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What will it take for Chicago to become the safest big city in the country?
As members of Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities — a funder coalition focused on identifying and supporting promising community-led solutions to Chicago’s gun violence crisis — it’s a question we ask ourselves often. We recognize we’re not going to get there overnight, and we’re not going to get there alone. Sustainable change of this scale is going to take significant commitment, collaboration and time.
We all have a role to play, and many are stepping up.
Neighbors are coming together to build community, to keep their neighborhoods safe and to help people feel more connected to each other, all elements shown to create the critical conditions for reduced violence. Street outreach workers are disrupting cycles of violence and retaliation and connecting people at the highest risk of gun violence to cognitive behavioral therapy, jobs and other services that address their basic needs.
Community organizations on the South and West sides are sharing best practices, data, resources and training to stem violence and its traumatic effects. Our coalition’s funders have invested more than $140 million in Chicago over seven years to support community-based approaches to violence reduction. Businesses have backed a plan to reduce homicides and gun violence in Chicago over the next decade. And the city, county, state and federal governments are beginning to adopt and fund proven violence prevention efforts at significant levels.
We are grateful to see so many acting with courage, leadership and tenacity to make Chicago safer. This level of engagement, focus and collaboration did not exist when funders first came together in 2016 to determine what could be done to meaningfully reduce gun violence in Chicago. That year, Chicago experienced a dramatic spike in gun violence, representing nearly half of the nation’s total increase in urban homicides. Meanwhile, homicide rates in New York City and Los Angeles continued to rapidly decline, a trajectory dating nearly three decades. It was clear Chicago needed a more comprehensive and strategic plan to reduce gun violence.
Since then, Chicagoans have made some important progress in building out the key pillars that will enable advances in public safety. It’s now time to protect this progress and ensure the scale of the solutions matches the need.
[ Opinion series: Turning the tide on Chicago’s gun violence ]
Chicago now has an infrastructure that supports community violence intervention, an evidence-informed approach that engages trained workers with deep community knowledge and relationships to reduce violence through tailored, community-centered initiatives. Today, more than 20 neighborhoods have some level of outreach, case management, trauma interventions, and job training and placement for those who are at the highest risk of being involved in violence.
We now have evidence that participants in these programs experience significant, meaningful reductions in violence involvement. When funders first came together to identify and support promising solutions to Chicago’s gun violence crisis, we also invested in the evaluation of these solutions.
Initial evaluations of violence prevention programs such as READI Chicago, Chicago CRED and Communities Partnering 4 Peace, led by the University of Chicago Crime Lab and CORNERS, or the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science, at Northwestern University, suggest participants are less likely to shoot someone or be shot.
Chicago Tribune Opinion
Specifically, CORNERS found that Communities Partnering 4 Peace’s efforts potentially prevented an estimated 383 nonfatal shooting victimizations and homicides from the start of the program until December 2021. It also estimates that participants in CRED are 50% less likely to be shot or arrested. The Crime Lab found that men who participated in READI have 79% fewer arrests for shootings and homicides.
The existing reach of violence intervention in Chicago is far from sufficient, though; it serves only about 15% to 20% of individuals at highest risk of shooting someone or being shot. An analysis from CRED conducted by a leading consulting firm indicates that meaningful citywide impact requires engagement with at least 75% of these individuals.
With key infrastructure in place and evidence pointing to its significant impact, it’s time now to help community violence intervention reach the communities that are asking for it. Scaling this work will require support for expansion of services and organizational development for the the groups themselves. Most importantly, it will require everyone who cares about violence prevention to work together.
Reducing gun violence significantly in Chicago will take more time than we want it to, and it will take a level of resources that will be challenging — but critical — to sustain. We remain deeply committed to partnering in this work and are inspired to see Chicagoans across different sectors pulling together — public, private, nonprofit and philanthropic — with community members leading at the heart of the work.
If we all work together with a common and coordinated plan and if we stay the course to scale the most promising solutions, we can create a safer and more vibrant Chicago where every resident can thrive without the constant fear of gun violence.
Esther Franco-Payne is executive director of Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities. Gillian Darlow is chief executive officer of Polk Bros. Foundation and a founding member of PSPC. Darlow is married to Editorial Page Editor Chris Jones.
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