Columbia reveals DIVERT Program. What it is; how it helps

A joint program between Columbia Police Department and Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services upward of five years in the making had its official announcement Wednesday.

Work started pre-COVID-19 pandemic and ultimately resulted in a DIVERT dashboard for officers in February 2023, said Steve Hollis, PHHS human services manager. Then this February a currently two-man homeless outreach team was formed in the police department.

So what is DIVERT? It is a program that integrates social services into the city's public safety and justice systems, allowing officers to make referrals to social service programs when on a call. These referrals are coordinated by Janie Ridgwell, PHHS social services specialist for the DIVERT Program.

"When we say DIVERT, we are either trying to divert them completely from the public safety and justice system or out of that system to achieve better outcomes and ease the burden on our public safety agencies," Hollis said.

Its ultimate goal is reducing burdens on public safety departments and city's municipal court, a program presentation noted.

"The DIVERT Program focuses on three different initiatives," Ridgwell said, adding this includes the municipal court's community support docket, public safety diversion and familiar faces (repeat callers or offenders) in communities.

While referrals are happening from within city departments, work is happening to eventually include other public safety departments in Boone County and joint communications access to the DIVERT Program, Hollis said.

From idea to implementation

Data gathering through sequential intercept mapping with Boone County kicked off the effort pre-pandemic, ultimately leading to DIVERT Program implementation in January 2023. The city's internal referral dashboard went live in February 2023.

The intercept mapping data led to the ideas of Intercept Zero and Intercept One, Hollis said.

"How do we get to folks before they are in the justice systems? This gives our officers, our firefighters, our (Office of Neighborhood Services) staff an opportunity to refer someone to a social worker rather than arresting them. Intercept One meaning they got a local summons and we can try and intervene at the municipal court through the community support docket," he said.

Between January 2023 and April 2024 there were 284 referrals through the DIVERT Program dashboard, mostly from the community support docket and police, though there also were referrals made by the fire department, animal control, the city manager's office, environmental health division of PHHS and Office of Neighborhood Services. Of those 284 referrals, there are 226 engaged participants.

The police and PHHS partnership was focused on making a tool for officers to quickly and easily make referrals, said Police Chief Jill Schlude.

City staff using the DIVERT Program dashboard enter demographic information about an individual and then can choose a social service referral category, such as basic needs, homelessness, veterans, elderly or mental health, among others. It then is Ridgwell's job to make the connection between the individual and a relevant social service agency to the selected category.

"Janie follows up with officers so they know the outcome," Hollis said, with Schlude adding this aids case management.

Homeless Outreach Team

The DIVERT Program works with any person, and there is overlap with those who are unsheltered. This led to the formation of the Homeless Outreach Team of Officers Todd Roland and Brad Anderson within the police department in February. While the officers have connections with the Boone County Coalition to End Homelessness, they do not have a direct connection with CoMo Mobile Aid Collective. The city also has contracted partnerships with agencies and individuals on unsheltered outreach.

"The Homeless Outreach Team ... works with these folks to find individual solutions, which means services referrals," Schlude said, adding their position does not preclude them making arrests or writing citations. "They are a piece of the case management part to identify our most frequent folks we interact with."

While once the unsheltered and other homeless were focused in the downtown area, they now are spread throughout the city, she added. The hope is by having the outreach team it cuts down on frictions between businesses, residents and the unsheltered, Schlude said.

The outreach team has regular interactions with unsheltered encampments and the even city's unsheltered in general prior the team's formation. This team can aid those living in encampments and connect them with services before an encampment is slated for clearing, Hollis said.

"That way it takes a more consistent and compassionate approach so it is not sprung on people in the camps," he said.

More: Columbia support docket seeks to prevent court cycle for homeless population

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Social service referral program DIVERT announced in Columbia