Arne Duncan, former Chicago Public Schools CEO and the founder of the gun violence prevention nonprofit Chicago CRED, speaks at a news conference Feb. 1, 2024. (WTTW News)

The Scaling Community Violence Intervention for a Safer Chicago initiative aims to link local community groups. The goal is to coordinate care and spending between the city, county and state governments, community organizations and the business community.

Nekenya Hardy and Les Jenkins work as violence interrupters in the Austin neighborhood. (WTTW News)

Violence prevention workers say the job begins by reaching out to young people who might one day become victims or perpetrators of gun violence and giving them guidance.

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown talks about the city’s summer safety plan during a news conference June 1, 2021. (WTTW News)

The homicide total over the holiday weekend was the lowest in 10 years, police Superintendent David Brown said Tuesday, as department officials credited the city’s newly announced summer safety plan with helping to limit violence.

(WTTW News)

The city’s 2021 budget includes $36 million for violence prevention programs. That’s nearly $25 million more than in the 2020 budget, but some advocates say the additional funding is still not enough. 

(WTTW News)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is unveiling a new plan to curb the city’s violence epidemic. But does it go far enough? 

(WTTW News)
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Even in the shadow of the pandemic, gun violence in Chicago has not stopped. How the fight against COVID-19 is affecting the fight against violent crime.

“Forty-three people were shot, and five died. So we can’t claim victory, and we certainly can’t celebrate,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a City Club of Chicago event on Tuesday, May 28, 2019.
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In spite of heavy rainfall that kept many indoors and 1,200 additional police officers on the streets of Chicago, 43 people were shot, seven fatally, over the Memorial Day weekend.