Denver City Council’s Safety, Housing, Education & Homelessness Committee on Wednesday approved on consent a nearly $1.4 million contract with Mental Health Center of Denver to expand citywide its civilian-led responder program for low-level, nonviolent situations.

The contract negotiated by the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment is worth $1,391,579 and runs through 2022.

The Support Team Assisted Response program pairs mental health clinicians with paramedics to respond to people having mental health, poverty, homelessness and substance use-related crises as an alternative to police.

The teams have the capability to connect people with crisis services if they wish such as homeless shelters and treatment.

STAR has relied on 911 dispatchers to screen calls and determine the appropriate response. By expanding STAR’s reach across Denver, the teams will have an estimated 10,000 encounters per year, according to the contract.

Data presented at the end of August to the City Council’s Budget and Policy Committee showed none of the more than 1,600 calls responded to by STAR’s teams up to that point led to arrests.

The data from the pilot phase showed responses heavily concentrated around downtown Denver and East Colfax Avenue, South Federal Boulevard and Montbello. Also under the expansion, the teams operate up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

A 15-member advisory committee for STAR is tasked with tracking data about the program and community outreach to create awareness and review feedback about it.

Data collection relied solely on 911 calls during STAR’s pilot phase, said Jeff Holliday, who manages the Office of Behavioral Health Strategies at the Department of Public Health and Environment, at August’s presentation.

He added one intention of STAR’s expansion is to consider more ways to access the program because of the stigma attached to calling 911.