On Thursday, September 5th, 2024, the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) and Volunteers of America (VOA) Northern New England co-hosted another successful Maine Statewide Convening. With 71 community members registered, the event focused on advancing deflection and diversion efforts in Maine, providing a valuable platform for attendees to address ongoing challenges and explore new opportunities for progress.
Brittney Garrett from PAARI opened the convening with a brief history of PAARI’s mission. She also provided updates on PAARI’s activities, including their participation in the CIT International Conference. She further highlighted upcoming events, such as PAARI’s Annual Summit in Tampa, Florida, on February 25-26, 2025, and their involvement in a panel discussion at the IACP Conference in October.
She then passed the baton to Robyn Goff of VOA, who has been with the organization for 11 years. Robyn highlighted the importance of these quarterly convenings, which bring together stakeholders from across Maine and beyond to collaborate on deflection and diversion programs, both locally and nationally.
Tia Poulin, Diversion & Deflection Program Manager from VOA, then shared exciting updates, including job opportunities for a LEAD Case Manager and a Mental Health Liaison in Knox County—positions critical to supporting the community. You can find more information about these positions HERE.
Carey Deacon, Senior Director for Deflection Initiatives at the Center for Health and Justice (CHJ) then shared her experiences from her previous role in Colorado, where she helped launch Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs, which shifted how law enforcement interacted with people who use drugs in her rural community. She explained how they expanded LEAD to work with healthcare providers and the judicial system, which led to the creation of specialty courts to address community needs. Carey now works in Illinois on statewide deflection programs.
Jeni Moody, a Licensed Social Worker then provided an overview of her team at the Maine State Police. She and her colleagues focus on addressing mental health, substance use disorder, and co-occurring issues. The purpose of their program is to lessen repeated calls to service at the same residences, with her team making phone calls to local residents in need of connection to services. While her team faces challenges, like the lack of valid contact information for individuals, they continue to make progress as the program recently celebrated its first anniversary back in January of this year.
Chief Tim Carroll then spoke about his work at the Rockland Police Department and his previous experience as Sheriff of Knox County, where he first partnered with VOA four years ago. He explained that it made sense to continue the work he had been doing in Knox County when he transitioned to the role of Chief in Rockland. At the Rockland PD, they have someone available half of the week to connect people in need to services. This has been well received by staff in the field, who appreciate having a resource to provide follow-ups and link individuals to support services.
Teague Morris, the Outreach Director for U.S. Senator Angus S. King, Jr. of Maine, followed Chief Carroll’s remarks by discussing his role in addressing veterans’, aging, and low-income issues across the state. He also provided practical advice for attendees on how to engage effectively with legislators. He emphasized the importance of knowing your legislators and building relationships with their aides and front-line staff, such as receptionists. He shared that as an advocate, you have the opportunity to form partnerships at every level. Teague reminded attendees that new legislators often feel overwhelmed—like they’re “drinking out of a firehose”—and while your issues are important, they have thousands of bills to process. He urged patience, noting that legislators may not be subject matter experts, so it’s your job to be that expert and communicate clearly. Avoid jargon and acronyms, and if technical terms are necessary, provide a concise handout with a glossary. He also highlighted the power of storytelling to make your case more compelling and stressed the importance of finding common ground, noting that it’s easier to get to a “yes” if you don’t back someone into a corner.
Teague sends out weekly updates on veterans, aging, and low-income issues, as well as statewide funding opportunities. If you’d like to receive these emails, you can reach out to him at the address provided here.
Gordon Smith, Director of Opioid Response for the State of Maine, shared that his team recently released the July Monthly Overdose Report. As of the end of July of this year, fatalities had decreased by 17.3%, meaning 75 lives were saved, and this positive trend continued through August. Both fatal and non-fatal overdoses are down compared to the previous year. Gordon speculates the decrease is due to several key factors, including the distribution of half a million doses of Naloxone since August 2019 in the state, the hiring of 32 behavioral health liaisons supported by 9 recovery coaches, and 6 to 8 peer support workers. On any given day, 50 people are on the ground working to reach out to those struggling and connecting them to harm reduction or recovery resources.
Robyn then highlighted Tia, who reintroduced VOA’s Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) map tool. This new tool, designed for Waldo and Knox Counties, outlines available resources across all five intercepts of the SIM. It is now available for law enforcement and community partners to be able to scan the QR which will take individuals to links for resources at each intercept someone becomes involved with the criminal justice system.
The full recording of the call can be found HERE. If you would like to attend the next Maine Statewide Convening, which will be held on December 5th, you can sign up at the registration link HERE.
Representatives from the following organizations signed up to attend:
- Alliance for Higher Education in Prison
- Belfast Reentry
- Burlington Police Department
- CDC Foundation
- City of Auburn
- Cordata O2SL QRT National
- Cumberland County Public Health
- DHHS
- Deterra Drug Deactivation and Disposal
- Granite Recovery Centers
- Justice THINK TANK
- Knox County Sheriff’s Office
- Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention
- Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center
- Maine Department of Corrections
- Maine Pretrial Services
- Maine Reentry Network
- Maine State Police
- MaineHealth
- MCD Global Health
- New England HIDTA
- Penobscot Bay Community Health Partnerships
- Penobscot Bay YMCA
- Portland Police Department
- Premier BioTech
- Recovery Organization Resources
- Restorative Justice Project Maine
- Rockland Police Department
- Saco Police Department
- Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office
- Scarborough Police Department
- South Berwick Police Department
- Spurwink
- State Forensic Service
- State of Maine
- Sweetser
- TASC Center for Health and Justice
- U.S. Senator Angus S. King, Jr.
- VOA Northern New England
- Waldo County Sheriff’s Office
