Designing a Community-Led, Non-Carceral Mental Health Crisis Response
Organization Type & Industry: U.S. city public health commission
The Challenge
Public health leaders and community organizers sought to launch a non-carceral, consent-based mental health crisis response system that diverted emergency calls away from police and toward trained, community-rooted responders. Despite years of advocacy, public investment, and design work, implementation proved complex. Competing partner priorities, a municipal hiring freeze, leadership transitions, and unclear decision-making authority slowed progress and raised uncertainty about what could realistically be achieved at the intended scale.
Our Role
humanature partnered as reality-grounded designers, translating bold vision into actionable, scenario-based plans. Our work included:
Mapping the design landscape: defining critical domains such as triage logic, responder roles, dispatch coordination, and governance structures
Decision-making frameworks: applying core principles—non-carceral, consent-based, community-led—to filter options and eliminate misaligned proposals
Tiered scenario planning: modeling feasible pilot approaches within budgetary and institutional constraints, informed by national examples
Collective Decision-Making Toolkit: deploying modular tools (including Seven Votes Apiece and Spokes Council) to surface priorities, resolve misalignments, and enable clear, consent-based decisions
This approach allowed stakeholders to prototype effectively, make informed tradeoffs, and maintain alignment beyond the engagement.
The Outcome
Stakeholders reframed success around small, strategic wins that built a foundation for scale. Diverting even a limited number of calls from police or establishing a neighborhood-based crisis hub became measurable progress rather than compromise. The project moved from uncertainty and stalled debate to a clear, human-centered path toward pilot implementation—anchored in community leadership, trauma-informed care, and long-term systems change.