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We Take Care Of Us: A Deep Dive Into The Movement to Decriminalize Mental Health & Skin Color: Regional Virtual Summit

Join us on June 3rd for our first virtual regional summit, We Take Care Of Us: A Deep Dive Into The Movement to Decriminalize Mental Health & Skin Color. We’ll spend an inspiring afternoon learning about how to build replicable and sustainable alternatives to police and prisons for mental health — and how we as a community can take care of each other in moments of crisis.

May is #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, and we know that alternatives to the police for mental health crises are more critical than ever. Up to 50% of the people killed by law enforcement are in the middle of a mental health crisis. Those who are killed are disproportionately Black and Brown. A mental health crisis should not be a death sentence, but it too often is, particularly for people with Black and Brown skin. 

We’ll learn from families directly impacted and fighting for justice, elected officials ready to implement new approaches, and healers and organizers who are already doing the work of birthing new, life-affirming, community alternatives into existence from the ashes of today’s barbarous systems of state violence.

Come hear from local leaders and participate in workshops on topics such as: 

  • Mental Health First: learn about APTP’s cutting-edge community response program in Oakland and Sacramento, and how you can build a similar program in your community without waiting for the state.

  • MACRO: how organizers can work with cities to find solutions.

  • What is CAHOOTS? Learn about the Oregon model that everyone’s talking about!

  • First responders: a case study in how community can prevent police murder and keep each other safe. 

  • The movement to defund the sheriff and decriminalize mental health in Alameda County

  • How police became the answer to every social ill and what we must do to end that practice

And more!

Come spend the day with the people who are powering the movement to decriminalize mental health and create a world without cops and cages in Northern California and beyond. Learn about current efforts to provide compassion and care to those in crisis, not a badge and a gun. We don’t need police because #WeTakeCareOfUs.

ASL and Spanish interpretation and closed captioning provided.

Co-sponsored by the Anti Police-Terror Project, Justice Teams Network and KPFA. 

#WeTakeCareOfUs #MHFirst #CareNotCops #CompassionNotCops #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #WeKeepUsSafe