We've been heartened by the outpouring of community support for our unarmed, non-police response to public safety situations! We have many individual and group endorsements of our plan that we can't wait to share on this page. If you would like your org to endorse CROS, send us an email at [email protected]
Organizational Endorsements
Endorsement Statements
Avalon Housing
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United Way of Washtenaw County
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Community Action Network (CAN)
We are writing this letter in support of Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety’s non-police response plan. Community Action Network (CAN) operates through community centers located within under- resourced neighborhoods. In this capacity, CAN establishes deep relationships and experiences with the residents and over time primarily through conflict reducing approach, these neighborhoods have transformed over the years including reductions in criminal activity and other safety concerns. The CROS plan is the start toward a city-wide solution to an approach CAN and many other social service agencies have already demonstrated over the years. With adequate resources, non-police responses to emergencies will have a profound impact on targeting interventions and resources to reduce and mitigate future recurrences of emergencies. Instead of a one-size fits all emergency intervention approach, the CROS plan will be able to leverage an array of community resources that is centered in harm reduction for all parties involved. As noted in the CROS plan, “we have prioritized the well-being of every single member of our community, with no exceptions. Our values are to keep all people, especially those who are most marginalized, safe; to value all lives (including those who are afraid to call the police); to prioritize people over costs; and to eventually expand beyond Ann Arbor knowing people are transient and safety has no borders.” These values are extraordinarily similar to CAN’s historical and current approach with under-resourced neighborhoods and CAN has demonstrated its tremendous impact in reducing trauma and improving overall community safety. We support the CROS non-police response plan. |
Survivors Speak and Value Black Lives
Survivors Speak and Value Black Lives stands with CROS as we believe in dealing with humanity, and those who may be suffering mentally, in a compassionate and loving manner. While we look around the Nation to see the failures of police not dealing, appropriately, with those who are suffering mentally, we mustn’t forget the tragedy in our own backyard. We stand on behalf of Aura Rosser and all those who’ve been mistreated by those who were sworn in to protect and serve. RIP Aura |
The Neutral Zone
The Neutral Zone values creating a safe, supportive community where youth belong and know they matter. We recognize that young people, especially Black youth, as well as many more marginalized by race, gender, sexual orientation and other vulnerable identities, need a space for healing at this time. CROS provides the opportunity for youth to reach out to their community for support and safety when in crisis without fear of an armed response. |
Fresh Start Clubhouse Ann Arbor
CROS’ proposal is a step away from oppressive, harmful practices and towards our vision of a world where all people living with mental illness lead healthy, productive lives. As a community supporting mental health recovery, we recognize that those who struggle with mental illness need support and resources, rather than experiencing trauma, disrespect, and a loss of rights and opportunity due to an armed police response. |
Graduate Employees’ Organization (AFT-MI Local 3550)
The Graduate Employees’ Organization (AFT-MI Local 3550) enthusiastically endorses the Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety’s (CROS) proposal for an unarmed non-police response plan for the city of Ann Arbor. The Ann Arbor and University of Michigan communities, including GEO members, will greatly benefit from CROS’s rigorously researched and community-led approach. This plan and CROS's mission show that a future without armed responses or police involvement is within our collective reach. We are proud to give their plan our endorsement. |
Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights supports the CROS plan, rooted in care-based strategies to support people living here in Washtenaw County. CROS's research and work to develop a plan that will be truly accessible without fear to our community members is very exciting and we hope to see the City of Ann Arbor adopt this well researched plan that has been developed with extensive input from the communities it will ultimately serve. |
Pull Over Prevention
We have two goals with our Pull Over Prevention & Mutual Aid Fair events: 1) to reduce dangerous interactions between community members and police or immigration authorities, and 2) to connect community members with the resources they really need. The CROS proposal helps our community do both of those things by creating non-police systems to get people the care they actually need during crises. |
Ann Arbor School Parents Intent on Racial Equity (AASPIRE)
Ann Arbor School Parents Intent on Racial Equity (AASPIRE) support the plan developed by the Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety (CROS) for the creation of an unarmed Public Safety Response Program. AASPIRE is a multi-racial group of parents, caregivers, community leaders and educators who are committed to advancing racial equity within the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS). We believe that the plan advanced by CROS will lead to greater public safety for the Black and Brown children and families we advocate for. We strongly agree that community members should inform and direct the non-police response and must be included in the governing body of the Public Safety Response Program. |
The Prison Creative Arts Project
The Prison Creative Arts Project enthusiastically endorses the Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety plan for an unarmed non-police crisis response in the city of Ann Arbor. Our communities are safest when our connections to one another are deep and meaningful and when we can live without fear of violence, punishment, or stigma. We need a crisis response plan that enlists the expertise of myriad professionals and provides individuals with access to the resources they need including public health, public assistance, conflict resolution, mental health, and basic needs. |
Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice
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Ozone House
As an organization that works to build a community where all young people are safe, celebrated, supported and loved, Ozone House supports the Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety (CROS) and endorses their evidence-based plan for an unarmed safety response team in Ann Arbor. Ozone House has served young people experiencing crisis with prevention and intervention services for over 52 years. Our history and experience inform our belief that investing in resources for non-violent interventions will help to keep our young people and community safe. |
Public Health Awakened Michigan Chapter
The Michigan Chapter of Public Health Awakened, a statewide network of public health workers, strongly endorses the CROS plan to create an unarmed response program in Ann Arbor. The American Public Health Association emphasizes that unarmed response programs that are separate from police help promote health and well-being by better connect residents to needed resources. The CROS plan is based on public health best practices and is vitally needed in Michigan communities. |
Student Advocacy Center
Student Advocacy Center enthusiastically supports all efforts to develop robust, unarmed, non-police responses, especially when dealing with young people. The shift to a more criminalized, militarized, punishment mindset has infiltrated even our schools, where thankfully many are working to dismantle that and forge more healing paths. Developing non-police responses builds on the work in our schools and is critical in efforts to create truly safe, inclusive, healing communities. |
Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH)
The Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH) is a statewide nonprofit that amplifies youth voice and experiences to advance sexual health, identities, and rights. MOASH's programming and advocacy works to further comprehensive sex education offerings, increase access to sexual and reproductive health care, and combat violence towards and amongst MI youth. We cannot commit to the work of our mission without engaging in the movement against White supremacy and state violence, and we call our supporters to take action alongside us. We recognize the racist history of sexual and reproductive health work and movements, and that dismantling systems of oppression is the only way to shift conditions and achieve reproductive justice. We cannot have safe and sustainable communities while police violence and White supremacy exist. Justice and liberation for all youth, especially Black youth, requires an end to state violence and the systems that allow it to exist. |
FedUp Ministries
FedUp Ministries supports a world with nonviolent, non-police, responses to traumas and crises in our communities. We recognize that our current police state disproportionately and negatively impacts Black and Brown communities as well as disabled and neurodivergent individuals. Violence at the hands of the state breaks down trust in our communities. In order to repair damage done, we need to invest time, relationships, and resources. We are excited to endorse CROS, as this collective has proposed a plan that supports community led, evidence-based practices to create systemic change. |
Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration
For too long communities have turned to police as the response to all forms of conflict and crisis. For many situations, an armed officer is the wrong tool for the job. An unarmed, non-police response is simply a better alternative for many situations that police are currently dispatched to. |
The Climate Action Movement of the University of Michigan
The Climate Action Movement of the University of Michigan stands in solidarity with the Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety and its efforts to establish community-led, unarmed, non-police responses to public safety concerns. This mission fully aligns with our Points of Unity as an organization, as we reject systems that deepen the roots of inequality, racism, and injustice in our community. Radical changes are necessary to mitigate the harm being done to our community, and prevent the carceral system from perpetuating modern day colonialism and slavery. All struggles for justice are intertwined, and we must work together with those fighting oppression and mitigating its impacts. |
American Friends Service Committee MI Criminal Justice Program
AFSC's MI Criminal Justice Program fully supports a non-police emergency response for Ann Arbor. We believe Ann Arbor can help create a visionary path forward for the city, for Washtenaw county, and for all of Michigan. The vision offered by CROS for a non-police emergency response will help address the suffering and struggles of our neighbors at the roots rather than through potentially violent police presence. In the absence of such violence and punishment focused responses, we can build a tomorrow focused on healing and transformation of the harms caused by poverty, racism, and trauma. |
Emergent Justice
We believe in centering the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized people. That's why at Emergent Justice we empower communities to unapologetically fight to dismantle all systems of injustice throughout Michigan. The Cros Project is a way to re-create the current system we live in that needs to be radically transformed. It's the proactive, movement-based vision we need for our communities instead of a reactionary one. |
The United Asian American Organization (UAAO)
The United Asian American Organization (UAAO) is an independent coalition organization of Asian American organizations and students at the University of Michigan dedicated to acting as a resource for advocacy and social justice in the community. UAAO stands with the Coalition to Revision our Safety (CORS) in the pursuit of non-police and community-based solutions to public safety and is dedicated to transformative justice as a framework to address harm within our communities. We fully support CORS and endorse their plan to build care-based safety within the Ann Arbor community. |
Washtenaw Regional Organizing Coalition
WeROC brings together faith, labor, community organizations, and individuals to build healthy collective power needed to break down the systems that sustain injustice, racism, and economic inequality. We endorse The Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety (CROS) because we understand that solely relying on law enforcement to respond to mental health emergencies and people in crisis can be counterproductive to community safety. We believe people deserve an option that is separate from institutions attached to our legal system. WeROC stands in solidarity with CROS and understands that the path we have been going down is not the only path we have to take. |
We, the members of Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO, American Federation of Teachers local 6244), support the two-year pilot proposal put forth by the Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety to implement a non-police crisis response in the City of Ann Arbor, where a large portion of our members reside. As a labor union, we support organized groups, such as CROS, to co-design and co-create power structures that advance equity for all, especially those who have historically been excluded from power.
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The Washtenaw Housing Alliance (WHA) endorses the Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety and the efforts it is leading to create an unarmed, non-police response to public safety in our local communities. The WHA is well aware of the intersections of homelessness and housing instability with policing and the carceral system. Housing is out of reach for too many where we live because of the background checks they must go through when applying for housing. Our advocacy work is centered on #HousingForAll. We believe CROS’s plan reimagines a way for this to exist in Washtenaw County.
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Groundcover News is a community newspaper that exists to create an opportunity and amplify the voices of people with little or no income — a demographic of people who are most targeted, and least protected by armed police. We endorse Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety’s (CROS) proposal for an unarmed non-police response plan; we even have their principles posted in our office as a reminder of values and best practice for community centered crisis response
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The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) is a legal resource center for Michigan's immigrant communities. We support the creation of an unarmed, civilian first responder program to assist people experiencing behavioral health crises. Similar programs have been shown to help wide cross sections of our communities, including people of color, immigrants, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and LGBTQ+ community members. Culturally appropriate unarmed, non-police response that includes language access support would help immigrant residents obtain the care they need and connect to local resources without exposing them to unnecessary uses of force or justice system involvement. Reducing the potential for negative interactions with police would not only boost health outcomes for our community, but increase public trust in local law enforcement.
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