Department: Public Health Services
Department Head/Elected Official: Barbie L. Robinson, MPP, JD, CHC, Executive Director
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Transmittal
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Participation (if applicable): N/A
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Transmittal by Public Health Services of a six-month update on the status of developing the Division of
Community Health and
Violence Prevention Services (CHVPS) and the implementation and administration of its public health
Community Violence Interruption Programs and the Holistic Assistance Response Teams (HART)
program that provides an alternative response model to non-violent 911 calls.
end
Background and Discussion:
On June 9, 2020, Harris County Commissioner's Court earmarked $25 million for criminal justice system while also directing departments to explore creating
violence prevention and alternative responder
programs such as the HART
program. On August 20, 2021, the Commissioner's Court directed Harris County Public Health to establish a new division to implement new and innovative public health approaches that addressed the root causes of
violence in order to prevent
community violence.
Harris County Public Health has made significant progress in developing these
programs including the creation of the divisional structure,
programming, staffing, neighborhood selections for the
community violence interruption programs, selection of the hospital for the hospital-based
violence prevention
programming, the selection of a vendor to administer the HART
program, collaboration and partnerships, and the overall outreach, education, and communication strategies for the
programming.
Expected Impact:
This update will provide the Court with key information regarding the status of the implementation of these
programs and the key actions to be taken to launch the
programs in Spring 2022. This update will provide...
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