CARE team in Evanston, Illinois, sees growing success in crisis response

A small but mighty team in Evanston is reimagining emergency response for people in crisis and drawing national attention for the results.

They're not police officers, firefighters, or paramedics, but they've been dispatched to more than 3,500 calls across Evanston in less than two years. 

In fact, there are only four of them. They came to the job from the fields of social work, victims' services, and one is even a former CPS teacher.

The Crisis Alternative Response Evanston, or CARE, team responds to calls that, before July 2024, would have been lumped into police calls.

"We had an individual come up to us, crying. She didn't have any shoes on. She's been out in the rain all night, and so we stopped and got her some clothes and some shoes," said Rachel Stams, certified crisis responder.

Stams, a CARE team member, said they've found that simple things such as hygiene products or a snack can help soothe an agitated person.

"And then we also have food gift cards for $15 to some of the local restaurants," she said.

They're also trained to administer NARCAN and some basic first aid. To date, they've made more than a thousand wellbeing checks.

"People automatically are like, 'Oh, you're not necessarily here in a punitive way?' and we let them know that we're here to see if we can kind of mediate a situation or offer you resources," Stams said.

"Our trained civilians go out and fill in the gap to reduce that burden, which is, which is really amazing," said Jeron Dorsey, deputy director parks recreation and community services.

Dorsey said they never imagined they'd be this busy. Turns out they are one of the busiest in the country.

According to the Law Enforcement Action Partnership's database of nearly 100 community responder programs across the country, Evanston's is seventh in the country by call volume, and it's likely higher based on the most recent call data.

The team has been so successful that Evanston's City Council approved a more than 50% budget increase. The team will be getting more vehicles, more staff, and expanded hours.

"We were just talking today about how lucky we are to really have a full community that's supporting this model, and I think the sky is the limit to what we can do years coming," Dorsey said.

So this tiny team will soon be growing, and so will their impact on the city they love.

"We all love it. We look forward to coming to work,' Stams said.