Thank you to everyone who attended the Alternative First Responders Symposium. Over 200 people registered to tune in from overseas and across the country.
Our deepest thanks to our speakers and artists for their generosity in sharing insights, knowledge, and experience in building a first response beyond police.
Our opening keynote, Alexander Heaton from NYU Policing Project shared his hands-on experience designing and delivering alternative first responder models across the United States to divert 12 million calls annually from police to alternate responses.  “When it comes to community-based care, that’s where I think it’s most important that the response is locally relevant. With responders who are embedded in the community and know the community,” said Alex.
Our second keynote from Gina M. Nagano, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation from House of Wolf, Canada dived deep into community safety independent of police, meaningful restorative justice, and Indigenous self-determination. Gina key advice was, “Being patient and persistent is what got us to where we are today. The work I’m doing today is built off the work my Elders did in the 70s and 90s.”
It was clear that change is needed across policy, in who is chosen for roles, in who gets listened to, and in how we deliver new practices.
Across many areas, people are calling for a re-think in how we respond. When we join the dots, it’s clear that change is inevitable. At the heart of this work are humans. This must be the centre of how we respond: with care and dignity.
We’re so grateful to everyone who contributed to this important dialogue, and we look forward to continuing this work together.
Recordings will be available soon!
