The University of Chicago Health Lab has gathered experts in health care, academia, government, emergency response, and public safety—in collaboration with advocates and elected leaders via virtual roundtables and working groups—to examine how to transform America’s 911 system.
Overhauling the emergency response system to build safe, supportive, and community-driven responses to 911 calls is overdue. More than 650,000 calls are made to 911 daily in the United States. Increasingly, police find themselves responding to scenarios they are not professionally trained for and do not require an armed response.
Transform911’s website will be a dynamic online hub for 911-related innovations, research, and opportunities. New resources and other content will be added periodically, so check back often!
Transform911 is exploring how the nation’s 911 system can better prioritize health and safety and ensure the right responder is dispatched at the right time.
The project’s goals were to:
- Establish working groups and roundtables to explore insights and evidence into 911’s current deployment of first responders to assist people in need
- Convene diverse experts for a national dialogue centered on innovating the nation’s emergency response system to more effectively stabilize crisis scenarios and assess when secondary or follow-up interventions are needed
- Enhance a strong research base that can inform grassroots advocacy campaigns and create a roadmap for transforming the nation’s emergency crisis response system
- Develop a Blueprint containing recommended policies and approaches to improving the 911 system
Help us Transform911.
The Health Lab strives to improve public health, its impacts, and how it is discussed. If you identify an area of our work that you believe misses a critical perspective or employs language that needs improvement, please contact us at transform911@uchicago.edu. We welcome your feedback.