MPI Participates in Giffords CVI Panel, Highlighting Successes at Metropolitan Peace Academy

Community Violence Intervention (CVI) experts from Metropolitan Peace Initiatives and CORNERS at GIFFORDS conference in Los Angeles (from left to right): CORNERS Research Project Manager Helena Thomas, MPI Bilingual Clinical Supervisor Maria Camacho, and MPI Field Manager Jaron Washington.

Last week, representatives from Metropolitan Peace Initiatives attended the GIFFORDS Community Violence Intervention (CVI) conference in Los Angeles to network with other CVI organizations and learn new best practices for reducing gun violence. In addition to these opportunities for collaboration, MPI’s own Bilingual Clinical Supervisor Maria “Maki” Camacho and MPI Field Manager Jaron “Jay-J” Washington participated in a panel discussion on the results of Northwestern University’s CORNERS’ Violence Intervention Worker Study. This study sought to analyze the efficacy of the Metropolitan Peace Academy’s work in trauma-informed care and professionalization of CVI work.

Moderated by CORNERS Research Project Manager Helena Thomas, the trio discussed the results of the study and the implications it revealed for Chicago’s CVI ecosystem and worker well-being. For example, around 47 percent of survey respondents had been shot at in their lifetime, with another 44 percent experiencing the death of at least one CVI program participant in the past year of work.

“Jay-J spoke about having people pour into him and uplift him, instead of discarding him, at the MPA. He talked about how amazing this felt, and the transformation it enabled,” Helena Thomas reflected. “Maki also made sure to emphasize, ‘These numbers are people’, after we sat in a moment of silence, holding the pain they represent. We each thought about people we’d come to know in this work people we’d broken bread with, cried with, laughed with.”

To learn more about the CORNERS Violence Intervention Worker Study, visit here.