Every Monday at 2 pm, a special meeting is held at the Corvallis Police Department, or CPD. The attendees – Corvallis Police, Community Outreach Inc, Corvallis Housing First, Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center and others. They are all there for one purpose: to help those with the most need in our community.
Started in late 2023, this group, called the Benton/Corvallis Situation Table, utilizes a roundtable and a data and outcomes-driven approach that identifies those with multiple risk factors who live in our community that are at Acutely Elevated Risk – and then act to get them in contact with the services they need.
The British Columbia Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General describes Acutely Elevated Risk, or AER, as, “situations where individuals and/or families are facing a composite level of risks factors, spanning across multiple human service and justice disciplines, and where there is a high probability of harm occurring soon.”
According to a May 2024 report provided by Situation Table member and Corvallis Housing First Program Director Dan Easdale, the Table has shown to have had success in its goal.
The Table worked on 48 cases in its first six months, and 33 of those people were ultimately reported as being at reduced risk. That’s a 68% success rate.
According to the same report, the majority of those supported were female, between the ages of 30 and 50 – their major risk factors included housing, poverty and basic needs.
How These ‘Tables’ Started
The Situation Table is based on the Prince Albert Hub Model which was originated in Saskatchewan, Canada in 2011 by Community Mobilization Prince Albert in an attempt to staunch rising crime rates and to bring help to vulnerable citizens.
Having been a success, which quickly was repeated across all of Canada, CPD Captain Joel Goodwin said that American Tables are now starting to increase in number as well. One of those places being Chelsea, Massachusetts.
“One of the officers in our Community Livability Unit went to a conference several years ago where the Chelsea police department was there and they presented on the situation table,” Goodwin said. He also said he’s part of the Home Opportunity Planning and Equity (HOPE) advisory board.
“When we were in the sort of the brainstorming phase of trying to think of what ideas might be applicable, this [Situation Table] was brought up,” Goodwin said. “It was one of those ideas that resonated with the advisory board and was one of the final recommendations to city council and county commissioners of avenues to pursue to have a positive impact on homelessness in Benton County.”
Goodwin said that Corvallis is the first American city on the West Coast to implement the Hub Model, which is what our community’s Table uses to determine who it can help, and how.
How the Corvallis Table Works
The Situation Table strives to bring a bespoke plan of help to those identified as AER before it becomes necessary for other more conventional organizations to intervene.
“As the police department, we don’t want to take control of it,” Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement, or CORE, team leader and CPD Officer Jim Bryant said. “You know, we want it to run itself, and we’re just part of it.”
The Hub Model uses what it calls a four-filter approach to determine whether intervention is necessary in each case.
The first filter is initial contact with a first-line worker, such as a police officer, a worker at the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center, a medical professional, or a worker like that who encounters someone they think may benefit from being referred to the Table.
The second filter entails the first-line worker presenting to the Table with de-identified information about the person they believe to be at AER. A short narrative about the individual’s situation is shared’ risk factors are identified.
After the narrative, the members of the Table are allowed to ask questions about the situation. Then the Table comes to a consensus as to whether the case qualifies as having multiple different factors and AER. If the Table agrees, they move on to filter three.
During the third filter, identifying information about the individual is shared. “His name is John Smith,” Goodwin said as an example. “He was last known to be living at this address. You know, here’s his actual age or date of birth, if they have it, and that helps the agencies in the room check to see if they’re already engaged with that person.”
After identifying information is shared, members and agencies at the Table with expertise in the case’s risk factors will identify themselves, and a plan will be devised.
“So, somebody may say, ‘hey, actually, I’m with veteran services,’” Goodwin said. “‘We’ve been working with him. We didn’t know about these other things.’ And from there, in that third filter, the agencies that can have a role in a solution identify themselves and say, ‘I can help with substance abuse, I can help with food, I can help with whatever it might be.’”
The fourth filter occurs when the members and agencies that can help with the case have been identified. This smaller group meets to come up with a plan to engage the AER person within 24 to 48 hours.
“So then the next week, filter four comes back and they give an update,” Goodwin said. “They just say they don’t use names or any of those particulars at that point, but they say ‘in situation number 2023 dash two, we were able to contact the person. We offered these services. We were able to help them get to a shelter bed or whatever the case might be. So, we reduced their risk, and now that they’re connected with those services, they can continue to work on giving the person the longer term help that they need.’”
Community and Agency Benefits
Aside from the benefits to individuals and the community in general, members of the Situation Table have found some internal benefits to being in the group. Captain Goodwin said that, though the police are usually the first ones called when there is a problem, they are oftentimes not the right entity to respond to the situation.
“I mean, that’s kind of our job, right?” Goodwin said. “And our job is fundamentally that we’re problem solvers, but our area of expertise is in criminal law. But that’s not the only reason we get called.”
Goodwin said that the police do not have the tools to solve every problem, which is why CPD’s Community Livability Unit and CORE team are such big proponents of the Situation Table.
“[The Situation Table] really helps to facilitate by bringing a wide variety of people together, all of whom have a different set of tools in their toolbox, and when we can coordinate that better, it really has much more positive impact, especially in this more rapid turnaround with the Situation Table, with the quick engagement connecting people with services that are out there,” Goodwin said.
Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center Outreach Coordinator and Situation Table member Maddie Bean said that the Table has been a great resource for networking.
“It’s given me the chance to connect with other people in the community,” Bean said. “I didn’t know the full capacity of what different groups and individuals did, and so it helps to really bridge that communication and just grow my personal knowledge, but then I can bring back to my other work colleagues who the right people are to connect and give a certain situation.”
Officer Bryant said that the Situation Table has increased the amount of communication between agencies.
“When I started, if [police officers] dealt with somebody for mental health, we would forward it on to [mental health services], and that’s all we knew about it. We didn’t know what they did after that. This puts a face to that, and we get to talk to them and hear updates.”
Goodwin said that he is hopeful for the Table’s future, and he hopes that it will be able to serve as a model for other communities to implement as well.
By Kip Franich, a creative writing student at Oregon State University
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com