Greater Atlanta Community Response Cohort

Cohort activities will run from February through December 2027 and will require participation in a monthly virtual or in-person learning opportunity, a monthly check-in meeting with PAD, and community engagement and stakeholder training activities as scheduled by each participating jurisdiction. The minimum time commitment for participating jurisdictions will be 4 – 6 hours per month.

With almost a decade of experience, PAD is recognized as one of the founding agencies in the emerging field of community response. PAD has worked closely with peer agencies in Durham, Albuquerque, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, Rochester, and Dayton through the Alternative Response Research Collective, convened by the Center for Innovations in Community Safety at Georgetown Law. PAD staff have advised jurisdictions across the country in exploring, designing, and implementing community response programs, including Kansas City, Missouri, New Orleans, Louisiana, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Charlottesville, Virginia. PAD is a core partner in the Georgia Alternative Response Coalition, which is convened by The Carter Center to advance this work throughout the state.

Resources:

• Alternative Response Research Collective White Paper Series

• Kansas City Mayor Introduces REACH Program

• Ann Arbor City Council Approves Crisis Response Programs

• The Carter Center Policing Alternatives Public Opinion Survey

A growing body of evidence demonstrates the impact of community response in cities nationwide, including improved connections to care, improved community trust, reduced burden on law enforcement, and a reduction in arrests for low-level offenses.

Reduced arrests and increased access to supportive services

• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 2025 National Guidelines for a Behavioral Health Coordinated System of Crisis Care. Available at: https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/national-behavioral-health-crisis-care

• Stainbrook, K. A., Wire, S. E., Barnosky, A. R., & Gasdaska, A. E. (2026). Study of alternative strategies to traditional police response: Durham’s HEART, https://www.rti.org/publication/study-of-alternative-strategies-to-traditional-police-response-du/fulltext.pdf

• Jonathan Davis, Samuel Norris, Jadon Schmitt, Yotam Shem-Tov, and Chelsea Strickland, Mobile Crisis Response Teams Support Better Policing: Evidence from CAHOOTS, NBER Working Paper 33761 (2025) https://doi.org/10.3386/w33761

Effective call resolution without law enforcement involvement

• Yamamoto M, Obiora A, Solis Torres G, Anthony N, Appleton B. Landscape Analysis of Nine Community Responder Teams: Insights into Model Variation and Performance. Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab; 2025 Nov. https://govlab.hks.harvard.edu/project/landscape-analysis-of-nine-community-responder-teams/

Cost efficiency and system savings

• Gillespie S, Curran-Groome W, Chen B, Hanson D. Aligning Crisis Response with Community Needs: Evidence from Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) and Co-Responder Programs. Washington D.C.: Urban Institute https://www.urban.org/research/publication/aligning-crisis-response-community-needs

Improved community trust and willingness to call for help

• Washington II M. Beyond Jails: Community-Based Strategies for Public Safety. Vera Institute of Justice; 2021 Nov. https://www.vera.org/beyond-jails-community-based-strategies-for-public-safety

Yes, with response times dependent on call volume. Callers located in participating jurisdictions may make referrals to PAD Community Response through a dedicated referral line Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm (excluding holidays).

PAD Community Response teams will provide on-scene assistance in the order calls are received and provide an estimated arrival time to callers. PAD will provide promotional materials and community engagement support to market community response services and will solicit customer service feedback after each call. Community Response teams may cover multiple service areas and response time will depend on call volume. Jurisdictions seeking additional response capacity may contract separately with PAD for one or more dedicated teams.

Community engagement will be a central component of the cohort planning process. PAD will support participating jurisdictions in identifying and engaging residents, community-based organizations, service providers, and other stakeholders who can inform the design of local community response services. Engagement strategies may include establishing a community advisory committee, conducting surveys and focus groups, participating in neighborhood meetings and community events, hosting town halls, and facilitating data walks to help residents understand local service needs and response patterns. These activities will provide opportunities for community members to identify concerns, share experiences with existing response systems, and offer recommendations regarding the types of situations appropriate for community response and the services that should be available. Community input will help jurisdictions develop implementation plans that reflect local needs, promote public awareness, and build trust in community response services.

In addition to the learning opportunities for cohort members, PAD will work with participating jurisdictions to schedule and deliver trainings for local government leaders, 911 personnel, law enforcement, community-based service providers, and other partners as requested. Topics may include orientation to the community response model, crisis de-escalation, community resiliency, and motivational interviewing.

Yes. PAD will offer cohort members and local stakeholders opportunities to learn about Community Response operations through field observations, demonstrations, case reviews, scenario- based exercises, and discussions with PAD staff. Topics may include how teams assess requests, engage individuals, provide direct aid, and connect people with community resources.

PAD will help jurisdictions map local resources, including community-based organizations, behavioral health providers, housing and homelessness services, and substance use support programs, to identify service gaps and establish referral pathways. PAD Community Response teams can provide direct assistance, referrals, transportation, and care navigation enrollment for eligible individuals. The cohort planning process will also help jurisdictions establish clear expectations for communication, referrals, follow-up, and coordination among participating organizations.

Officers in the field may request a warm hand-off to a PAD Community Response team for situations that require a connection to services instead of arrest. Requests made by officers through the referral line will be prioritized for response.

PAD will work with participating jurisdictions to engage law enforcement leadership, and 911 personnel to review call data, identify opportunities to reduce the burden of low-acuity calls, develop call triage and dispatch criteria, and establish the procedures to safely and effectively integrate community response services into 911. The integration of community response is intended to strengthen coordination between public safety and community- based services while allowing law enforcement to focus resources on situations requiring police intervention.

Key deliverables are expected to include:

• Review and analysis of local 911 calls-for-service and other relevant data

• Development of data collection tools and performance metrics

• Community resource mapping and identification of service gaps

• Stakeholder engagement activities and recommendations informed by community input

• Training and technical assistance for local government officials, public safety personnel, and community partners

• Recommendations for call identification, triage, referral, and dispatch protocols

• A jurisdiction-specific implementation plan for integrating community response into 911

• A proposed framework for ongoing performance measurement and program evaluation

PAD is a non-profit organization that operates with private and public funding. The inaugural cohort will be supported through a combination of jurisdictional cost-sharing and private philanthropic support raised by PAD. At a cost of $150,000, participating jurisdictions will receive planning facilitation, technical assistance, stakeholder training, community engagement, and PAD Community Response services for the year at a significantly reduced cost relative to the full program expense. Although cohort community response services and planning support are limited to one year, PAD will work with cohort members to develop a case for support and identify funding sources to support implementation of community response.