Crossroads Mobile Mental Health Crisis Response

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Executive Summary

Crossroads Mobile Mental Health Crisis Response is a nonprofit in Colorado that sends a licensed clinician and a peer crisis specialist to people in mental health crisis, usually within an hour. The team de-escalates, assesses needs, arranges care, follows up within 72 hours and helps people reach ongoing treatment. We work with 988 and 911 dispatchers so the right team goes to the right call.

When someone is in a mental health crisis, the usual response is a police car, and too often the result is an arrest, an emergency room visit or something worse. Emergency rooms and jails cost far more than a mobile team.

With this grant we will respond to about 300 people in Year 1 in 1 service area. We are not a replacement for 911 in a medical emergency or immediate danger, we never use force and we call 911 when needed. We do not promise any outcome. We promise careful, respectful response and honest records.

Our Year 1 budget is about $403,500, growing to about $626,000 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 7 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Clinical Director, two crisis clinicians and two peer crisis specialists) and 11 by Year 5.

We are asking the Mile High Crisis Response Foundation for $90,000 for a Crisis Clinician, peer crisis specialists and the follow-up care fund. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Crossroads Mobile Mental Health Crisis Response is a nonprofit organization in Colorado. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. A mental health crisis should be answered by a mental health team, with care and respect, not by a patrol car and a jail cell.

What we do.
- Send a team of a licensed clinician and a peer crisis specialist to people in mental health crisis when a caller asks for help.
- Respond in person, usually within an hour, in homes, schools, workplaces and public places.
- De-escalate crises, assess needs and arrange care, including connection to a crisis stabilization unit or a clinic.
- Follow up within 72 hours and help participants reach ongoing care.
- Work with 988 and 911 dispatchers so the right team goes to the right call.
- Train dispatchers and officers in how to hand off a call safely.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We are not a replacement for 911 when there is a medical emergency or immediate danger; dispatchers and officers respond in those cases, and our team calls 911 when needed. Our team does not use force and does not hold anyone against their will. We follow state law on involuntary care. We do not promise any outcome. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of crisis counselors, a paramedic and a police captain began riding together on a pilot basis for a few evenings a week, answering calls that were really about mental health. The calls ended calmly and officers returned to other duties. We kept simple records of calls and what happened afterward. This proposal asks for support to move from a few pilot evenings to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

When someone is in a mental health crisis, the usual response is a police car, and too often the result is an arrest, an emergency room visit or something worse.

Cost. Emergency rooms and jails cost far more than a mobile team, and families who call for help worry about what will happen.

Access. Few communities have a mobile crisis team, and when they do, it may not be available at night or in every neighborhood.

Safety and trust. Callers, families and officers want a response that is safe and respectful, and funders want to see that teams are well trained and supervised.

Missed benefits. Without a good response, a crisis can end in injury or in a charge that does not help the person.

What we hear.
- A mother says she was afraid to call because police might hurt her son.
- A police officer says he would rather hand off a call to a clinician.
- A nurse says patients are brought to the emergency room in handcuffs.
- A client says the team asked what he needed and stayed until he felt safe.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that a trained team that knows how to listen can end a crisis safely and connect a person to care.

Products & Services

Crossroads Mobile Mental Health Crisis Response gives people in mental health crisis and their families a safe, welcoming place to get help from a team that knows how to help.

How the program works.
1. Call. A caller reaches 988, 911 or our line and the dispatcher or staff screen for danger and decide who should respond.
2. Dispatch. A team of a licensed clinician and a peer crisis specialist goes to the person, usually within an hour.
3. De-escalation. The team listens, assesses needs and works with the person on a plan.
4. Connection. The team arranges transport to a crisis stabilization unit, a clinic or a family member, as the person chooses and safety allows.
5. Follow-up. A team member contacts the person within 72 hours and helps with appointments.
6. Care funds. A small fund pays providers directly for urgent follow-up care.
7. Handoffs. We train dispatchers and officers in how to hand off a call safely.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our clinicians are licensed, our peer specialists are trained and certified, and all pass a background check, complete our de-escalation and safety training and are paid for their time.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Services are free. We respond to every caller who requests help and offer services in English and Spanish.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. People in mental health crisis and their families in our service area. Eligibility is a call for help in a mental health crisis, and no one is turned away for lack of insurance.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our pilot evenings the team responded to more calls than we could handle and dispatchers kept sending more. Police told us that a large share of their calls are about mental health. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 300 participants at 1 service areas. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 900.

Where participants come from.
- 988 and 911 dispatchers.
- Police, fire and emergency medical services.
- Hospitals, schools and clinics.
- Families who call directly.

Who else benefits. Officers return to other duties. Hospitals gain fewer avoidable emergency visits. Families gain a gentler response.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a crisis that ended with a conversation instead of handcuffs. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Police response. Necessary for danger and often not the best response to mental illness. We offer a clinical alternative.

