2) Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program: DHS awarded a contract to Passages in Recovery for piloting LEAD in three municipalities within the county and to provide in-the-field, non- coercive, harm-reduction based case management services to participants who are caught in the revolving door of the criminal justice system and have unmet behavioral health and human service needs. In 2023, DHS envisions expanding the LEAD program into additional municipalities. 3) Community-led, community-operated informal mental health supports: Informal Mental Health Supports are non-medical supports for mental health provided by peers, friends and family, religious leaders or other non-health professionals. In 2022, DHS finalized awards for mental health and wellbeing contracts designed to increase the availability of preventative and proactive supports for individuals or families. Additionally, Allegheny County is one of four jurisdictions selected to participate in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Alternative 9-1-1 Emergency Response Implementation Cohort. The initiative is designed to support leaders in implementing alternative responses to nonviolent 9-1-1 calls, addressing a recommendation of the county’s Crisis Response Stakeholder Group. Through the Cohort, the county will receive technical assistance to accelerate and enhance the implementation of alternative 9-1-1 responses that may include tracking 9-1-1 call volume, creating training curricula for response teams, designing 9-1- 1 call decision trees, preparing community briefing materials, and assisting with procuring services from local providers.
ALLEGHENY COUNTY FARE DISCOUNT PILOT RESEARCH AND EVALUATION PLAN
In 2022, at the direction of the County Executive, DHS launched the Allegheny County Discounted Fares Pilot to study how reduced costs of public transportation among county residents receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits affect mobility, employment, health, and connections to services. By testing different fare discount amounts over 12 months, the pilot will inform a long-term commitment from DHS to lower the costs of transportation among low-income Pittsburgh Regional Transit riders. Since its launch, the pilot has enrolled over 11,000 individuals, including nearly 4,000 children. ACCREDITATIONS AND REVIEWS The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) accredited DHS as a United Funding Agency (UFA) in 2022. UFA designation allows HUD to award DHS one grant that includes all 37 HUD homeless programs within Allegheny County. This gives DHS the flexibility to move funding between programs to focus funding on those that are higher performing. Currently, only 12 out of 388 continuum of care in the US are designated as UFAs. The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) monitored the Early Learning Resource Center (ELRC) Region 5 during program year 2021-2022 to ensure adherence to regulatory and policy guidelines governing Child Care Works and Keystone STARS. OCDEL notified the county of its performance review results in December 2022, validating that ELRC Region 5 has met the requirements for both the compliance elements and the operations elements of the review.
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