Community calls for Durham to expand the crisis response program HEART
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- As budget season is getting underway in the Bull City, some residents want Durham city leaders to keep community safety top of mind by expanding the Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team (HEART) program.
What the program essentially does is get social workers and crisis teams to respond to non-emergency mental health calls. Since its launch in 2022, the program has responded to more than 26,000 emergency calls.
"Over the last many years, we've heard so many testimonies from Durham residents saying that HEART has really helped them turn their lives around," Manju Rajendran said.
Rajendran, who's on the Durham Community Safety and Wellness Task Force, says the program has been largely successful and wants to see the program expand into Durham County and Durham Public Schools.
It's some of the things local organizations are calling for among three key things
- Fully fund the program to run 24/7
- Expand into Durham County
- Fund the program to serve Durham Public Schools
"If we're going to get to more calls, we have to have more capacity and more staff," Ryan Smith said.
Smith, who's the director of the city's Community Safety Department, said although they're fully staffed, it's going to require a larger staff to meet some of these demands. However, with support from the city, county, and the Durham Police Department, Smith said he's confident in the program's long-term success.
"I think we have a very stable source of funding. We have a broad base of support," Smith said. "I think we have a very solid foundation to continue to build upon."
Shanise Renee is a Durham native and reform advocate with Durham Beyond Policing, which helped coordinate a rally outside City Hall on Monday night. Renee knows firsthand what it's like to be in crisis and find yourself face-to-face with law enforcement, as opposed to the trained responders that are dispatched through HEART.
"I had suicidal ideations and the response was to put me in a car, a police car, and handcuff me and take me to the hospital for evaluation and next steps," Renee said, recalling an incident that took place when she was a student at Durham's Southern High School.
At Monday's rally, city councilmembers, including Carl Rist, Nate Baker, and Chelsea Cook, vowed to support the changes in their ongoing budget discussions.
"We've made this one of our top five priorities this year for the budget," Rist said to the crowd. "So keep working with us, keep advocating, but you've got a council that supports this, and we're going to make this happen with your support."
It's money that supporters of the program say will continue making a difference for those who need it most.
"You can tell when someone actually cares about you, there's just that feeling," Renee said. "And in all of the situations that I've seen heart interacting, that's what I've seen, like humans actually treating other people like humans."