2. Emergency rooms. Treat crises and are crowded, with long waits. We reduce the need.

3. Crisis hotlines. Provide phone support and sometimes cannot send help. We go to the person.

4. Inpatient hospitals. Provide a bed and are costly. We aim to stabilize in place when safe.

5. Community mental health centers. Provide ongoing care with waits. We connect people quickly.

What makes us different.
- A clinician and a peer at the door.
- Response within about an hour.
- Follow-up within 72 hours.
- Close coordination with dispatchers and officers.
- A fund for urgent follow-up care.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with dispatchers, police, hospitals and other crisis response teams to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- 988 and 911 dispatchers. We will train them and agree on call criteria.
- Police and fire. We will present at roll calls and share information.
- Hospitals, schools and clinics. We will give staff a short card with our number.
- Families. We will share information at community meetings and through NAMI.
- Word of mouth. Families tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit clinicians and peers through behavioral health programs, universities and crisis lines.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, calls answered, crises resolved without arrest or emergency room use and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Train the team and begin responding with dispatch.
- Months 4 to 10: Respond to calls, follow up and help participants reach ongoing care.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey callers and partners, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Our team works from a small office with a shared dispatch connection and travels in a marked vehicle.

Safety and privacy.
- The team follows a written safety protocol, works in pairs, uses a shared radio and calls 911 when there is immediate danger or a medical emergency.
- The team never uses force and follows state law on involuntary care.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $50,000 of equipment once at the start: used response vehicle with safety equipment ($38,000), radios, phones and tablets for the team ($6,000), safety and first aid equipment ($3,000), laptops and secure records system ($3,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Clinical Director, a licensed clinician paid $66,000 a year, supervises the teams. Two Crisis Clinicians, each paid $58,000 a year, lead each response. Two Peer Crisis Specialists, each paid $38,000 a year, support the person. We add teams as we add service areas.

Management & Organization

Dr. Elena Vasquez, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a crisis clinician who stood outside too many ambulances wishing for a gentler way. I will ride with the team and complete the training we require so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Clinical Director supervises crisis teams, crisis clinicians lead each response and peer crisis specialists support the person. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a psychiatrist, a police captain, a paramedic, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney, a family member and a person in recovery. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A 988 center director, a hospital emergency physician and a county behavioral health director give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $54,000 a year; clinical Director, paid $66,000 a year; crisis Clinician, paid $58,000 a year; peer Crisis Specialist, paid $38,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 300 participants at 1 service areas.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 450 participants at 1 service areas.
- Year 3: About 600 participants at 2 service areas.
- Year 4: About 750 participants at 2 service areas.
- Year 5: About 900 participants at 3 service areas.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 51 percent of our budget, down from about 65 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $90,000 from the Mile High Crisis Response Foundation for a Crisis Clinician, peer crisis specialists and the follow-up care fund, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Crisis Clinician salary, $58,000.
- Personnel: Peer crisis specialist stipends, $20,000.
- Other: Follow-up care fund paid to providers, $12,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 34% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $403,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $16,500 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $263,500; county and State Crisis Funding $100,000; medicaid Reimbursement $20,000; hospital Partners $20,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $54,000; clinical Director $66,000; crisis Clinician $58,000; peer Crisis Specialist $38,000; vehicle Insurance, Fuel and Maintenance about $18,000; dispatch and Communications Systems about $10,000; safety and De-Escalation Training about $6,000; follow-Up Care Fund about $14,000; data and Evaluation about $5,000; administration and Insurance about $12,000; about $14,000 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $64,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $38,000 for used response vehicle with safety equipment; $6,000 for radios, phones and tablets for the team; $3,000 for safety and first aid equipment; $3,000 for laptops and secure records system; $3,000 for attorney review of the consent form, protocol and privacy policy; $2,000 for branding, flyers and a simple website; $4,000 for de-escalation training and background checks; $5,000 for first insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($64,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $94,300, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $158,500. We start with $15,000 from our founding board and $146,000 in startup support from a health foundation and a hospital partner, $161,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $403,500 in Year 1 to about $626,000 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $263,500, $227,000, $291,500, $356,500 and $322,000 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: county and State Crisis Funding from $100,000 to $160,000; medicaid Reimbursement from $20,000 to $100,000; hospital Partners from $20,000 to $44,000. Our surplus is planned at about $16,500 in Year 1, about $17,300 in Year 2, about $22,700 in Year 3, about $28,500 in Year 4 and about $30,500 in Year 5. We grow from 1 service areas to 3 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $121,400, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $16,140 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per person. In Year 1, our total costs are about $1,290 per person served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more person served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $662 per person.

After the grant. County and state crisis funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free mobile crisis response option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of persons and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $263,500 in Year 1, growing to $322,000 in Year 5.
- County and State Crisis Funding: $100,000 in Year 1, growing to $160,000 in Year 5.
- Medicaid Reimbursement: $20,000 in Year 1, growing to $100,000 in Year 5.
- Hospital Partners: $20,000 in Year 1, growing to $44,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $54,000; clinical Director $66,000; crisis Clinician $58,000; peer Crisis Specialist $38,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: vehicle Insurance, Fuel and Maintenance $18,000; dispatch and Communications Systems $10,000; safety and De-Escalation Training $6,000; follow-Up Care Fund $14,000; data and Evaluation $5,000; administration and Insurance $12,000. These grow between 4% and 5% a year.
- Equipment: $50,000 at the start, then $4,000 to $6,000 a year.
- Startup costs: $64,000, paid once from $161,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 300 in Year 1, growing to about 900 in Year 5. Sites: 1 in Year 1, growing to 3 by Year 5. The team responds seven days a week, with extended hours as funding grows.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs