For Stepping Up, counties develop diverse teams of sheriffs, jail administrators, judges, community corrections professionals, treatment providers, people with mental illnesses and their families, and mental health program directors to coordinate and tackle system-wide approaches for preventing people with mental illness cycling through jails.

The national initiative launched because the number of people with severe mental illness in U.S. jails has reached crisis levels. An estimated 2 million people with serious mental illnesses are admitted to jails. That is equivalent to the populations of Vermont and New Hampshire, combined.

Local Stepping Up partners include: MHARS, Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, Lorain County Adult Probation, Lorain County Court of Common Pleas, Lorain County Commissioners, Mercy and UH hospital systems, Firelands, Life Care, as well as corrections and probation officers, and other community partners.