North Lawndale Collaborative Hosts Safer Community Meeting at UCAN Chicago
The North Lawndale Collaborative (NLC) hosted a Safer Community Meeting on Monday, March 17, 2025, at UCAN Chicago’s headquarters, where residents and leaders in the field of community violence intervention (CVI) came together to create strategies for improving community safety.
Kathy Cullick, Director of the NLC at Chicago CRED, led the meeting and invited several leaders to share new data and resources, and facilitated discussion among community members. The NLC is a collaborative of community-based organizations working together to reduce violence in North Lawndale. This includes Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI), Northwestern University’s Center for Neighborhood Engaged Science and Research (CORNERS), the Firehouse Community Arts Center, Chicago CRED, the Carol Robertson Center for Learning, and UCAN.
Christa Hamilton, CEO and President of UCAN, asked the group to act in solidarity, especially amid a changing funding landscape. “We need your advocacy to continue doing this amazing work in the city of Chicago and beyond,” said Hamilton.
During the meeting, UCAN announced the organization aims to provide 400 young people with summer jobs, and that applying is as easy as going to UCAN’s front desk at their headquarters. They also shared the launch of a new Mobile Crisis Response number (877-7-UCANHELP), a service that will support community members in urgent need of services.
Cedric Hawkins, Outreach Safety Manager from Chicago CRED, shared violence trends in North Lawndale. He says conditions have improved since 2020 – in the past year, the community has only experienced a 1-2 incident increase in the overall numbers of individuals shot and fatal shootings.
Hawkins shared hope. We’re really doing a great job,” he said, “especially when it comes down to group-on-group [violence].”
Representatives from Metropolitan Peace Initiative’s Behavioral Health team, including Dr. Bianca Clark, Reginald Clark, Celia Castulo, Sebastion Williams, and Crystal Swenson, presented the group with information about MPI’s core specialties, which include behavioral health, legal aid, and street outreach. The meeting also welcomed guest speaker Pastor Phil Jackson from the Firehouse Community Arts Center to introduce a new partnership, which will bring even more important resources to North Lawndale like justice-involved housing and mentorship.
During the group discussion, community members shared personal experiences and insights, highlighting youth homelessness, unemployment, and addiction as addiction as leading causes of violence in North Lawndale. Collaboration and trust-building between older and younger generations will be a key part of reducing violence in North Lawndale, as well as strategies like mass canvassing, resource distribution, and networking.
Alderwoman Monique Scott (24th Ward) joined the group and shared remarks. “I am invested in this community,” she said. “This is where I was born and reared… So I see what you see, I hear what you hear.”
Ald. Scott thanked the group for their dedication to making North Lawndale safer.
Institute for Nonviolence Chicago CEO and Founder Teny Gross closed the evening with praises for the achievements of the coalition and emphasized the need for continued investment in community violence intervention: “Because people worked with integrity, there’s now 2,000 people, staff or F.L.I.P. [team members] that have backgrounds, they’re either working, employed with health insurance, or they have a stipend. They’re starting to imagine a different way out.”
“That’s 2,000 people we’ve convinced people to invest in… this investment should be protected.”