MPI Field Manager Jaron “Jay-J” Washington Shares Insights at City Civics Day Violence Prevention Panel

CP4P Field Manager Jaron Washington, Institute for Nonviolence Chicago Director of Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships Samuel Castro, and Elvis Ortega from the Community Safety Coordination Center at the Chicago Department of Public Health (pictured right to left) speak on a panel at City Civics Day.

This past Saturday, November 9, 2024, MPI’s own Jaron “Jay-J” Washington shared his experience as a Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) Field Manager at City Civics Day’s “Disrupting the Cycle: Building Safer Communities through Violence Interruption” panel. City Civics Day, which was hosted by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and Department of Cultural Affairs, featured seminars, workshops and panels involving top City of Chicago officials and voices from the community.

The panel, which was moderated by Elvis Ortega of the Chicago Mayor’s Office’s Community Safety Coordination Center (CSCC), highlighted the importance of relationships and trust in community violence intervention, the role of street outreach workers as first responders, and the need for a wrap-around approach involving outreach workers, case managers, and life coaches.

 Jay-J and fellow panelist, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago (INVC) Samuel Castro, emphasized the significance of having a “license to operate” (LTO) in high-risk communities to effectively engage with individuals and groups. LTO is a term used by street outreach workers to describe a person’s credibility in a community: in other words, street cred.

“LTO has allowed me to have a voice in those communities. I’m no longer pushing violence, but because I have that voice and they respect me for who I used to be, it allows me to step in. When serious things happen in those communities where the police can’t step in, I can,” said Jay-J Washington. 

This well-attended panel also gave participants insights into how to make their communities safer and become more engaged in the CVI ecosystem.