Nobody should have to be arrested in order to get help. That’s why our street outreach team in Syracuse is meeting people where they are—and expanding what care looks like.
Court programs that open the door for people to receive the care they need after being charged with a crime offer long-overdue support at a key moment—setting people up for better, instead of worse, futures. But nobody should have to be arrested in order to get help.
That’s why—even while continuing to deliver those critical services in court—our teams also work “upstream,” bringing support to people facing mental health and substance use challenges before they find themselves in the courtroom. Meeting people where they are in this way opens up access to resources that many struggle to reach, while also reducing the chances that they’ll become involved in the criminal legal system in the first place.
In places like Onondaga County, Syracuse, which have been heavily affected by the opioid epidemic, that kind of speedy, accessible support can save lives. As our street outreach team makes their rounds through Onondaga’s Westside and Downtown, they meet with people in areas with high rates of drug use to reduce the risk of overdose—giving out Narcan, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and testing strips, which detect dangerous additives like fentanyl.
Within the first three months of their work, the outreach team had distributed 380 Narcan kits and 760 fentanyl testing strips. To date, they have also trained up to ten other community organizations to administer Narcan themselves.
The program, called Westside Community First, is led by peer navigators who have faced some of the same struggles as the people they reach out to. That shared experience fosters a level of trust rarely found in street outreach initiatives, or in traditional mental health services. For many, substance use challenges are just one piece of the puzzle, alongside difficulties finding stable housing, clean clothes, and other basic resources—to say nothing of long-term mental health care. As they help prevent overdoses and reduce the spread of infectious diseases as a result of unsafe drug use, our peer navigators also point people towards other services in the community addressed to these broader needs.
I have found knowledge, friendship, and fellowship through what you guys do here.
— D.A., community member
Much of the team’s outreach takes place at the Rescue Mission, where many people struggling to obtain stable housing in Onondaga County go to find shelter and support. It’s also where Westside Community First has set up its holistic healing programs, which host a variety of health and wellness activities for people who—because of racial, gender, and economic inequities—are often left out of the healthcare system. In addition to overdose prevention education, healing sessions include yoga, reiki, expressive arts therapy, and supportive circles.
Entirely free, hosted in a familiar place, and facilitated by trusted peers, these wellness services stand as a model of a new, more accessible and equitable kind of care. In light of widespread racial and economic disparities in access to mental health treatment—disparities often reflected in the criminal legal system—they’re a desperately needed investment that can strengthen communities while shrinking the footprint of the legal system.
Most importantly, these services are open to anyone in the community, even those who aren’t receiving conventional mental health or substance use treatments. That means that they have a broader reach than many programs based in court, which often come with restrictions on who is and isn’t eligible to receive help.
The biggest thing I have gotten here is a little piece of hope and sensibility, and the feeling of what a family should be, and I’m grateful for all of it.
— M.S., community member
Ultimately, the team’s goal is to serve as a constant source of support for people to lean on no matter where, who, or how they are. That means not just offering care outside of any court mandate or criminal case, but also expanding what care means to address the whole person, including the human needs for artistic expression, community, relaxation, dialogue, and more. The more our communities can meet these needs proactively and comprehensively, the fewer people will find themselves in court to begin with.
Thank you to CNY Works, Onondaga County, the Rescue Mission of Syracuse, Huntington Family Centers, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, and all of our partners for making this work possible.