What Does Evidence-based Gang Intervention Look Like on the Neighborhood-Level?
Want to better your community but don’t know where to start? Enter It’s the Little Things: a weekly Strong Towns podcast that gives you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger.
It’s the Little Things features Strong Towns Community Builder Jacob Moses in conversation with various guests who have taken action in their own places and in their own ways.
In East Garfield Park , Humboldt Park, and other neighborhoods in Chicago, many youth skip school to avoid encountering gangs. Other youth actually join gangs in order to be protected from other gangs. Both impulses are understandable, given the stunning cost of gang violence in Chicago. In 2010, 50% of murders were gang related and approximately 50% of victims were under the age of 25.
Gang-related violence is, unfortunately, nothing new for East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, and other Chicago neighborhoods. That’s why, back in 1969, Chicago resident Bob Jemilo created BUILD. Fifty years later, it is one of Chicago’s leading gang intervention, violence prevention, and youth development programs.
Too often when we consider the merits of a strong town, the first things that may come to mind are the usual finance-related items. But talk with residents on the neighborhood-level and you’ll learn that a strong town means much more than balance sheets—it means fostering neighborhoods that gives everyone a chance to build a bright future. That’s a hope we all share, no matter our age, race, or political affiliation.
Ultimately we all have the same basic goal for our neighborhoods: that they would be safe for us and especially for our children. But the way public investment is distributed creates disparities between how likely different neighborhoods are to achieve this common goal. And young people often pay the highest price. A balanced budget doesn’t make you a strong town if young people aren’t safe on your streets.
In this episode of It’s the Little Things, two staff members at BUILD, Benjy Wax and Ric Miranda, join me to discuss the BUILD model and share what evidence-based gang intervention looks like on the neighborhood-level.
Spoiler: it doesn’t look like more police stations, top-down programs, or incarceration. No, it looks like what we should all be striving for: neighbors getting to know one another as a whole.
And the outcomes, as you’ll learn in this episode, will inspire any city leader to reconsider how they approach neighborhoods with gang violence.
Top photo via Build Chicago
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