By Kelley Kelley

Kelley Kelley is CONNECT’s Director of Public Safety & Wellbeing. Kelley formerly served as the Mayor of Turtle Creek Borough.

A debrief we had recently with a former borough manager stands out as one that had many “aha” moments. An early supporter of Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) in Allegheny County, this borough manager worked alongside us to develop our pilot program, and it wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without them. 

Due to various issues, we were unable to provide LEAD in their municipality. It felt like a huge failure after all those years of hard work and dedication to the program, but that wasn’t the entire story. Sometimes out of failures we find ourselves and what we need to be moving toward.

At that meeting we talked a lot about pressures and stressors facing municipal staff and local elected officials. They shared their personal struggles with burnout during their time in local government and it being one of the reasons for leaving. 

We filled them in on the pilot wellbeing program CONNECT submitted for funding. We thought working on this project might be a good fit since they are looking to transition into mental health focused work. Having myself  (a former Mayor) and a former borough manager involved in this work would be so beneficial to those looking for support – we know what you’re going through because we’ve been there!

So out of what was a debrief over a failure, we ended up creating a partnership for a project that will provide much needed programming support for those serving our communities. You just never know what might come out of your next failure.