Community Health and Violence Prevention Services (CHVPS) Division uses public health approaches to prevent violence in Harris County and is comprised of two programs — the Holistic Assistance Response Team (HART) program and the Relentless Interrupters Serving Everyone (RISE) program (absorbing the former Community and Hospital violence prevention programs)
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A: In Harris County, the zip codes with the highest rates of gun violence also have the greatest social challenges: generational poverty, insufficient or no health insurance, lack of access to healthy food, underemployment, and economic insecurity.
As a public health department, Harris County Public Health (HCPH) views violence as a health issue. Violent behavior does not happen in a vacuum, but in environments suffering from systemic and chronic social stressors. The “public health approach” to addressing violence focuses on prevention through addressing the known factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of violence
A. Violent crime is increasing nationally and locally. In August 2021, Harris County Commissioner’s Court approved Harris County Public Health (HCPH) to establish its Community Health and Violence Prevention Services Division to administer programs that use a public health approach to violence prevention. Considering the needs of some of the County’s most violent communities, and researching other successful programs throughout the country, HCPH created the program structure, selected the pilot communities and the prevention strategies to use in each pilot.
A. HCPH will operate the program through its Community Health and Violence Prevention Division.
A. The goals are to free up law enforcement to focus on violent crime, to reduce unnecessary transport to the emergency rooms, connect individuals to short and long-term support services that promote healing, recovery, and public safety, and increase trust between vulnerable communities and first responder systems.
The programs were launched in Spring 2022 in two pilot communities, Cypress Station in unincorporated Harris County and Sunnyside, in the City of Houston. We look forward to expanding to reach more of Harris County.
HART is an alternative 911 response model in Harris County that diverts non-violent 911 calls to unarmed, first responder teams, trained in behavioral health and on-scene medical assistance. Each team is made up of 2 field responders- a Crisis Intervention Specialist and a licensed Emergency Medical Technician. HART operates in all districts of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Please note that our HART case management component is available countywide.
A: Both the Community Violence Interruption Program and HART are currently being used successfully in dozens of U.S. cities, including in Texas. It has reduced the number of calls requiring law enforcement, connected people in distress with needed resources and freed up law enforcement to deal with violence, which is increasing locally and nationally.