Mental Health 1st

Mental Health (MH) First, a project of the Anti Police-Terror Project, launched in Sacramento and Oakland in 2020, is a groundbreaking new model for non-police response to mental health crisis, and other community crises like domestic violence, intimate partner violence and substance abuse that interrupts and eliminates the need for law enforcement by providing mobile peer support, de-escalation assistance, and non-punitive and life-affirming interventions. There has been overwhelming interest from communities across the country and the world including Canada and Italy, for guidance on implementing our model as a new paradigm of public safety that bypasses police and centers preventative, community-led efforts for the wellness of Black and other marginalized peoples. We are also engaged in work around interpersonal violence and substance abuse, as well as developing new modalities that limit the BIPOC community’s unnecessary and often deadly engagement with law enforcement agencies, with the aim of reducing and ultimately eradicating police terror from our communities.; and the world.