The adult crisis center will be open from 3-11 p.m. daily. The youth crisis center will operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Read MoreIt officially opened Tuesday, but conversations about this center began about two years ago.
Read MoreLOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville’s first mental health crisis center is now open near the Smoketown neighborhood, giving people a place to seek walk-in help during a mental health emergency without waiting for an appointment or going to an emergency room.
Read MoreAs faith leaders, we often hear from community members about their feelings of fear and hopelessness about the state of our world and community. Systems that they once believed would uphold justice seem to be crumbling. People are looking for an outlet where they can pursue justice, but they often don’t know where to turn.
Read MoreStanding on the stage of Memorial Auditorium, less than a month after police fatally shot a woman experiencing a mental health crisis, two of Louisville's most powerful leaders were asked if they'd commit to partnering with a new crisis center where officers could connect people in similar situations with help.
Read MoreLOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The push for more mental health services in Louisville continues as a new crisis center is set to open downtown.
The issue of mental health help has been discussed for years in Louisville.
"We know that a lot of the issues that we face as a city are people who are experiencing a crisis or recovering either a mental health issue or substance use," said District 8 Metro Councilman Ben Reno-Weber.
Read MoreLOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — At a community meeting attended by hundreds, Louisville leaders reaffirmed commitments on police officers' mental health response, while JCPS leaders addressed ongoing reading gaps.
Read MoreLouisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced on Thursday the people who will form the new Community Safety Commission. The commission is part of the mayor’s Safe Louisville plan, which aims to reduce shootings and homicides in Louisville by 15 percent each year.
Read MoreMayor Craig Greenberg, D-Louisville, announced the first members of the city’s Community Safety Commission. The 23-member group will oversee the city’s violence reduction plan and implement Louisville’s Community Commitment Consent Decree.
Read MoreCitizens of Louisville Organized and United Together presented an area they want Louisville leaders to focus on. 300 CLOUT Justice Network members said they have done 50 listening sessions across Louisville since late August to talk to people about issues they want to see solved. They are focused on three areas: economic justice, housing and mental health.
Read MoreLouisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and LMPD interim police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel spoke to the CLOUT organization assembly on Monday.
Read MoreMayor Craig Greenberg and interim Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroe apologized for the past 'abuses of public trust' committed by the city and LMPD.
"It's unacceptable. And it's inexcusable," Greenberg said.
Read MoreCitizens of Louisville Organized and United Together brought together various local leaders, clergy and mayoral candidates at its annual assembly Monday night to push officials to more urgently fight gun violence in the city and improve relationships between police and residents.
During its Nehemiah Action Assembly at St. John Paul II Parish, 3521 Goldsmith Lane, CLOUT sought commitments from Mayor Greg Fischer; Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields; and Metro Council President David James, D-6th District; to launch the “Truth and Transformation” initiative within the next month.
Read MoreLouisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields were noticeably absent from a community meeting Monday night to address the rising gun violence.
Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together hosted its annual action assembly. This year it was called "Victory Over Violence: CLOUT's Strategies to Bring Shalom to Our City'.
Each year the group gathers community members to find out what are the biggest issues affecting the city. Member Larry Grossman said there were 22 research meetings held prior to Monday's assembly. He said crime came up consistently.
Read MoreHello, boosted violence-prevention funding. But goodbye, Synergy Project. Louisville Metro Council signed off Thursday on a fiscal year 2021-22 budget that largely preserves the police and public safety spending proposed by Mayor Greg Fischer — choosing not to cut the embattled Louisville Metro Police’s funding.
The $1.04 billion budget, approved 24-2 Thursday, comes after months of discussion including an engaged public calling for funding changes to public safety following a year of protests and record violent crime.
Read MoreThe slaying of Breonna Taylor and the heated protests that followed directed for months at Louisville Metro Police has built a chasm of distrust between many community members and officers.
The question is: How can the city rebuild that trust? Mayor Greg Fischer and other city leaders are betting a new city project will help provide the cure. Its critics, however, have called the project a “waste of time.”
Read MoreIn June of 2019, nine months before Breonna Taylor was killed, and a year before protesters took to the streets demanding justice in her name, Louisville Metro Government launched the Synergy Project, an effort to address “challenges when it comes to police and community relations,” Mayor Greg Fischer said at the time.
Two years later, those challenges have grown and Fischer is seeking more than half a million dollars to awaken the program from a pandemic-induced slumber. But some local leaders say Synergy is not designed for a post 2020-world and they’re pushing Metro Council to redirect funds toward efforts they said would better accomplish the same goal.
Read MoreTo move forward together, Louisville should prioritize the building of police-community relations. It should begin with confession. In the wake of the civic trauma of the past year, following the killing of Breonna Taylor and its aftermath, both in the streets and in the criminal justice system, we see no way for Louisville to move forward with any sense of unity and momentum toward a more just future unless the city undertakes a deep and broad process of building better police-community relations.
Read MoreIn Louisville, few of us would disagree that our local criminal justice system — police, courts, prosecutors, corrections — does not provide equal justice for all of our citizens. Many of us, in fact, have been victimized by these systems. Some have even lost their lives. Violence — in the form of murders, shootings and police actions — continues to tear apart our community. Historically, and still today, we have been given a false choice between continued violence or overpolicing. Research has proven that overpolicing actually creates more violence. We need a different kind of policing. We need a different kind of criminal justice system. We need different interventions with people in crisis.
Read More“It’s the culture that has to change,” said Rev. Reginald Barnes, CLOUT co-president. “When you get an organization coming to you with suggestions, most folks want to think they can police themselves better than anyone else. They have all the answers. But our research shows there’s a better way. Our police force doesn’t have to be warriors but they can be guardians in our community.”
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