Chicago’s crime-fighting initiative raises $66 million

$66 million has been raised toward a $100 million goal for crime-fighting initiatives in Chicago, officials said Thursday, in a major show of support from the city’s business and philanthropic communities.

“Scaling Community Violence Response for a Safer Chicago,” or SC2, was developed as a plan to accelerate the work of community violence response groups. A number of corporate interests and major foundations in Chicago have contributed, including the Pritzker Foundation, the Hyatt Hotel Foundation and Crown Family Philanthropies.

At an event held at the South Shore Cultural Center, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson were among those who spoke about progress being made to support the city’s youth and ambitious goals for further improvements. next ten years.

“SC2 will take this work much further. Scaling community violence
The response to a safer Chicago is an unprecedented effort.
government stakeholders and social organizations, private
Stakeholders to meet the needs of those most at risk of exposure to gun violence.”
Pritzker said. “This took years to build, and no other city
“The state or state in the country has a partnership as solid as this.”

Community violence intervention groups also plan to seek additional public funding. At Thursday’s event, city, county and state officials expressed support for SC2 and announced the passage of legislation such as the Public Safety Act Redesign and the creation of the State Office of Firearm Violence Prevention.

The city has seen a second consecutive year of declines in homicides, but Thursday’s announcement comes in the wake of Wednesday afternoon’s shooting on the North Side that left a Senn High School student dead and two others injured. The shooting occurred less than a week after two teenagers were fatally shot after leaving high school in the Loop.

Chicago Police Department Inspector Larry Snelling was not scheduled to speak in front of the crowd, but he took the stage before Johnson to express the importance of early intervention to prevent such shootings.

“As police, we can’t arrest our way out of the situation and we shouldn’t try to do that,” Snelling said. “What we should be trying to do is build our communities and build our children.”

Between 15% and 20% of those most at risk of being shot or shot receive services from community violence intervention organizations, organizers said Thursday. The SC2 initiative presented ambitious targets, aiming to increase this level of support to 50% of those at highest risk within the next five years, and to 75% over the next decade, focusing on specific neighbourhoods. No details were given on how the money would be spent.

Metropolitan Peace Initiative Executive Director Vaughn Bryant and Arne Duncan, who founded the violence prevention group Chicago CRED, are on the SC2 effort’s steering committee. Duncan said neighborhood leadership is essential to the success of the program.

While the neighborhood collaboration has been providing support within the North Lawndale community since 2022, SC2 will also target the needy communities of East and West Garfield Park, Little Village, Humboldt Park, New City, Englewood and Austin.

The expansion is expected to cost up to $400 million over the next five years, half of which is currently allocated from philanthropic and public budgets.

Other speakers Thursday included Hyatt Hotels President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian and BMO Harris Vice President Eric Smith, who co-chairs the Civilian Committee’s Public Safety Task Force. Executives highlighted an approach in which business, philanthropists and community groups work with the government on public safety initiatives.