The city of Los Angeles will receive $2 million in federal funding to support the expansion of its Crisis and Incident Response through Community-led Engagement to address nonviolent calls for services in the San Fernando Valley, officials announced Friday.
Congresswoman Luz Rivas, D-North Hollywood, said she was proud to secure the funding, which will be used to hire additional health care professionals for emergency response and assist with the roll out of the expansion. Rivas joined Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Imelda Padilla for the announcement Friday morning.
“Since its founding, the CIRLE program has been incredibly successful in deploying trained mental health professionals to handle mental health crisis calls with care and compassion,” Rivas said.
“Today’s investment will help create a more compassionate response system as well as strengthen the people and programs tasked with addressing mental health crisis,” Rivas added.
Councilwoman Padilla, who represents neighborhoods such as Van Nuys, Panorama City and Lake Balboa, among others, emphasized that unhoused people deserve to be approached with dignity, care and humanity.
“That is why the CIRCLE program is so important,” Padilla said. “These can de-escalate situations, assess and individual’s needs and connect them with support.”
The program is led through the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety. CIRCLE is a 24/7 crisis response model that connects residents experiencing mental health challenges or a moment of crisis with trained health professionals and peer support specialists.
Bass and the City Council previously approved the expansion of the CIRCLE program to more neighborhood in L.A., such as downtown, central Hollywood, South L.A., the Westside, Harbor Area and the San Fernando Valley.
“For too long, communities have been asking for a better way to respond to mental health crises: CIRCLE is that solution,” Bass said.
“This federal investment will allow us to strengthen and sustain this life-changing program while ensuring our police officers can focus on the emergencies where they are needed most,” Bass added.
The mayor also thanked Congressman Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, Sen. Alex Padilla and every partner that helped secure the dollars.