National TA Hub for Deflection and Diversion: Supporting Deflection and Community-Based Response at Sequential Intercepts 0 and 1
TASC’s Center for Health and Justice (CHJ) is the recognized national leader in providing technical assistance (TA) to first responders and community partners as they build sustainable deflection strategies at Intercepts 0 and 1 of the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM).
CHJ offers practical expertise at the intersection of public safety and public health. We focus on solutions that reduce crime, drug use, and overdose, while improving access to care and recovery .
CHJ supports first responders
—including law enforcement, fire, and EMS —and their community partners in developing and strengthening initiatives that help individuals at risk of arrest due to drug use, overdose, or co-occurring mental health conditions. Initiatives include:
- Co-responder programs
- Community response
- All 6 deflection pathways, e.g., active outreach, overdose response
- Specialized deflection initiatives for veterans, youth, IDD, tribal, rural
CHJ delivers training to build competency
- Deflection ECHO: A virtual learning community for cross-sector professionals
- Deflection Academy: Specialized training for police, treatment, outreach, recovery support, local residents, and others involved in deflection initiatives
- Chiefs and Law Enforcement Leaders Executive Summit on Deflection: A practical course for law enforcement command staff on the essentials of implementing deflection for their department and community
CHJ guides action planning for communities to develop their own practical, scalable Deflection Solutions Action Plans (DSAP) tailored to local needs, resource availability , and existing infrastructures.
Action planning is done through community convenings as a first phase of the process, and also includes:
- Data architecture considerations
- Deflection dashboards
- Sustainability
CHJ helps communities implement their unique action plans.
Applying the only evidence/practice-based implementation guide for SIM 0-1 deflection and pre-arrest diversion, CHJ uses implementation science to ensure fidelity to each community’s unique plan. Our customized process will make sure that your action plan becomes an operational reality just as you expect.
CHJ supports communities in answering Deflect to What? by:
- Mapping local treatment capacity and recovery services
- Designing care coordination and specialized case management solutions
- Assessing system readiness and service gaps
CHJ connects local health services and justice systems, from police to parole and all points in between. Based on two decades of practice, evaluation, and constant improvement, our training and technical assistance (TTA) successes are seen in 48 states, two U.S. territories, and numerous countries across the globe.
In deflection and pre-arrest diversion alone, CHJ recently has provided:
- TTA for 250+ sites across the U.S.
- Statewide TTA (action planning, rapid implementation) for 24 sites across Oregon
- Ongoing statewide TTA across Illinois as part of the nation’s first statewide deflection initiative build- out; 11 city and regional sites operational as of June 2025
Contact us to learn more about CHJ’s customized TA offerings— and how we can help you succeed.