Whatcom County and the Justice Project Oversight and Planning Committee urged residents to attend the first of three community engagement workshops on Nov. 20 to weigh in on the county’s jail and behavioral care center planning.

Riley told the committee the workshop runs 6 to 8 p.m. at the Pioneer Pavilion Community Center in Ferndale and will bring together the design‑build team, subject‑matter experts and stations focused on site options, jail operations and behavioral health. "You can talk to experts, subject matter experts at a bunch of different stations centered around the site, the jail operations, behavioral health," Riley said, and encouraged residents to "weigh in" on tradeoffs and decisions.

Committee members said the engagement is a timely opportunity to share perspectives that will inform sequential intercept mapping and the behavioral care center model. Several committee members invited the public to participate in the workshops or to submit written feedback if they are unable to attend in person.

The committee expects the workshops to feed into planning decisions over the next six months, including SIM mapping and the behavioral health gap analysis, and urged broad participation to ensure diverse voices—especially people with lived experience—are included in the design process.