Without wielding guns, tasers or even pepper spray, four civilians in Evanston answer calls to assist community members experiencing their worst days. 

The calls come through the city’s 911 number, non-emergency 311 line and non-emergency police help desk.

Rather than sending armed police officers, operators frequently dispatch members of the Crisis Alternative Response Evanston team, community members trained to provide non-police responses to low-risk calls across the city.  

Since the program began two years ago, CARE staffers have answered more than 3,000 calls, and the city is now expanding their hours and adding two members to the team. Once they are onboarded, the CARE team will be available weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Evanston Parks, Recreation & Community Services Deputy Director Jeron Dorsey, who oversees the team, said the city launched CARE in July 2024 with one goal in mind: to nurture a connection with the community by reimagining public safety.

“(Police officers) have to focus on high emergency, high-crime calls and low-level quality of life calls that sometimes consume their day and time, and it presents (them) with a lot of challenges,” Dorsey said. “We are happy to be there to fill that gap so that our police officers are well-rested and able to truly be ready to go on emergency calls.” 

Dorsey said the idea for an alternative response program emerged following the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and subsequent nationwide protests supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. 

“A lot of communities were working towards finding out how we could provide alternative responses to a 911 call,” Dorsey said. 

In 2020, the city set up two committees to determine how to provide non-police emergency responses. The Reimagining Public Safety Committee and the Alternative Emergency Response Subcommittee dove into Evanston’s public safety infrastructure and looked at similar programs across the U.S. to begin developing the program. 

After four years of researching, planning and discussing, the CARE team was launched and began its work. 

The team responds to calls about leaf blower violations, panhandling, nuisance complaints, mental health concerns and city ordinance violations, among other issues. Dorsey said the team frequently works with Evanston’s unhoused population, providing access to resources. However, they are most commonly dispatched for wellness checks, which allow callers to request the CARE team check on fellow community members.

Dorsey said more than 1,000 of the CARE team’s calls have been wellness checks.

“We get a lot of calls for individuals who have not heard from their loved ones in quite some time and haven’t been able to reach them,” he said.

Dorsey said CARE team members can often be more supportive than police officers during wellness checks thanks to specific training. CARE responders can also provide social assistance, such as transporting individuals to hospitals or shelters if needed, he said. 

Dorsey added a common misconception about alternative response programs is that they endorse “defunding the police” or are designed to replace police officers. Instead, he said the CARE team works alongside the police and helps manage their workload.

Dorsey said building community relationships is another important part of the CARE team’s mission.

He said while earning the trust of community members can be difficult at first, over time, community members have developed confidence in the team’s ability to help solve their problems. 

Skokie-based Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center operates a mental health crisis center called the Evanston Living Room, located near Saint Francis Hospital. The facility is available for anyone who shows up and is experiencing a mental health crisis. There are on-site licensed counselors to assist community members. 

The center also operates the Mobile Living Room, a van that increases access to resources throughout the community. The van visits the Evanston Public Library on Thursdays from 12 to 7 p.m., and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. On the first Friday of every month, the van stops at Robert Crown Community Center from 12 to 7 p.m. 

“Through the Mobile Living Room and the staff from Turning Point who support this service, anyone who needs someone to talk to or wants to grab a care kit or is having a tough day at the library and needs to take a break — they can step outside the doors of the library and find support,” said EPL engagement services manager Jill Skwerski.

Dorsey said that the CARE team represents the “first response” in emergency situations, since they are typically the first people on the scene like police officers or firefighters. 

After CARE responds, community members can be referred to resources like Turning Point’s Mobile Living Room. The resource is ready to receive anyone experiencing a mental health crisis. 

“Our biggest thing here is just getting out to the community, giving stuff out and letting people know that we’re here, what we offer, in hopes that they come and hopefully take advantage of the stuff that we offer,” said Turning Point mobile crisis worker Gideon Bernstein. 

The CARE team also works closely with the emergency staff at Saint Francis Hospital. 

Laura Sterling, manager of nursing for the hospital’s Level I Trauma and Emergency Department, said CARE team members are experts in de-escalating mental health situations before they become emergencies. She said the team also helps the hospital manage its emergency room. 

“Sometimes we call them to come to our ER waiting room to help support us and patients after they have been discharged and don’t have a place to go, and at times refuse to leave,” Sterling wrote in a June 3 email to The Daily. “Their approach to get them off campus is usually a more effective approach over calling the police.” 

Recently, the CARE team has faced controversy following a lawsuit filed against the city regarding a June 2025 shooting in the emergency room of Evanston Hospital.

Two hospital security guards injured during the incident, identified as Maricela Ortega and Lanise Jones, sued the city, alleging the CARE team should have known the shooter was armed before bringing him to the hospital.

In a July 2 statement to The Daily, a spokesperson for the city wrote they cannot comment on the incident due to pending litigation. 

Ultimately, Dorsey said connecting people with available resources like Turning Point is the CARE team’s primary mission. 

He added that the team is now focused on getting to know community members and earning their trust. 

“What the CARE team is actually doing is taking the resources out into the community, spreading the word and connecting individuals to these different resources,” Dorsey said. “We’ve seen a lot of success.”

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Related Stories: 

— CARE provides non-police responses for low-risk 911 calls, largely covering wellness checks

— City Council approves non-police alternative for 911 response to start by June

— First-response Alternative Crisis Team provides mental health support to people in crisis