Have a HEART Fayetteville

Fayetteville Freedom For All needs to raise $600 to cover the cost of renting out The Cameo Art House Theatre. Any additional money raised will go towards promotional materials like flyers, palm cards, and social media advertising. 

Have A HEART Fayetteville: Documentary Screening and Q&A

Event Summary: Fayetteville Freedom For All is hosting a documentary screening of “HEART: Serving Our Neighbors in Crisis.” This new documentary follows the journey of the City of Durham coming together to build an alternative care response team of passionate mental health clinicians with the "HEART" for working alongside police, fire and EMS in the community. The HEART (Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team) program is a new public safety response within the City of Durham’s Community Safety Department. It connects Durham residents to the right care ­— starting from the point at which someone calls 911 to the warm handoff to those who help meet the needs of neighbors in crisis. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the Durham HEART staff. 

Background: For over a year Fayetteville Freedom For All has been leading a community advocacy campaign to persuade the City of Fayetteville to establish an Office of Community (OCS). An OCS is a community-based approach to public safety and crime reduction that would be housed under the City of Fayetteville, separate from but equal to the police and fire department. OCS and other alternative response models can come in many different forms and are tailored to the needs of the community it serves. The main purpose is to proactively address issues related to mental and behavioral health, homelessness, violence prevention, and independent police oversight. 

In June 2023, Fayetteville Freedom For All and other organizations such as Organizing Against Racism: Cumberland County and Action NC successfully organized and swayed the Fayetteville City Council to allocate $250,000 to hire a Director for this new office. This year, our focus will be advocating for additional funding that will go towards a mental health response team. The purpose of this screening is to educate Fayetteville residents and elected officials about what alternative response implementation could look like here in our city. We hope that this screening will inspire Fayetteville residents to join our movement for building a better Fayetteville.