Alternative Response for Community Health (ARCH) is a 911 community response unit designed to place community paramedics and licensed clinical social workers in the "margins" of 911 operations, responding to emergency requests alongside and sometimes in place of traditional first responders.  In many circumstances, ARCH will also provide later in-person follow up to those community members, assisting in addressing needs such as chronic medical and behavioral health conditions, difficult living conditions, and other quality-of-life concerns.  Program development was begun in late 2021, with the two pilot programs operating for two-month periods in fall 2022 and spring 2023.

Development of ARCH is a response to consistent community voices identifying mental health as a significant challenge within the city.  ARCH follows a national trend of making mental health and community care a more active part of emergency services, identifying that community member outcomes can be improved by re-analyzing how emergency services respond and provide services for low-acuity 911 events.  ARCH functions as a part of a regional movement expanding alternative emergency services and destinations that includes the national suicide hotline (988), local behavioral health crisis centers and community paramedicine as important components of an emergency response system.