Aug. 8, 2023
Media Contact: Ashley Archibald
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LEAD Support Bureau launches new website, LEAD Community Toolkit
A guide for policymakers and practitioners committed to using diversion tools
to address crime and disorder related to mental illness, substance use, and extreme poverty
Seattle, WA: The LEAD Support Bureau today announced the launch of its new website and LEAD Community Toolkit, which provides comprehensive information about LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, also known as Let Everyone Advance with Dignity) for policymakers, community members, and hands-on practitioners.
The LEAD Community Toolkit is designed to support communities that are exploring, developing, launching, operating, or evaluating LEAD initiatives. The Toolkit is produced by the LEAD Support Bureau, the nation’s foremost resource to provide training and technical assistance on the LEAD model.
The LEAD model offers a proven strategy to advance safety, health, and equity by providing community-based care, rather than jail and prosecution, for people whose unlawful behavior stems from substance use, mental illness, or extreme poverty. Originated in Seattle in 2011 as the nation’s first pre-booking diversion initiative for drug-related offenses, the LEAD model has since been replicated in scores of communities across the United States and increasingly in other parts of the world.
“LEAD offers a way forward for communities seeking to improve safety, health, and equity,” Najja Morris-Frazier, director of the LEAD Support Bureau. “Our new website and LEAD Community Toolkit are designed to support LEAD’s many stakeholders – from officers to case managers, elected officials to advocates – who are committed to better addressing the problems related to drug use, mental illness, and extreme poverty.”
The LEAD Support Bureau’s website can be found at leadbureau.org, and its LEAD Community Toolkit can be found at leadbureau.org/toolkit.
About the LEAD Support Bureau: The LEAD Support Bureau has staff based in North Carolina, New York State, California, and Washington State, all of whom have extensive experience implementing LEAD in their own communities. The Bureau supports more than 80 jurisdictions nationally in their implementation of the LEAD pre-booking diversion and care coordination model for people who commit law violations related to behavioral health conditions or poverty. LEAD sites range from large cities to small rural communities, in red and blue states, throughout the nation – communities that are committed to better addressing the problems related to drug use, mental illness, and extreme poverty.
The LEAD Support Bureau is a project of Purpose Dignity Action (PDA), a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that forges better responses to public health and safety by developing effective, sustainable strategies rooted in compassion and collaboration.
