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[thesocialworkingwoman]

[thesocialworkingwoman]

STARs Program and Police Response

Read the article here! (all graphics used in this post are from the article)

D:SLKFJ Social work and environmentalism will always be my greatest passion, so when a wonderful friend of mine showed me this and I nearly cried. This program sends healthcare workers instead of police to respond to low-level issues such as trespassing and mental health episodes. They have responded to over 700 calls in the past 6 months and zero resulted in arrests. The police who they work with listen to them and call STAR when they find someone in need of mental health intervention. Police only need to work with dangerous criminals, not just people who need help finding food, a place to sleep, or are in need of intervention for mental health issues. 

AND IM SO FUCKING HAPPY IT AVOIDS POLICE HAVING TO GO IN FOR WELFARE CHECKS. This keeps them doing what they’re supposed to do, not something they aren’t trained for. 

Particularly wonderful part of the article

Sailon said she remembers a call last year in which a woman was experiencing mental health symptoms at a 7-Eleven. The clerk had called the police — the woman was technically trespassing — but when the police arrived, they called Sailon.

“We got there and told police they could leave,” Sailon said. “We didn’t need them there.”

The woman, who was unhoused, was upset about some issues she was having on her prepaid Social Security card. Sailon helped her into the van where the two “game-planned” a solution before the STAR crew drove her to a day shelter for some food, she said.

“So we were sort of able to solve those problems in the moment for her and got the police back in service, dealing with a law enforcement call,” Sailon said.

The fact that the police officers even called the STAR team tells Dr. Matthew Lunn, who is in charge of DPD’s strategic initiatives, that the program is working (Lunn has a PhD but is not a medical doctor). About 35 percent of calls to STAR personnel come from police officers, according to the report.

[thesocialworkingwoman]

[thesocialworkingwoman]

When you don't read the documentation and start writing code ...

credit

[thesocialworkingwoman]

“I’m beginning to recognise that real happiness isn’t something large and looming on the horizon ahead but something small, numerous and already here. The smile of someone you love. A decent breakfast. The warm sunset. Your little everyday joys all lined up in a row.”

— Beau Taplin

[thesocialworkingwoman]

[thesocialworkingwoman]

[thesocialworkingwoman]

if you want to help bail out protesters but don’t know where to send your money — act blue put together a secure page that will split your donation between 30+ bail funds across the US

[thesocialworkingwoman]

“We must face the hard fact that many Americans would like to have a nation which is a democracy for white Americans but simultaneously a dictatorship over black Americans.” - MLK

Don’t let them whitewash MLK. He was way way way more than just that “I Have A Dream” speech. He called out white people, white supremacy, white privilege and white racial hatred constantly. Don’t be Deceived. He was radically, proudly and loudly pro-Black. 

[thesocialworkingwoman]

[thesocialworkingwoman]

“Oppressors always expect the oppressed to extend to them the understanding so lacking in themselves.”

- Audre Lorde

[thesocialworkingwoman]

[thesocialworkingwoman]

Minneapolis, MN. May 28th 2020

[thesocialworkingwoman]

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.“

- Nelson Mandela

[thesocialworkingwoman]

“Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. And when you stumble, keep faith. And when you’re knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can’t or shouldn’t go on.”

[thesocialworkingwoman]

[thesocialworkingwoman]

When you did your doctorate in physical chemistry and have been the de facto leader of Europe for 14 years but you have to be polite to a handbag designer who thinks she’s your contemporary