SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - Springfield was one of four cities selected to participate in a pilot program that partners social workers with police in certain situations.
The department already has a partnership for mental health crises, but this new initiative is geared towards responding to victims of crime, people with substance use disorder, and behavioral health issues.
Assistant Police Chief Joshua Stuenkel said the grant has very specific guidelines on what must be addressed.
"It needed to involve a social worker responding with police, and it needed to address victim assistance," said Stuenkel. "In our community, the homeless population has obviously been victimized to a certain degree in some way or another. And getting those resources to that population is going to be our goal with this program."
Local homelessness advocates say the new program will streamline the process of connecting people with resources and make sure that problems can be solved before they worsen.
"We know that the more complex challenges we face as individuals, the harder it is for us to get access to the services we need," said Josh Sabo, Coordinator for the Heartland Continuum of Care. "So programs like this can really help to get rid of a lot of those barriers and help people connect with services they need really quickly."
City leaders said there has been some confusion on who can help when its a non-urgent call. When people are connected with resources it can still take six weeks to actually address the problem.
"It's how do we coordinate to cross boundary lines and that's really what this program will help us coordinate efforts to prove better, more successful results," said Jim Langfelder, Mayor of Springfield.
Leaders of the Springfield Co-Responder Initiative say it will take 6-9 months to train people and get the program running full force.
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