Willamette Valley
Crisis Care
Community Responders based in Eugene, OR
WVCC Explores Community-Funded Community Responders Offering Wellness and Safety (CROWS), Awarded Contract with National Scaling Safety Initiative
EUGENE, OR — July 1, 2026 — Following the City of Eugene’s decision to bypass local, comprehensive care in favor of a private, for-profit corporation, Willamette Valley Crisis Care (WVCC) will host listening sessions to explore alternative response pilot to divert calls from the overburdened 911 system.
A Missed Opportunity for Eugene
The city is spending $500,000 on a referral-based peer navigation outreach program that doesn’t offer critical services like alternative response. For that same price, WVCC offered a comprehensive, locally rooted community response model: Community Responders Offering Wellness and Safety (CROWS) plus Aftercare. WVCC’s model was meticulously designed to safely divert and absorb the 28% surge in welfare checks currently straining the Eugene Police Department since the suspension of White Bird Clinic’s CAHOOTS services in Eugene. EPD reported a 36% increase in arrests in 2025, including a 58% increase in criminal trespass arrests.
CROWS plus aftercare would have offered 10 hours a day 7 days a week of community response services–including welfare checks–and 8 hours a week of aftercare.
Community Conversation: What’s next for alternative response in Eugene
WVCC is turning to the people of Eugene to explore ways to fund alt service. Let’s make Eugene a leader in alt crisis response once again. Roughly forty percent of law enforcement calls don’t result in arrest or citation and can be handled by an alternative response. Help us reinforce our community’s safety and wellness ecosystem and return services that allow us to check on each other’s welfare.
Get Involved: Are you ready to shape the future of safety in Eugene? Subscribe here to join the conversation.
National Recognition: WVCC Tapped for Just Safe’s Scaling Safety Initiative
WVCC has been awarded a major contract to provide training and technical assistance to Just Safe’s Scaling Safety Initiative, which works in five cities–Tucson, Cleveland, Miami, Jackson, and Austin. WVCC will support leaders in community-based public safety to increase the capacity of consent-based, unarmed civilian response.
WVCC continues to be a leader nationally in alternative response. A WVCC founder presented at the National Co-Responder Alliance Conference with the Center for Health and Justice in Dallas earlier this month. Founders are co-facilitating the Alternative Mobile Services Association's state collective for Oregon with explicit legislative goals to recapture funds dedicated to community care over enforcement.
Support our Community Safety and Wellness Town Hall and Skill Up Summer Series to pave the way for Community-Funded Community Response
WVCC is officially launching its "What’s Next for WVCC?" matching fundraising campaign. Thanks to generous donors, every dollar raised during this campaign will be matched dollar-for-dollar, directly funding WVCC’s efforts to create sustainable funding for CROWS and integrated community-based crisis response services. Additionally, this matching campaign supports local trainings, and state and national advocacy for care not carceral solutions: alternative community-based response.
About Willamette Valley Crisis Care (WVCC)
Willamette Valley Crisis Care is dedicated to creating community-led, wellness-centered alternatives to public safety and crisis response. Through training, consulting, and strategic partnerships, WVCC works to ensure that safety means care, dignity, and accountability for every community member.
