About Us
Cambridge Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (HEART) is a community-led proactive public safety program that aims to address the immediate needs of people in conflict or crisis (at the moment of crisis). We will directly deploy HEART responders for EMERGENCY calls, including for those with mental illness and/or substance use disorders in public spaces as well as domestic spaces (within people’s homes).
Principles:
Trauma informed care
Harm reduction
Self-determination
Connection
Transformation
Interdependence
Cambridge HEART works toward creating a city free of carceral systems where cycles of violence are replaced with practices of care, healing, transformative accountability, and community self-determination.
Core Beliefs
No police involvement
No clinicians as responders
No social workers as responders
The HEART model is what the community articulated as a solution that better supports a set of populations who are presently un- and underserved by the existing public safety system. These identified populations include undocumented residents.
FAQs
Have questions about Cambridge HEART? Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page or contact us at info@cambridge-heart.org.
Timeline
Learn more about how Cambridge HEART came to be and its relationship to the City of Cambridge.
Presentation to the Public Committee
Watch a recording of the meeting here: Link to recording