The Miles Hall Foundation Is Fighting for a World Where Mental Health Crises Are Met With Care

After Miles Hall Was Killed By Police During a Mental Health Crisis, His Family Built a Movement.

Images Courtesy of The Miles Hall Foundation

The Miles Hall
Foundation

Location

Walnut Creek, CA

Founded

2019

Focus

Mental health crises response reform & education

The Miles Hall Foundation (TMHF) was founded to honor the life of my son, Miles Hall, a young Black man with a mental health condition who was tragically killed by police during a mental health crisis in 2019.

TMHF is dedicated to creating a world where people experiencing mental health crises receive care, not criminalization, especially Black families who are disproportionately impacted by policing. 

We take steps toward this vision every day through policy advocacy, public education, storytelling, and community mobilization.

Our efforts have led to significant milestones, including the establishment of a statewide 988 mental health hotline through the Miles Hall Lifeline Act and the launch of the A3 Miles Hall Crisis Call Center, a local non-police crisis response program in Contra Costa County.

The Work + Mission of the Miles Hall Foundation

The Miles Hall Foundation is an advocacy organization working to change how serious mental illness is understood and responded to.

We focus on shifting the narrative, helping communities see mental health through a lens of care, not criminalization, and pushing systems to respond differently.

We do this by educating communities, partnering with counties and organizations to advance non-police crisis response, and helping shape response systems like A3 and AB 988 so they actually work for people.

Our youth programs, like Mental Health Matters and the Breaking Barriers Youth Summit, create space for young people to learn, talk openly, and build awareness early.

We stay close to impacted families, helping them navigate what exists today while pushing for something better.

We see ourselves as true partners in this work, bringing community voice, lived experience, and urgency into spaces where decisions are being made, and helping lead the shift toward more compassionate, community-based care.

Our work is rooted in Miles’ story. My 23-year-old son was experiencing a mental health emergency, and there were no resources available to respond with care, only a system that defaulted to law enforcement.

We exist to change that. We are working to end the criminalization of mental illness by building and advocating for compassionate, community-based crisis response systems so people in crisis receive care instead of punishment, and no other family experiences the loss that we did.

Taun and her son Miles | Image curtesy of GMA

If someone shadowed us for a day they would see a mix of systems work and real human moments.

They would see meetings with county partners, conversations about policy and crisis response, planning programs and events with our team and connecting with people in the community, from parents to community leaders.

They’d also see me learning and taking classes, talking with impacted families and building relationships across the public and private sectors.

There’s a lot of collaboration, a lot of responding in real time, and a lot of pushing things forward. It’s not always clean or easy, but it’s real work, and it’s making a difference.

We’re building something that doesn’t fully exist yet, and that takes consistency, trust, and momentum.

Taun Hall, Mother of Miles Hall, with Dr. Louis C. Langston

The People We Advocate For

1 in 5 adults reported that there was a time in the past 3 years when they thought they needed mental health services or medication, but did not receive them. 

We hear from people who don’t have the right support and don’t know where to go.

Families in crisis, young people trying to understand what they’re feeling, and community members who know calling the police isn’t the right answer but don’t have another option.

The systems that are supposed to help are often confusing, hard to access, or not built with people’s real lives in mind. We are an advocacy organization.

What this means is that we help people navigate what exists now and connect them to resources, while working to build something better so people aren’t left in that position in the first place.

Miles is always at the center of our work. Remembering who he was, his humanity, his life, and what should have been possible for him, grounds everything we do.

What happened to my son and our family is a constant reminder of why this work matters and what’s at stake if we don’t get it right.

Our community has shaped everything. We started as a grassroots effort, FOSATH (Friends of Scott, Alexis, and Taun Hall), and we would not have moved anything forward without people showing up for us.

That support is why we stay grounded in community with others impacted by systemic failures in mental health crisis response, which is really all of us. It’s also why we give back the way we do.

We are committed to helping create better options for others because those options were not there when we needed them.

Support

How to Support The Miles Hall Foundation

Sharing The Miles Hall Foundation’s mission and helping others understand the importance of non-police crisis response is a powerful way to support their work.

If you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health crisis, substance abuse or behavioral health issue, remember to call 988. The first instinct might be to call the police, but there is a safer, more supportive option: The Right Response.

Visit Their Website

Learn more about The Miles Hall Foundation, their mission and their work.

Stay Updated With Their Newsletter

Follow updates, advocacy efforts and opportunities to stay connected.

Follow Them on Social Media

Help amplify their mission and share resources with your community.

Find Help Through The Right Response

TRR connects people with trained support during times of need.

Volunteer

Community members can get involved through events, programs or advocacy, remotely or in person. Complete the Volunteer Interest Form on their website to get started.

This feature was published as part of Hyvemind’s Working Models series: stories from the people and organizations reshaping care, community and system repair.

We’re always looking to highlight organizations, collectives, and community experiments that are changing how care, work and wellbeing are built.

If your team is running a program or initiative that others could learn from, we’d love to hear from you.

To be featured in an upcoming story send us a note: hello@thehyvemind.com