MVPD Launches Innovative New Wellness And Community Affairs Division

MOUNT VERNON, NY — In the face of recent tragedies, the City of Mount Vernon is leaving everything on the field when it comes to combating a wave of violence.

The City of Mount Vernon announced this week that the Mount Vernon Police Department has created a new Wellness and Community Affairs Division and will be opening a Wellness Precinct to create diversionary initiatives and provide support for the community's most vulnerable with the hope of helping to make a safer and healthier city.

"This is much more than a co-response model but a comprehensive model to violence prevention, intervention and restorative justice," Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said launching the new initiative. "We must address the root causes of both violence and community disengagement like mental health, trauma, anger, addiction, homelessness, under education, underemployment, housing and a myriad of social and emotional issues if we expect to build a safer and thriving community."

The Wellness Precinct is a community wellness initiative which operates in an offsite substation separate from the police headquarters that consists of crisis intervention-trained police officers, licensed clinicians, peer recovery specialists and housing and case management specialists working with public health and human service providers to respond to police calls for service and/or provide post-crisis follow-up in the community.

In instances when the impacted resident is well-known and/or follow up linkages could be helpful, the Wellness Division will engage in prevention techniques, including regular case conferences with community supports to dispatch services intended to stabilize residents in the Mount Vernon community.

"I applaud the City of Mount Vernon, Mayor Shawyn Patterson Howard and the Mount Vernon Police Department for launching the Wellness Division and Precinct," Westchester County Executive George Latimer said. "All too often violence is the outcome, but there was a path long before the outcome- and that is where the intervention needs to happen. There is a community approach, this is the base of building a safer community and a community that flourishes. Working together I know the youth of Mount Vernon will greatly benefit from this innovative program."

The Wellness Division will focus on improving the resources for youth, people with mental health and/or substance abuse conditions, the homeless, the elderly, veterans and others who served in the armed forces, survivors of domestic violence, formerly incarcerated people and those with prior involvement in the criminal legal system.

"We believe that this partnership will provide an inclusive alliance to ensure the health, safety and equal protection of all of the City’s school-aged students in the District," Deputy Police Commissioner Jennifer Lackard said. "We are pleased of the school district’s willingness to, not only, provide access and resources during the remainder of this school year but to find the resources to scale this initiative beyond Mount Vernon High School in the Fall 2022.”

The Wellness Division will roll out of a School-Community Safety Partnership with the Mount Vernon City School District for the remainder of the 2021-2022 academic year. The safety partnership will be piloted at Mount Vernon High School and include a framework for discipline support on Level III and IV code of conduct violations, behavioral health support integration to increase students' access to trauma services, the development of a learning community for students, parents and staff and a student re-entry and credit recovery model to support the successful re-entry of students returning to the Mount Vernon City School District from temporary out-of-district placement.

"I commend the City of Mount Vernon for their innovative multi-disciplinary approach to preventing individuals from becoming enveloped in the criminal justice system through its new Wellness Division of the Mount Vernon Police Department," Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said. "Our partnership is an important reminder and acknowledgement that the schools, parents and officials are responsible and accountable for the well-being of our children. As a partner, the DA’s office is committed to helping and supporting our young people and value our shared goals through the School-Community Safety Partnership to provide a safe environment for the students in Mount Vernon."