit of the police and social worker  partnership is the financial savings for  state  and municipal emergency  and social services. One person, ‘Jane,’ experienced hundreds  of doctor and hospital visits  over the last few years to address recurrent crises. As a  result of the CCC team’s intervention and the support of  other community providers, Jane is  now in a stable, residential setting with daily living supports. The savings  costs for an individual like Jane can be over $200,000 per year. The work of the Salt Lake City Police Department and CCC teams  is so exceptional, the agency was selected as one of six national model cities for  Police-Mental Health Collaboration (PMHC) programs, and the CCC hosts visits  for agencies and communities interested in learning about the program. Find more  information on these programs at the Police-Mental Health Collaboration website. For agencies interested in replicating the SLCPD model in  their own community, the staff and officers have a lot of information about  lessons learned through the process of creating, implementing, and modifying  the program. Here are some of their takeaways: Consistency, communication and collaboration are  key.
          Involve your legal team from the start.
          Create buy-in from stakeholders at various  levels.
          Start documenting the cost and frequency of  emergency services at the beginning.
          Evaluation and feedback of the program facilitates  improvements.
          Listen to your community partners and law  enforcement officers, then follow through.
          You must have community partners engaged with  this model to make it a success. For more information, contact the CCC teams via phone at  801-799-3533; via email at CommunityConnectionTeam@slcgov.com or at the Community Connection Center website. Tweet
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 The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office.   The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office.
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