Dane County is one of 50 applicants selected to attend the Stepping Up Summit in Washington, D.C. on April 18-19.  The summit is an important component of an ambitious effort by the National Association of Counties, the Council of State Governments, and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jails and prisons.

On its  website, the Stepping Up Initiative offers a toolkit to help county governments identify obstacles to reform and learn from successful efforts throughout the country.  You will also find news accounts, research to support proposals, and stories about people involved in the reform efforts.

Applicants invited to the summit had to demonstrate prior commitment to the goals of the initiative and form an inter-disciplinary team that could work together to implement lessons learned.  Dane County’s team includes: Carousel Bayrd, Vice President of the Dane County Board of Supervisors; Kristin Ramon of the Madison Police Department; Mary Grabot of the Dane County Department of Human Services, Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney, and Lindsay Wallace, Executive Director of Dane County NAMI.