Partnership targets gun violence at its root

February 10, 2022

In a roundtable discussion on Jan. 25, University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos reiterated the university’s commitment to partner with community organizations to address gun violence in Chicago following the deaths of two university students and a recent graduate in 2021. 

Although the Department of Safety and Security has recently announced efforts to enhance university law enforcement and expand the Lyft Ride Smart program, Dr. Alivisatos underscored the importance of addressing root issues such as divestment, educational inequity, generational trauma, and lack of access to mental health services in the community. 

“As an university we are committed to contributing our strengths and research and education and our resources to work in partnership with the community and the city to work toward common solutions urgently needed to address this most critical of issues,” Dr. Alivisatos said during the discussion.

He announced the university’s new initiative to issue grants funding partnerships between members of the university and community organizations. The funding will target areas such as social and economic pathways, trauma recovery efforts, reentry initiatives, community police relations and understanding why certain violence prevention programs are effective. 

Some initiatives affiliated with the university to improve public safety have already proven to be effective. These include the UChicago Justice Project, UChicago Medicine’s Violence Recovery Program, Trauma Responsive Educational Practices project, Choose to Change, and READI Chicago.

Launched in 2015, Choose to Change provides six months of wraparound services and cognitive behavioral therapy to teenagers in the south and west sides of Chicago. During therapy sessions, teenagers learn to regulate themselves during high stress situations. As part of the wraparound services, mentors from similar communities build relationships with the participants, identify their interests, and help them form plans to pursue those interests. 

“Any barriers that will prevent them from completing their education, we try our best to eliminate those barriers and support families and meet them where they are and give them the support that they need,” said David Williams, Midwest region vice president at Youth Advocate Programs. 

Another program utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy is READI Chicago. Under a different model, READI Chicago combines therapy with providing employment opportunities and support services in areas such as Medicaid, housing, mental health and substance abuse. The 12-month program targets men in the North Lawndale, Englewood and Austin-West Garfield neighborhoods. 

According to Senior Program Manager Nyzera Fleming, the structure of the program allows participants to learn socioemotional skills in the classroom and then apply those in real-world situations. 

“In a setting where your supervisor may say, ‘Hey, I need you to go from this task to the next task,’ they’re being coached on how to handle those situations or, you know, be able to take feedback or be able to know those basic standards of HR as it applies to, you know, sexual harassment or how to handle anger management and things of that nature,” Ms. Fleming said. 

The Urban Labs Crime Lab at the University of Chicago has rigorously evaluated Choose to Change and READI Chicago. Researchers compared participants of these programs with peers of similar backgrounds. Compared to their peers, teenagers who participated in Choose to Change were 48% less likely to be arrested for violent crime, and they attended seven more days of school. Men who participated in READI Chicago were 79% less likely to be arrested for shootings and homicides compared to their peers.

In the round-table discussion, Deborah Gorman-Smith noted that even with new public safety initiatives, there will likely be no changes in the next three or five years. 

“We’ve demonstrated really importantly that prevention works,” Dr. Gorman-Smith said during the discussion. “We can do things to decrease risk for violence, but we haven’t concentrated those efforts in a way that makes real progress in reducing community level rates of violence.”

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