HUB
The Chelsea Hub: A Model for Community Safety and Well-being
Working Together to Reduce Risk in Our Community
The Hub works with families and individuals that are facing difficult challenges and may need services from more than one community agency. Our goal is to work together to ensure families and individuals are safe, healthy and have the opportunity to thrive. The Hub is a police-led initiative made up of designated staff from the community and government ages that meet weekly to address specific situations regarding clients facing elevated levels of risk, and develop immediate, coordinated, and integrated responses through the mobilization of resources. There are now 25 participating agencies who come together voluntarily each Thursday morning, and we’ve covered over 450 situations.This innovative model mobilizes resources already in place to address specific situations before an emergency occurs. The Hub reduces demands that are currently borne by the criminal justice system, health system, and families by more effectively applying the capacities of our human service partners and our police resources, and mitigating those critical upstream risk factors that lead to harm, crime, and/or death.
Moreover, the criteria for intervention is unique: the case must signify a high probability and strong intensity of harm, and require a multi-disciplinary approach. The case is then “filtered” to determine whether collaborative intervention is necessary, a process used to protect the individual’s privacy. Our model is efficient: we don’t have lengthy meetings diagnosing anything. Each case takes approximately four minutes.
If you or someone that you know is experiencing more than one of the risk factors listed below, please contact Dan Cortez at 617-466-4807 or dcortez@chelseama.gov. Our goal is to assist you through this often complicated process.
Chelsea Hub Weekly Roundtable
Additional Information About the Hub:
Chelsea Hub Brochure
- Gain a high-level understanding of what the Hub does, and learn who is involved in the initiative.
- See the Chelsea Hub table in action!
An overview of the filter 4 system that guides the Hub each week
News Coverage
- The Boston Globe
- Shelterforce
- Harvard Kennedy School
- Public Health Post
- Chelsea Record
- Chelsea Record (Captain Batchelor Award)
- Chelsea Record (Bloomberg Grant)
Hub partners discuss the situation at weekly roundtable
Replicating the Chelsea Hub Model:
- Springfield
- Worcester
- Jamaica Plain (Boston)
- East Boston
- Lawrence
- Medford
Awards:
- 2018 Bloomberg Mayor’s Challenge Finalist
- 2018 Harvard Innovations in American Government Award, Top 25 Programs
- 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize Winner
- Recipient of two (2) Department of Justice Grants
Success Stories
*Coming soon*
What Others are Saying:
MIT Executive MBAs explore the Hub as a solution to challenges confronting Massachusetts communities: MIT Team Eliot Implementation Presentation.
Examples of Risk Factors that we work to reduce:
| Alcohol | Missing School |
| Mental Health | Poverty |
| Suicide | Unemployment |
| Crime Victimization | Gangs |
| Sexual Violence | Gambling |
| Basic Needs | Physical Health |
| Housing | Criminal Involvement |
| Antisocial/Negative Behavior | Emotional Violence |
| Threat to Public Health and Safety | Supervision |
| Drugs | Parenting |
| Cognitive Impairment | Negative Peers |
| Self-Harm | Missing/Runaway |
| Physical Violence | Social Environment |
| Elderly Abuse |
If you’d like to know more about the Hub or would like a presentation in your community, please contact Dan Cortez at 617-466-4807 or dcortez@chelseama.gov.