MPI Clinical Program Supervisor Traci Hall: ‘Community Violence Intervention Work Is Not to Be Taken Lightly’

Metropolitan Peace Initiatives is proud to celebrate the life and work of women in community violence intervention (CVI) this Women’s History Month.

Behavioral health and social services are far from soft jobs, though they do require a great deal of compassion and care. But women in community violence intervention constantly defy the definitions of “women’s work.” In fact, this work requires toughness, street smarts, realness, and resilience. Traci Hall, Clinical Program Supervisor at Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI), says, “Society has deemed us as nurturing.” But to do the work, Traci says “you gotta be a bad-ass, honestly.”

Traci Hall is from the West Englewood area, and left her work in the child welfare system to join the MPI team in 2019. “When I learned about MPI, and their vision for behavioral health and violence prevention, I was very excited. I was enthused because I got to go back to my neighborhood and be a change agent and a mental health professional; and at the same time, make the services accessible [while decreasing] the stigma of mental health in Black and Brown communities.”

While on the road to becoming a licensed clinician, Traci first served as an MPI Community Behavioral Health Specialist and was assigned to a couple of organizations in the Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) coalition. Over the years, Traci worked with almost every organization in the coalition. “I love community violence intervention work. It’s a unique position, and it’s not to be taken lightly.”

The work was “untraditional.” She says, “There wasn’t the standard mental health office. These services were taking place at the organizations, and everything was really based off of relationships. Showing up in the space as Traci was more important than showing up as a mental health professional.”

Now, Traci serves as Clinical Program Supervisor for MPI’s Violence Prevention Community Support team and Intern Coordinator for the MPI Behavioral Health team. The Violence Prevention Community Support program, which was recently piloted at two local organizations, is gearing up to be a sustainable and successful response to community violence.

“We believe in these services. And these are wraparound services — a participant will get a needs assessment and then they’ll get what they need.” Whether that’s a case manager, a life coach, peer support worker, a clinician, or all of the above. The only criteria is that the client has been impacted by community violence and has a mental health diagnosis.

Traci notes that women have an important place in the community and aren’t just a part of the teams providing much-needed resources and services; they’re also the clients and participants in programs who have unique needs. “Women are a part of the re-entry population too. I think they tend to fall through the cracks.”

That’s why Traci says women are especially needed in community violence intervention. They have invaluable perspectives and skills to advocate for other women. “We need to be in place to support the work.”

She also says that women need to be especially vigilant about their behavior due to the intensity of CVI work and the fact that most staff and participants are men.

“Women have to put up boundaries,” says Traci. “They have to be a little rough around the edges. We can’t always come off as nurturing. I’m not your mom. There are some things I cannot compromise on as a woman, and some things I cannot accept as a clinician.”

To other women in community violence intervention, Traci emphasizes the importance of speaking up, maintaining strong boundaries, and advocating on behalf of other women. “You have a voice as a woman that absolutely needs to be heard. We have a perspective, too.”