First Responder Summit

This one day summit, hosted by District 7 Fire Rescue, is set in the calm and serene Blue Heron Recovery Campus along the banks of Salado Creek. Our morning begins with breakfast on a patio overlooking the creek along with a morning meditation. First Responders, active and retired, will share their experiences of challenges and trauma and how choosing to seek help saved their careers, marriages, and themselves.

Keynote speakers are Joe Smarro and Jesse Trevino, founders of SolutionPoint+. SolutionPoint+ is a national training and consulting firm that focuses on cultivating mental wellness to maximize human capital and promote safety. They are national experts in mental wellness, crisis intervention, and de-escalation.

Local mental health professionals, along with The 100 Club of San Antonio will discuss initiatives for first responders and their families. Representatives from community resources will be available to discuss support available.

Sponsors of this event include Blue Heron Recovery, Banyon Treatment Centers, Battling Minds, CAREForce, The Right Step, Hill Country and The 100 Club of San Antonio.

Joe is the CEO and Co-founder of SolutionPoint+, the national consulting and training firm. Joe is a decorated combat Marine Corps veteran. He is a consultant, master trainer, former police officer, TEDx speaker, author, and celebrated mental health advocate. Joe served the City of San Antonio as a police officer for 15 years. Ten of those years he spent on the nationally recognized Mental Health Unit. He has a proven track record for modifying human behavior through connection and vulnerability, de-escalating hundreds of cases. Joe has trained thousands of individuals in crisis intervention and mental health resiliency. His work is featured in the HBO documentary film, Ernie and Joe: Crisis Cops. He was a contributor to the Police Executive Research Forum 2019 publication, An Occupational Risk: What every police agency should do to prevent suicide among its officers. Joe has also been the subject of several national media stories: The Atlantic, ABC Nightline, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to name a few.

Jesse is the President and Co-founder of SolutionPoint+. He is a United States Marine Corps combat veteran having served in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Jesse joined the San Antonio Police Department in 2010 and served for over 10 years. He worked on the Mental Health Unit and implemented nationally recognized programs addressing mental illness, homelessness, and chemical dependency. He went on to serve as an instructor and training coordinator at the San Antonio Police Training Academy, one of the top police academies in the nation. After promoting to detective Jesse became the threat assessment program coordinator for the Southwest Texas Fusion Center, establishing the current national model for behavioral threat assessments in law enforcement. He has an A.A. from Northwest Vista College, a B.A. in Criminal Justice, and an M.S. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in criminal justice from Walden University. Jesse’s expertise is in program evaluation, threat management, and mental health J*il diversion processes.

Host or Publisher Denise Thompson