BOSTON, MA July 10, 2023 – The Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) is excited to announce its participation in the Police Treatment Community Collaborative (PTACC)’s National Deflection Week, from July 16 – 22, 2023.

Police deflection programs aim to reduce crime and substance use through non-arrest pathways connecting individuals to treatment options. Instead of traditional police intervention and criminal justice involvement, deflection relies on law enforcement as the referral source to community-based drug treatment and mental health services even before a person is in crisis. Law enforcement officers use deflection to create pathways treatment and recovery programs.

National Deflection Week encourages PAARI partners and community members to showcase their outstanding work via social media and in-person events in their respective communities. The goal is to spread awareness around the nationwide policing movement of deflection.

PAARI team members, Elizabeth Leingang and Kate Dominguez, created a National Deflection Week Social Media Tool Kit to provide law enforcement agencies with downloadable graphics and sample captions/tweets to choose from to spread the word about the week. The tool kit can be found HERE. 

During this week, PAARI will be hosting and participating in various events. The week’s schedule includes:

• Monday, July 17: Director of Public Safety Outreach and Training, Brittney Garrett and our HUB Situation Table Program Manager, Charlette Tarsi, will speak at the Florida Coalition for Children 2023 Conference in Bonita Springs, Florida.
• Tuesday, July 18: PAARI will host the quarterly New Jersey statewide virtual convening. This event is an opportunity for all New Jersey partners to share their resources and network with other individuals in the field of deflection. Sign up HERE.
• Wednesday, July 19: PAARI is hosting a 30-minute webinar with ZIMHI staff to discuss the new product and answer questions from its partners. ZIMHI offers the highest dose of naloxone available as an intramuscular injection to get it into the blood fast. Sign up HERE.
• Thursday, July 20: Join PAARI for its PAARI 101 webinar. It is an opportunity for individuals and departments to hear more about the history of non-arrest deflection models, PAARI’s partners’ programs, and the benefits of joining PAARI. Sign up HERE.
• Friday, July 21: PAARI staff and AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers will participate in a Day of Community Service. They will be out of the office and volunteering in their local communities.

“We are very excited to be participating in the first ever National Deflection Week and are looking forward to our schedule of events,” says Zoe Grover, Executive Director of PAARI. “We hope that our partners join us in spreading the word about deflection programming. As more and more people learn about this movement, more people will get access to treatment and recovery and more lives will be saved.”

Written by, Isabella Nowak

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About PAARI:  The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (PAARI) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help law enforcement agencies nationwide create non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery. Founded alongside the groundbreaking Gloucester, Mass., Police Department Angel Initiative in June 2015, PAARI has been a driving force behind this rapidly expanding community policing movement. We provide technical assistance, strategic guidance, connection to training resources, and other capacity-building resources to more than 650 police departments in 40 states. 

PAARI works with more than 130 law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts alone. PAARI and our law enforcement partners are working towards a collective vision where non-arrest diversion programs become a standard policing practice across the country, thereby reducing overdose deaths, expanding access to treatment, improving public safety, reducing crime, diverting people away from the criminal justice system, and increasing trust between law enforcement and their communities. Our programs and partners have saved tens of thousands of lives, changed police culture, and reshaped the national conversation about the opioid epidemic since its founding in June 2015. Learn more at paariusa.org.