Leadership Greater Chicago Honors CVI Leaders With Civic Catalyst Award

Leadership Greater Chicago fellows receive the Civic Catalyst Award at the organization’s annual Celebrate Leaders event at Griffin Museum of Science and Industry on Thursday, April 10, 2025.

On Thursday, April 10, Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) awarded Metropolitan Peace Initiatives Executive Director Vaughn Bryant with the Civic Catalyst Award for his work with the Scaling Community Violence Intervention for a Safer Chicago (SC2) initiative, which aims to bring together community stakeholders to help reduce gun violence across Chicago. This year’s event, titled “Celebrate Leaders Coming Home,” hosted fellows from every LGC cohort in its 40-year history.

Bryant was honored alongside fellow Civic Catalyst recipients Derek Douglas and Eric Smith of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago; Dr. Esther Franco-Payne of Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC); and Jorge Matos of Chicago CRED, all of whom contributed to the creation of SC2.

“Everyone is impacted by violence in Chicago, not only the victims, but their family members, and their neighbors,” Bryant said. “It’s our neighborhoods and our business owners, students and their teachers. Everyone requires safety in order to thrive. What I would like to see moving forward is not only for us to be able to say that we’ve been successful, but we’re moving peoples’ lives along. That they’re living dignified lives.”

“This huge milestone has laid the foundation for us to help bring Community Violence Intervention (CVI) strategies to scale in every community where it is needed,” said Franco-Payne. “We need fellows like you, and it takes each one of us to create safe and peaceful communities, having all the partners that we take on across the spectrum of sectors, collaborating, working together to build a stronger, more equitable Greater Chicago region.”

Douglas added, “When you have a one-table approach with everyone working toward the same goal and everyone figuring out what they can do to contribute and support, you can move mountains.”

First announced in February 2024, SC2 is a historic collaboration between CVI nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, city and state governments, and the private sector. With funding totaling $400 million, the goal is to serve at least half of Chicago’s population most at risk of becoming a perpetrator or victim of gun violence, in the next five years. The goal is to serve at least 75 percent of the population over the next decade.

Watch the 2025 Civic Catalyst Award recipients below.

Video courtesy of Leadership Greater Chicago