Behind the Violence

 "Magic bullet" is the wrong metaphor, on so many levels, to apply to solutions to Chicago's violence epidemic.  Each intervention -- smarter policing, neighborhood watch, providing after-school activities, stronger parenting, getting guns off the steets, reducing violent culture, and giving young people hope for their future -- takes no more than the proverbial bite out of crime.  Any successful strategy needs to be comprehensive, long-term, and modest in its expectations.  That being said, the bite made by a new community-based strategy has been justifiably getting a lot of attention. In recent years, a very promising intervention has been systematically applied to Chicago neighborhoods with high crime.  Known by the name of the larger campaign, Cease Fire, the centerpiece is the use of "street outreach workers," reformed gang members who walk the streets at night, connecting with youth currently involved in gangs.  Cease Fire takes the epidemic model seriously.  Like a condom to prevent AIDS or a seatbelt to prevent auto accidents, the street outreach worker offers an alternative to high-risk activity at the moment of greatest danger.  Rather than pick up a gun, a gang member can pick up a phone and call the outreach worker, who can do everything form lending an ear to vent their anger, to brokering a gang truce that would avert shooting war.Neighborhoods with a critical mass of outreach workers have seen a measurable drop in shootings.  Four neighborhoods added to the Cease Fire program have seen a 40% drop in shootings in one year: Roseland, North Lawndale, Humboldt Park, and Auburn Gresham.  Check out http://www.ceasefireillinois.org for more info.Last year in the thick of the state budget battle, Cease Fire was vetoed out of the Illinois budget (BTW, has anyone thought of assigning a street outreach worker to cool tempers in Springfield?).  Very few legislative decisions are a matter of life and death, but I shudder to think at the consequences of this decision.The most recent funding bill for Cease Fire passed almost unanimously out of the Illinois House, but is now stuck in the Senate rules committee.  Passing this bill would provide immediate funding for as many as 200 street intervention workers in communities throughout Illinois.  One concrete step you can take is to call your state senator and voice your support for this bill - HB4170.  You can track that bill online here:http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=4170&GAID=9&SessionID=51&LegID=34463Another way that some street intervention workers get funded is through Safety Net Works.  This is a state program in sixteen communities, and some of these groups are using funds to hire street intervention workers.  You can see if there's a Safety Net Works program in your community at http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=35167.Street outreach is still only one piece of the puzzle, but it's proven itself to be a central piece.  We can't afford to sideline it again.