Our Role

The TAPA Center for Jail Diversion was funded at the same time as the 2002 TCE jail diversion grantees, as a result of the same SAMHSA/CMHS funding solicitation. The TAPA Center serves as the coordinating center for the 20 CMHS TCE Jail Diversion Grantees and provides a number of services to them including:

• Conducting site visits: TAPA provides each Jail Diversion TCE grantee with a site visit in Years 1 and 2 of their funding. TAPA staff members and/or expert consultants visit the program to provide assistance in program design, action planning and overcoming barriers.
• Organizing an annual meeting of all grantees: On behalf of SAMHSA/CMHS, TAPA organizes an annual two-day grantee meeting in Bethesda, MD. These meetings provide grantees with an opportunity to learn more about their place in the larger Jail Diversion TCE initiative, network with other grantees, hear presentations from SAMHSA/CMHS and TAPA staff and invited guests, and raise issues that they have encountered during the design and implementation of their programs.
• Assisting sites in planning, goal setting, and process evaluations: TAPA is a constant resource for the TCE grantees, providing assistance through formal TA processes, feedback on reports, presentations and workgroups at the yearly grantee meeting and through frequent communication via phone, email and conference call.
• Coordinating a multi-site evaluation of all grantees: This multi-site evaluation includes the collection of basic information on the activities conducted to determine diversion eligibility, basic demographic information on those individuals who are accepted for diversion, and information on their service usage and criminal justice involvement both pre- and post-diversion. In addition, sites conduct client interviews at baseline, 6-months and 12-months following jail diversion. The instruments contain the required Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) items, as well as additional measures to assess trauma histories, perceived coercion and psychiatric symptoms. To assist grantees in this evaluation, TAPA has developed data collection instruments and conducts trainings, facilitates data collection and management, cleans and analyzes data, and produces reports and journal articles.
• Providing technical assistance in all areas of program implementation and evaluation: Recent TA activities have included presentations at locally organized conferences, clinical training on trauma interventions, strategic planning sessions between program partners and between the program and other local initiatives (e.g. drug courts, mental health courts, CIT teams), and peer mentor training for mental health consumers working with the jail diversion program.
• Fostering and facilitating consumer involvement: A core member of each of the TCE grantees' teams is the consumer representative (CR). TAPA has worked closely with the CRs from each program, and with the programs themselves, to encourage and support the full integration of consumers into all aspects of the program's planning and implementation.
• Fostering and facilitating the development of gender-specific and trauma services: In collaboration with the National GAINS Center, TAPA has developed and pilot tested a one-day training and action planning session entitled Developing Gender and Trauma Sensitive Jail Diversion Programs.