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Johnson County, Iowa City win 15-month grant to pilot field mediation program
Summary
Johnson County and Iowa City received a 15-month technical assistance award to design a field mediation pilot that trains unarmed mediators to respond to nonviolent conflicts and explore 911 diversion; a public information meeting is set for Jan. 27 and cross-agency planning begins in February.
Johnson County Supervisor Mandy Remington and Iowa City Councilor Laura Bergus told the joint entities meeting on Jan. 12 that the county and Iowa City were awarded a 15-month technical assistance grant to develop a field mediation pilot.
The pilot will provide roughly 800 hours of technical assistance to help communities cross-train existing mobile crisis responders to handle nonviolent conflict as well as mental-health crises, Remington said. The effort is intended to strengthen prevention and diversion while expanding alternatives to traditional law-enforcement responses.
Remington said the technical assistance will be provided by a partner referenced in the presentation as "Dignity Best Practices," funded by a foundation identified in the presentation. The grant will support stakeholder engagement, budgeting and operational development; the technical-assistance team will conduct a site visit and ride-alongs later this month.
Why it matters: supporters framed the pilot as an early-adopter opportunity for local governments to create an option that diverts appropriate nonviolent calls away from police when appropriate, and to build on existing mobile crisis and restorative-justice work across Johnson County and participating cities.
Key next steps identified in the presentation include a public-facing information event on Jan. 27 at the Iowa City Public Library from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., forming a cross-agency committee to develop the pilot, and a standing biweekly working group starting Feb. 12 (12:00-1:00 p.m., hybrid at Room 110, Johnson County Administration Building). Remington and Bergus invited municipalities and community organizations to join the design process.
Speakers and sourcing: Mandy Remington introduced the grant and the pilot development plan; Laura Bergus co-presented and invited jurisdictions to participate. The presentation repeatedly framed the pilot as formative and co-designed with local stakeholders rather than a finished operations plan.
What remains open: the presentation noted the pilot would initially use the community's existing mobile crisis capacity and that broader 911-diversion mechanisms will be explored later; operational details and dispatch pathways are to be co-created during the technical-assistance period.
The county requested stakeholder input and contact information from any agency or community group that wants to be involved in pilot design.
