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In Conversation with Chief Amy Barden of Seattle's Community Assisted Response & Engagement Program

In Conversation with Chief Amy Barden of Seattle's Community Assisted Response & Engagement Program

February 19, 2025
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/CSUSB-Race-And-Policing
Chief Barden is sworn in as chief of the new CARE program as the Seattle mayor looks on.

Join us in conversation with Chief Amy Barden (Ed.D) of Seattle's Community Assisted Response & Engagement (CARE) Program

Learn more about the CARE Program at its website here, and find a PBS news item about the program and Chief Barden here.

From the above news item:

"The new CARE Department — short for Community Assisted Response and Engagement — was born out of the 2020 protests against police violence. It is modeled on other cities’ experiments with sending unarmed civilian responders alongside or instead of uniformed police to answer calls about mental or behavioral health crises. The idea is that people in crisis are often better served by social workers than by police officers who are not trained in behavioral health and whose interactions with people in crisis can lead to fatal shootings."

Chief Barden is quoted: “I do believe that we can reimagine how we respond to and how we prevent human suffering... I believe we can redesign our systems to better support positive change and healing in individual lives.” 

Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/CSUSB-Race-And-Policing

Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link).