Gun violence on Chicago’s South and West sides, and in other parts of the city, shocks us when it occurs. It saddens us when we learn about the innocent victims, many of them children. And it depresses us when we see that police, despite numerous approaches, are unable to stop the bloodbath.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot aptly labels the carnage “brutal.” But she and others also point to an estimable silver lining: bold, promising intervention strategies.
Those strategies don’t involve the deployment of legions of additional police officers, who mostly show up after shootings and don’t arrest more than a handful of perpetrators because too many fearful and distrustful witnesses won’t cooperate.
Instead, these intervention programs involve hands-on, face-to-face connections with the bad and potentially bad actors — most of them young men of color — responsible for most of the violence.
Experts estimate their number at 20,000 in a city of 2.7 million, or one of every 135 residents.
Some of them reject or ignore interventionist offers of social, psychological, educational and employment help — guidance is probably a better word — but others welcome a chance to trade the life-threatening realities of drugs, guns and gangs for a challenging but safer road to a more productive future.
The city’s main intervention groups are Chicago CRED, led by former Chicago Public Schools CEO and Obama administration Education Secretary Arne Duncan; READI Chicago, headed by executive director Eddie Bocanegra; and Communities Partnering 4 Peace, a Metropolitan Family Services program.
Their funding comes from corporations, foundations, private philanthropy and government.
In addition, the Lightfoot administration and the Chicago Police Department have their own intervention programs paid for with city, state and federal tax dollars, and those funding sources will increase in 2022.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently announced a plan for additional state support pending legislative authorization.
All good, according to Duncan of Chicago CRED, who is quick to praise the commitment of public officials, and the spirit of collaboration among the intervention groups — nonprofit and governmental.
He also points to at least one new study indicating the hands-on strategy is beginning to reduce violence perpetrated by participants in intervention programs.
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But Duncan has two laments: The programs are only reaching about 10% of the target group because there isn’t enough funding to hire more intervention workers; and there’s no single individual — no “czar” — to coordinate an effective collaborative strategy that maximizes resources and minimizes missteps.
One cost estimate for a comprehensive and effective intervention initiative — “flooding the zone,” to borrow a sports analogy — is $2 billion over five years, more than four times the amount that’s currently spent on those programs.
That amount comes to roughly $100,000 for each of the 20,000 violent, potentially violent or at-risk young people — about the cost of one year’s tuition, room and board, and expenses at an elite university.
So here’s a thought: One or more of our elected officials or intervention leaders could convene a series of meetings that include representatives from city, county, state and federal governments, and from business, civic, labor, religious and community organizations.
We need all hands on deck, and more resources from deep pockets, because even though the bulk of the violence is confined to a dozen or so of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods, it’s also on the rise in and around downtown. Its impact — real and perceptual — affects all of us by making the city feel like an unattractive place to live, work, play and raise a family.
Chicago is at a critical juncture — a point in time when we either step up and go all in, with more resources and brain power to reduce the violence, or watch our beloved city become more and more ungovernable, and unlivable.
For anyone who cherishes “sweet home Chicago” and considers it, as I do, “my kinda town,” the choice is easy.
Andy Shaw is a veteran Chicago journalist and good government advocate.
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