Evanston’s four-person Crisis Alternative Response Evanston (CARE) team has been quietly fielding thousands of nonviolent crisis calls since it launched, and now the city is gearing up to grow the operation. Officials are shifting funding and planning for more staff, more vehicles, and longer hours as demand keeps climbing. Residents and city leaders say the approach is easing pressure on police while filling long-standing gaps in mental-health and welfare responses.
Small team, big numbers
As reported by CBS Chicago, the CARE team has been dispatched to more than 3,500 calls across Evanston in less than two years and has completed over 1,000 wellbeing checks. The reporter notes that the entire workload is handled by just four responders, including people who came from social work, victims' services, and teaching, and that team members are trained to carry Narcan and provide basic first aid. Rachel Stams, a certified crisis responder, told CBS about one call where a small gesture helped calm someone in distress: "She didn't have any shoes on."
Year-one milestones and training
The City of Evanston's materials highlight the program's early impact. In its first year (beginning July 29, 2024) the C.A.R.E. Team recorded 1,966 calls, made hundreds of follow-up contacts, distributed essential items and coordinated dozens of warm handoffs to partners. As outlined by the City of Evanston, team members complete specialized crisis-responder training through Oakton College and partner organizations like Connections for the Homeless and Trilogy’s FACT Team. The city notes that the team is dispatched through 9-1-1, 3-1-1 and nonemergency lines and that it initially operated daily during daytime and early-evening hours.
Drawing national attention
The Law Enforcement Action Partnership's Community Responder Dashboard lists Evanston among higher-volume community responder programs and shows the city's annual call volume in its national map and table. Public data and reporting have put Evanston on the radar as an example of a small program absorbing a significant share of low-risk calls, a pattern advocates say signals growing demand for nonpolice responses. Local officials say that kind of visibility, combined with the team’s workload, helped drive conversations about building more capacity.
Budget and expansion plans
City budget documents outline a concrete expansion plan. An FY 2026 Parks and Recreation memo requests two additional CARE positions with an estimated personnel cost of $218,341 and notes that adding one full team could raise CARE’s capacity by up to 50%. The budget package and memos also describe needs for more vehicles, additional training and schedule changes so responders can cover more hours and answer more calls. Those details appear in the city's FY 2026 budget materials and related staff memos published as part of the budget packet.
What residents can expect
Officials say residents should see more CARE vans on the street, longer coverage windows and more follow-up casework as the program scales up. City leaders emphasize that the goal is to reduce burdens on police and provide trauma-informed, service-focused responses that connect people to housing, health and addiction services. The expansion will be watched closely by other suburbs and national advocates who are eager to see whether small, clinician-led teams can deliver stable alternatives to traditional patrol responses.
