Applications Open for NACo’s Familiar Faces Leadership Network

The Familiar Faces Leadership Network

Familiar faces—individuals with complex behavioral health needs who frequently cycle through jails, homeless shelters, emergency departments and other local crisis services—often do not have the support needed to ensure treatment engagement and successful outcomes. Counties and cities’ complex social services systems can be fragmented, leaving vulnerable individuals to fall through the cracks. NACo’s Familiar Faces Initiative empowers communities to share data and integrate care options between health and justice systems so they can intervene earlier, improve outcomes and reduce incarceration and hospitalization rates.

With support from Arnold Ventures, the National Association of Counties (NACo) invites county and city elected officials to apply to the Familiar Faces Leadership Network. The Leadership Network aims to strengthen the capacity of county and city leaders to collect and share data across local departments and providers so that jurisdictions can identify their familiar faces and align these systems to improve outcomes for their highest-needs residents.

The Leadership Network will support up to 10 county or city leaders with an interest in creating or expanding cross-system data-sharing efforts. This is an opportunity for counties and cities to develop strategies for convening stakeholders from across their behavioral health and justice sectors to institute high-impact policy changes that address the needs of their most vulnerable—and also most costly—residents. The Leadership Network will provide opportunities to:

  • Engage with peers in developing strategies to align data from justice, health and human services systems, including peer site visits to communities with model data-sharing practices
  • Participate in technical assistance opportunities from Advisory Board members with subject matter expertise
  • Improve understanding of the systems at play in the behavioral health and justice continuum and the level of interaction required to achieve a supportive care model for familiar faces
  • Explore community-based diversion and deflection alternatives for familiar faces, and
  • Highlight local Familiar Faces-related efforts to a national audience.

More information about the time expectations and opportunities is included in the application. County and city leaders are invited to participate at no cost to their jurisdiction. We anticipate each leader will use the expertise and assistance offered through this initiative in different ways based on their community’s unique needs.

Interested community leaders are encouraged to apply to participate in the Familiar Faces Leadership Network. To apply, please complete the application (link below) and submit it by June 3, 2022 to Nina Ward, Senior Program Manager for Behavioral Health and Justice at nward@naco.org. NACo will select 10 leaders based on application responses, geographic spread and county demographics.

Familiar Faces Leadership Network Application