Join Us
Saturday, August 31, 2024
10 am Walk: Meet around 9:45am at the Bandshell at Pershing Park at
100 Castillo St. near tennis courts & baseball field.
7 pm - Speakers at Courthouse Archway
8 pm - SB Courthouse Sunken Garden
BeWell Crisis Hotline (888) 868-1649
Suicide Hotline (800) 273-8255
Goals & Accomplishments
Goals
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EDUCATE the public and community decision makers about the tragic consequences of current policies which criminalize people with co-occuring disorders
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SUPPORT, serve and empower individuals and families dealing with mental health and substance use disorders
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ADVOCATE for effective, compassionate and affordable treatment options with an emphasis on residential treatment centers as alternatives to incarceration. We work to prevent homelessness, overdose death and suicides
Accomplishments
Helped our County realize that it needed hundreds more treatment beds and supportive housing units for people experiencing mental illness
​​Persuaded Santa Barbara County to create a new Grievance Coordinator position to oversee the unmet health related needs of inmates in our jail and inspired Sheriff Brown to create a stakeholder committee to help improve jail medical and mental health services
Told our stories to the County to illustrate why they should fund a Laura's Law pilot project to reach out to the most severely ill people on our streets and in our community
​​Provided the opportunity for dozens of family members to help each other navigate a disjointed patchwork of services to help their loved ones recover their health
Successfully advocated for the creation of dozens of residential and acute care facilities and the allocation of funds begin to fill massive gaps in our continuum of care
Enabled friends and families who are visiting their loved ones in jail to report health related concerns on their behalf at our outdoor table
Helped get funding to train first responders in Crisis Intervention and create co-response team consisting of a Sheriff's Deputy and a mental health clinician working side by side to gain the trust of people at risk