Advocates Demand Federal Relief Money on Mental Health, Not Police

Lawndale News Chicago's Bilingual Newspaper - Business

Lawndale News Chicago's Bilingual Newspaper - Business

The Collaborative for Community Wellness, Alderman Byron Sigcho, and Black Lives Matter activists held a press conference on Tuesday to demand the Mayor spend federal relief money on mental health not police. Activists are calling for American Rescue Plan money to go towards increasing funding for a non-police mental health crisis response program and the re-establishing of mental health clinics. According to Cheryl Miller, an organizer with Southside Together Organizing for Power and the Collaborative for Community Wellness: “the City must proactively provide access to trauma-informed mental health support, both in public clinics and a non-police mobile response. Chicago is poised to receive $1.8 billion dollars of federal American Rescue Plan money. We are demanding that the city use a portion of that $1.8 billion dollars for Treatment Not Trauma by fully funding the non-police crisis response pilot based out of the public mental health clinics as well restore the public mental health clinics that were closed.” Ms. Miller added that “what happened with the last federal relief money cannot happen again. The Mayor putting most of the COVID relief money towards police is negligent and a deliberate starvation of our communities from needed resources.” A small pilot of Treatment Not Trauma, a non-police mental health crisis program, was approved in the most recent City budget. The Collaborative for Community Wellness is calling for: expansion of the crisis response system to be based out of the 5 CDPH mental health clinics operating independent of the Chicago Police Department; allocation of at least $25 million from the American Rescue Plan as a down payment on fully funding a comprehensive city-wide Treatment Not Trauma program; and re-establishing public mental health clinics. In the last round of federal COVID relief, the CARES Act, the Mayor spent two-thirds of the money, $281M on the Chicago Police Department and $68M went unspent. 

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