Items filtered by date: December 2015

Safe Haven Blue-Green Campus & Trails

 Even in higher ground locations, natural systems must be maximized to retain stormwater in response to current and future flood risk. The Safe Haven Blue-Green Campus & Trails project is a Community Nonstructural Mitigation/Flood Risk Reduction and Public Services project that will enhance detention capabilities in a critical drainage area adjacent to Cane Bayou, protecting campus facilities and surrounding neighborhood residences. The project, located in Mandeville, will divert stormwater into existing forested land, illustrating how a multi-phase development with existing infrastructure in vulnerable environments can be repurposed to benefit surrounding areas. The project aims to catalyze development that integrates Safe Haven Campus and the essential services it provides into the surrounding community, with the ultimate goal of destigmatizing mental health and substance abuse programs and encouraging an inclusive culture in which Safe Haven’s critical services are better utilized.

During the first round of LA SAFE meetings, the project team hosted stakeholders of St. Tammany Parish at Northshore High School in Slidell. At this meeting, many residents recently affected by the floods of May and August 2016 were interested in discussing LA SAFE’s ability to help alleviate flood conditions both along the coast and near rivers, bayous and streams. The data gathered during this meeting clearly reveal residents’ anxiety about flood risk. Residents mentioned feeling stressed, nervous and concerned for the future condition of their community. The project team noted ten specific instances where attendees mentioned feeling fear and hopelessness. The residents who attended this meeting also expressed a desire to maintain the high quality of life in the parish through smarter development decisions as the population continues to grow. Meeting attendees spoke to a need for the regulation of certain development, especially in how it relates to environmental impact and putting people at risk. Much of the discussion in the first meeting revolved around recurring themes of smarter development, environmental impact and the high quality of life in St. Tammany. These categories were referenced approximately 150 times in a meeting that was attended by around 85 people. In the second round of meetings, attendees from Mandeville specifically identified a need to increase connectivity and to alleviate flood risk in the community. In round three, the project team presented attendees with a vision for St. Tammany Parish based on the data gathered in the previous two rounds of engagement. Residents agreed with the overall vision and presented the project team with recommendations for specific projects ideas. They wanted to see projects that increased greenspace and stormwater retention capabilities and improved connectivity in areas of low and moderate risk. In the fourth round of engagement, the parish and representatives from Safe Haven proposed the Safe Haven Blue-Green Campus & Trails project idea as an opportunity to implement the concepts recommended by the public during the previous rounds of LA SAFE meetings. Residents confirmed their desire to have improved stormwater management capabilities as well as essential social and mental health services in St. Tammany Parish during the public polling process in the round five meetings. Those who marked their preference for a particular project during round five collectively chose this project as their favorite overall for investment. Eighteen different zip codes were represented across the in-person and online polling platforms. 

Read more here.

With accessible, sustainable behavioral health care at the forefront of its mission, Safe Haven, continues to move forward in St. Tammany Parish as the search for a facility operator begins in earnest this week.

Pat Brister, St. Tammany Parish President, in 2015 assembled a team to create Safe Haven, a local, multi-agency behavioral health facility that will address the needs of not only St. Tammany and the surrounding region, but also serve as a replicable model for the state as a whole. “The Safe Haven Advisory Board has worked tirelessly to bring our vision to life,” said Pat Brister, St. Tammany Parish President. “The dedication of each member from various areas of the public and private sectors, has resulted in this endeavor clearly beginning to take shape, and with each phase brings our community closer to an accessible, collaborative, continuum of care of behavioral health services.”   

In addition to the search for a full-time operator of the facility, plans are currently underway for renovations of various buildings on the campus; one to house a peer-run drop-in facility in partnership with the National Alliance for Mental Illness, St. Tammany Chapter, and one to house the Family Promise Day Center.

The Safe Haven operator is expected to be selected in early fall of 2017. To sign up for updates on the progress of Safe Haven visit www.safehavenstp.org.

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In 2015 Pat Brister, St. Tammany Parish President, announced her administration’s vision of developing a comprehensive system of behavioral health care in St. Tammany. Safe Haven will provide a collaborative healing environment for the behavioral health continuum by creating a high-quality, coordinated, sustainable and humane network of care anchored in St. Tammany Parish. The facility will serve as a comprehensive multi- faceted program and a “single point of entry” into the Behavioral Health continuum of care for law enforcement, the judiciary and local area hospitals.

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The Safe Haven Advisory Board will be held on Monday, June 12, 2017 at 11 a.m. at 21454 Koop Drive, in Mandeville, in the staff conference room located on the second floor of Building B.

Agenda

Meeting called to order, Jan Robert

1. Roll call, quorum established, Adele
2. Approval of minutes, March 2017
3. Safe Haven update and overview, March-May 2017, Jan Robert
   
   1. Facility plan update
   2. RFI/RFQ
4. Safe Haven Committee reports
   
   1. Jail Diversion, Judge Peter Garcia
   2. Healthcare, Dr. Charles Preston and Richard Kramer
   3. Training and Education, Major Wharton Muller, Nick Richard
5. Other Business: Grants
6. Meeting adjourned

The Safe Haven Advisory Board will be held on Monday, March 20, 2017 at 11 a.m. at 21454 Koop Drive, in Mandeville, in the staff conference room located on the second floor of Building B.

Agenda

1. Meeting called to order, Kelly Rabalais
2. Roll call, quorum established, Kelly
3. Approval of minutes, December 2016
4. Approval of Safe Haven Advisory Board bylaws, Kelly
5. Nomination and election of officers: Safe Haven Chairman and Secretary, Kelly
6. Safe Haven update and overview, December 2016- February, 2017, Kelly Rabalais, Jan Robert
7. Facility plan update
8. Request for Information re: Provider
9. Safe Haven website
10. CIT, St Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office
11. Safe Haven Committee reports
12. Jail Diversion, Judge Peter Garcia
13. Healthcare, Dr. Charles Preston and Richard Kramer
14. Training and Education, Major Wharton Muller, Nick Richard
15. Other business
16. Meeting adjourned

The Winter Meeting of the Safe Haven Advisory Board will be held on Monday, December 12, 2016 at 11 a.m. at 21454 Koop Drive, in Mandeville, in the staff conference room located on the second floor of Building B.

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Agenda

Safe Haven Advisory Board meeting

Monday, December 12, 2016, 11:00AM

1. Meeting called to order, Kelly Rabalais
2. Roll call, quorum established, Kelly
3. Approval of minutes, September 2016
4. Introduction and approval of Safe Haven Advisory Board bylaws, Kelly
5. Nomination and election of officers: Safe Haven Chairman and Secretary, Kelly
6. Safe Haven update and overview, September-December 2016, Kelly Rabalais, Jan Robert
7. Safe Haven Committee reports
8. Jail Diversion, Judge Peter Garcia
9. Healthcare, Dr. Charles Preston and Richard Kramer
10. Training and Education, Major Wharton Muller, Nick Richard
11. Finance and Administration, Kelly Rabalais
12. Other business
13. Meeting adjourned

The first meeting of the Safe Haven Advisory Board was held on Monday, September 12, 2016 at 11 a.m. at 21454 Koop Drive, in Mandeville, in the staff conference room located on the second floor of Building B.

​Agenda

I - Review of the Safe Haven Master Plan
II- Establish Committees
III-Discussion of various administrative  functions of the advisory board
IV- Discussion of creation of committees and make appointments to committees.

The Final Report on the Safe Haven Implementation Strategy has been released. You can read it here.