Bring Field Mediation to Your Community

Grant-Funded Technical Assistance for Cities and Counties

Dignity Best Practices is excited to share an opportunity for local governments to bring field mediation to their communities. With generous support from the AAA-ICDR Foundation, we’re offering 15 months of grant-funded technical assistance to two cities or counties ready to launch mediation-trained, unarmed responders for nonviolent 911 calls.

Included services:

  • 800 hours of technical assistance from Dignity Best Practices, valued at $200,000
  • Four sites visits from Dignity Best Practices
  • Support with the design, implementation, and launch of a pilot program, including cross-agency working group facilitation, community engagement support, CAD call analysis, call types selection, dispatch path, field protocol, training design and performance metrics selection (See appendix for comprehensive list of services).

(The grant does not include funding for operational costs.)

The opportunity can take one of two forms:

  1. Build a dedicated Field Mediation team (similar to Dayton’s MRU), or
  2. Cross-train your existing mobile crisis/ community response team to help them navigate interpersonal dispute calls

Either approach enables the transfer of a broad subset of 911 calls to this professional unarmed mediation response, including neighbor complaints, business owner/ unhoused person disputes, and family and roommate disputes. Learn more from our Field Mediation Toolkit!

Assistance begins January 2026.

Apply Now!

Key Dates & How to Learn More

Applications Open: August 4, 2025

Applications Close: October 17

  • Applications received before October 1 may receive feedback.

Learn More:

  • Office Hours: 1:1 meeting to ask any questions you’d like about the TA opportunity. (Register)
  • NYU Webinar: View our recording to learn more about the opportunity of field mediation.

Who Should Apply?

City or county leaders, emergency response agencies, behavioral health teams, community mediation centers, or community partnerships that want to:

  • Build a more sustainable and human-centered response to distress
  • Free up police for calls that require their presence
  • Strengthen cross-agency collaboration in crisis response

What Will I Need?

  1. Statements of intent to launch a mediation-enabled field capacity by 2027
  2. Resources to cover operational costs (beyond our TA support, which is grant funded)
  3. Letter(s) of support from your city/county executive’s office, your local 911 call center and/or the organization to host the field team (we can help you make the case with your internal partners as part of your application process!)

Interested? Have questions?
Reach out to us at contact@dignitybestpractices.org or attend one of our info sessions.