Meet Derrion Albert. Not your typical 16 year old teenager. Honor student. High School football player. Walking home from school like thousands of other children. Killed. Caught in the middle of two rival gangs at the wrong time. He was beaten with wooden planks and kicked in the head. Four young men ages 16-19 have now been charged with his murder. And it was all caught on video tape by a by-passer. That in itself is incredibly sad. But the death of this young man is truly tragic and my heart goes out to his family and all the members of his community who just want peace.
No single effort can change the world. It truly does take a community. A commitment. A dream. I believe we have heard those very words before. But Chicago is fortunate. They have a unique program that IS working to end the violence. From their website, www.ceasefirechicago.org
CeaseFire is an evidence-based public health approach to reducing shootings and killings. Our methods for reversing the violence epidemic use highly trained street violence interrupters and outreach staff, public education campaigns and community mobilization. CeaseFire is one of the only proven techniques for making neighborhoods safer.
Anyone who knows me knows I want numbers. We can hypothesize until we are blue in the face, but without the actual numbers, there is no way of knowing progress is being made. And since this progress saves lives it’s high on the importance scale.
I sometimes don’t like my j.o.b. Not my business - that’s all great. But my actual j.o.b. But I have NOTHING to fuss about when you consider the jobs these folks are doing on a daily - and no doubt nightly - basis. Having worked in Social Services for the majority of my adult life, I get what it means to be outreach staff and educators. I can only imagine the stress these folks have. But even the concept of “street violence interrupters” gives me shivers - and I am not a fearful person. These folks are IN IT. They are immersing themselves in the most dangerous situations to save people physically and psychologically. What an incredible feat. And it should not go unnoticed. Because it is this very “hands on” approach that IS most effective. Sitting down at a conference table just isn’t going to cut it.
So for all the families who have experienced violence - and those who have been so very fortunate to not have experienced violence, just know there are people who are trying to do the right things for the right reasons because the BELIEVE in the cause. My hats off to all the people who fight this good fight.
