John,

Our country’s current response to public safety doesn’t work. Instead of keeping children, families, and individuals safe, we have exacerbated the surveillance and over-policing of marginalized communities, particularly Black and brown communities. A holistic, inclusive, and health-centered approach is critical to ensuring the safety of young people, people with disabilities, communities of color, and low-income areas.

Representative Cori Bush (MO-01) was joined by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Morgan McGarvey (KY-03), Summer Lee (PA-12), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) to reintroduce the People’s Response Act, an inclusive, holistic, and health-centered approach to public safety.

Click here to add your name and become a grassroots co-sponsor of the People’s Response Act now.

The People’s Response Act gives us an opportunity to address mental health crises, substance use disorders, and other serious issues that are plaguing communities.

This transformative legislation would:

• Create a Division of Community Safety within the Department of Health and Human Services that is focused on non-carceral, health-centered investments in public safety;

• Provide $11 billion in grant funding to community-based organizations, as well as state and local governments, to improve crisis response;

• Set up a $2.5 billion First Responder Hiring Grant, which would create thousands of jobs for emergency first responders (including licensed social workers, mental health counselors, substance use counselors, and peer support specialists) to improve our crisis response efforts focused on non-carceral, health-based approaches to public safety.

Public safety is a matter of public health. We know from years of data and research that providing trauma-informed resources to people who are in crisis greatly reduces escalation and helps get people the care they need. This makes all of our communities safer.

We cannot keep doing the same things and expecting different results. We need holistic, human rights-focused approaches to keep our communities safe. Sign on today to become a grassroots co-sponsor of the People’s Response Act.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs