Project H.O.O.D. Hosts Community Violence Advocacy Event in Woodlawn

Community leaders, residents, law enforcement, and elected officials met at New Beginnings Church in Woodlawn on Thursday, September 12, 2024 as Project H.O.O.D. hosted a meeting discussing the community violence intervention (CVI) work being done in the area to help reduce gun violence.

Dozens of attendees packed the room as they heard presentations from Project H.O.O.D. Director of Government & Community Affairs Arenda Troutman, Illinois State Senator Robert Peters (13th District), Illinois State Representative Sonya Harper (6th District), officers from the Chicago Police Department’s 3rd District, Illinois State Police Trooper Marcus Nettles, staff from YMCA’s Youth Safety Violence Prevention Program, and others. The event aimed to bring the community together to address the issue of gun violence, and the ways Project H.O.O.D. is helping to make streets safer through street outreach, behavioral health, workforce development, case management, and more.

LaDonna Peppers, Assistant Director of Project H.O.O.D.’s Violence Impact Team, presented hopeful results from the organization’s CVI work. According to Chicago’s Violence Reduction Dashboard, homicides were down 29 percent in 2022 and 16 percent in 2023, a testament to the efforts being done in Woodlawn.

“[We’re] helping others, one block at a time. We’re pushing peace,” Peppers said, challenging community members to do their individual part to keep people safe. “What does that look like to you and where can you start? In your communities, what is it that you can do to make a difference? It starts with one person at a time.”

Project H.O.O.D. is one of 15 organizations representing Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), a coalition of nonprofit organizations focused on gun violence prevention across 28 neighborhoods. Convened by Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI), CP4P has done its part to help reduce gun violence across the city. From July 2017 through December 2021, the collective potentially prevented at least 383 fatal and non-fatal shootings and at least 605 arrests for violent crime, according to the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science (CORNERS).

“CVI is working. Because of Project H.O.O.D. and CP4P’s work, lives are being protected and saved,” said MPI Policy Analyst A’Keisha Lee. “[…] One of our focal points of CVI is that violence is hyperlocal, and that’s true. However, we know that when residents of one area are safe, the entire community reaps the benefits.”

Chicago CRED Policy Analyst Jack Jomarron added, “[CVI] is a declaration by all of us in this room—by elected officials, frontline workers, policy folks, by everybody—that the people of Chicago deserve an investment in their futures and an opportunity to build toward their future. It’s a moral declaration and a necessity that the disinvestment that we’ve seen in the city of Chicago for far too long is something that we need to change.”

Across Illinois, CVI works to bring peace to communities dealing with the highest levels of gun violence. Earlier this year, Governor J.B. Pritzker and other state lawmakers approved the state budget to include nearly $175 million toward CVI work under the Reimagine Public Safety Act.

Senator Peters spoke to the importance of funding this work with financial investments, as well as community support, stating, “It’s actually pretty simple: You give people a good job. You give people good healthcare. You give people good schools. You give people good transportation. You give people the opportunity to put food on their table, [and] you have public safety.”

“If you look at the safest communities in this country, that is the basis for what they have and what we are fighting for.”