Communicating criminal justice initiatives funded by the Public Safety and Mental Health millage
In 2017, Washtenaw County residents voted in favor of an innovative millage designed to raise funds for expanded mental health programming and criminal justice services and reforms in Washtenaw County. Beginning in 2019, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO), Washtenaw County Community Mental Health (WCCMH), and their community partners began to invest these dollars in programs that divert individuals away from formal criminal charges and into community-based care, technological updates to the WCSO’s equipment, enhanced mental health and substance use disorder treatment and recovery programming in the county jail, and more.
CHRT will work with Washtenaw County criminal justice stakeholders to synthesize what the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office has accomplished with millage funds. Then, CHRT will produce several communications materials that will heighten awareness about millage-funded programs:
- materials that increase transparency about the use of millage funds,
- materials that share the community-impact of millage investments,
- materials that describe new programs made possible with millage funds, and more.
By increasing transparency while sharing news about millage-funded programs and services, CHRT aims to underscore the tangible benefits that result from the allocation of millage funds.