Downtown CORE Pilot Project
The Downtown CORE Team is a new pilot project run in collaboration between Toronto Public Health (TPH) and Toronto Police Services (TPS). Since the pilot began in December 2024, it has already shown promising results in connecting people to primary care and social services.
What is CORE and how is it different from other outreach teams?
The Downtown CORE team is a street outreach team that operates seven days a week, from 8:00am to 11:00pm, in the Sankofa Square area. Unlike emergency responders like the TCCS, the CORE Team proactively responds to client needs. By pairing TPSofficers with TPH nurse practitioners, clients are provided on-the-spot medical care. Meanwhile, Toronto Police officers can liaise with other agencies and act as a safety net for the nurses. The Downtown CORE team also provides short-term case management to ensure that there is follow up on connections made to housing, ID clinics and other supports.
While the Downtown CORE model is unique, there is precedent for nurses and police officers collaborating on street outreach teams in other municipalities across North America. The University of Victoria found that the integration of Victoria police officers with Island Health’s Assertive Community Treatment program re-orients police interventions away from criminalization and towards support for mental health and wellbeing.
What’s next for the CORE team?
The Downtown Yonge BIA will be working with researchers at Humber College to complete a community impact study of the CORE program. Since the CORE program began, the executive director of the BIA has noticed an increase in engagement from business owners on social issues impacting the community. The Board of Health will also receive a mid-pilot report from the CORE team at its July meeting.
Expansion of the Toronto Community Crisis Service
Launched as a pilot project in 2022, TCCS was expanded citywide as Toronto’s fourth emergency service in September 2024. This new service was created out of the 36 decisions related to policing reform that were adopted by City Council in June 2020 and the acknowledgement that there is a need for response to mental health crisis calls and wellness checks that does not involve police intervention or presence. TCCS aims to provide response that is community-based, client centred and trauma-informed. The service is delivered by partner agencies who dispatch crisis workers to calls received through 911 and 211. In Toronto Centre, our partner organization is Gerstein Crisis Centre.
The Downtown East was one of the four areas in which TCCS was originally piloted. Evaluation of the pilot project found that in its first year of operations TCCS received 6,827 calls for service, with 78 per cent of calls transferred from 911 successfully resolved without police involvement. The data also showed that 95 per cent of clients were satisfied or very satisfied with the service they received and 90 per cent indicated that it positively impacted their perception of community safety and wellbeing.
I’m proud that in Toronto we are acknowledging the importance of meeting people where they’re at with mental health and substance use and developing an array of response strategies to meet diverse needs in these critical areas. I will continue to work in my capacity as Chair of the Board of Health to support better health outcomes through the implementation of the Our Health, Our City Mental Health, Substance Use, Harm Reduction & Treatment Strategy.
