Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Delivers Remarks On Citywide Violence Intervention Programming

2 months ago

On Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered remarks on violence intervention during a press briefing.

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Transcript

00:00:00I

00:00:30Mean

00:01:00You

00:01:30You

00:02:00You

00:02:02You

00:02:28Good afternoon everybody

00:02:30We clearly underestimated the crowd so I apologize those that are standing in a large larger room next time and

00:02:38Try quickly to say one thing personally my mother passed yesterday. She's the reason I do this work

00:02:43And so if I'm a little bit raw today, I apologize

00:02:46Please give me a little bit of a little bit of grace to get through this

00:02:49Rob's be coming off an extraordinarily tough weekend

00:02:52Gun violence, I think is the cancer that's destroying the soul of our city

00:02:57If we're honest with ourselves our collective response has clearly been wildly inadequate

00:03:03When you have over a hundred shot on a weekend

00:03:0617 dead

00:03:08None of us can say that we're doing enough together

00:03:10We have to hold ourselves accountable for doing something much better for our city

00:03:14But very specifically for our children on the south and west sides

00:03:18the loss the heartbreak the trauma is incalculable, but the financial cost of courts and

00:03:24Hospitals and funerals and legal and everything else

00:03:28Prisons is in the billions. And so this is something that as a city as a state we have to come together

00:03:35To change in a very fundamental way and having a room like this

00:03:38During a very dark time actually gives me a lot of hope of what we can try and do together

00:03:44Now just take one quick minute just sort of walk you through what I saw what I felt this weekend

00:03:50Because it for me gave a real sense both of the horrible trauma of our city

00:03:55but also the extraordinary hope and inspiration of our city and if you do this work you get to see that both the best and

00:04:01The worst of humanity, so I'll try and do this very very quickly on Thursday

00:04:06We hosted six community events for once for in the west side North Lawndale to in the south side

00:04:12We always say at Chicago credit we work so that children could play

00:04:15We try and do our community events on hot blocks to calm things down

00:04:18build our license to operate our LTO and give kids a chance to come out and be safe and

00:04:23Those knock on wood went extraordinarily. Well, we're very very grateful for the community support and for the guys in community

00:04:30You know granting us grace and giving us a chance to let kids play

00:04:34That was Thursday

00:04:36Friday unfortunately, we had to go visit the

00:04:39Lots of our partners across the CVI community go visit the family at 71st and Woodlawn

00:04:45And I can only describe what happened there as a massacre to have two moms and a young baby killed

00:04:51to have two other babies in critical talking to one of the fathers who

00:04:55Works the night shift. He was working from 12 at night to 8 in the morning

00:04:59I think very few of us in this room have to work night shifts

00:05:02But that's what he does to put food on his

00:05:04Family's table and get a call at 7 the morning at the end of his shift his child's not wrong place wrong time

00:05:10His child's asleep in his house to get a call to his little baby's killed is something I'll never forget

00:05:16Two of the young men there happen to be basketball players one's trying to go to college. One's a very talented eighth grader

00:05:22State-ranked and to hear them talk about what they want to try and do in honor of their mother's memory

00:05:28It's something that I'll I'll never forget

00:05:31Leaving there which the near west side and I texted the governor about this

00:05:36Thanks to his and the state support all of our state legislative leaders here

00:05:39We've been putting in place the flip program, which is a piece of the strategy

00:05:44Two neighborhoods that have been at war for a while been able to hire guys to the flip program on both sides of that conflict

00:05:50Visit two of the spots in three months does not make a trend

00:05:53But in the past three months has been a 50% reduction in violence and to see the pride that both sides of that conflict took

00:06:00And those numbers coming down and there's still work to go. It's still it's still too much violence

00:06:05But to see how happy they were and again to see kids out there playing

00:06:09Coming after the visit of 71st and Woodlawn

00:06:12Gave me a sort of a sense of what's possible

00:06:14If we really empower those who are closest to the problem to actually be the solution. They're not the problem. They are the solution

00:06:22Saturday's very ironically and tragically one of the young men in our program was going to meet with his opposition

00:06:28he knew what was going on the weekend to try and make peace and

00:06:31Very tragically he got shot as he went to have that meeting

00:06:35Thankfully, he survived. He's not in great shape

00:06:38But he's going to make it and visiting him Sunday the hospital Christ's advocate was unbelievable

00:06:44He was speaking sort of in a whisper. You could barely hear him, but he kept saying I'm okay. I

00:06:48Got to have peace go talk to the guys on the block. Let them know he knew who shot him

00:06:52The guy looked him in the eye knows exactly did it. He does not want to retaliate

00:06:55He does not want retaliation said just leave and go talk to the guys in the block

00:06:59And so I just want to give you guys a sense that that's our reality it is traumatic it is difficult

00:07:05But the guys in these battles want something better for themselves

00:07:08They want something different and we got to walk with them and learn from them and empower them and give them a chance

00:07:13To do exactly that

00:07:16There are a couple things I'm convinced we have to do we have to teach people how to de-escalate

00:07:21conflict the smallest conflicts end up becoming lethal and

00:07:25That's a skill that can be learned can be taught it's what many of us try and do every single day

00:07:29But we're nowhere near at scale in doing that

00:07:32we have to help people heal from trauma and

00:07:35I can't overstate how important that is. We've had too many young kids

00:07:39We had a 16 year old kill a seven-year-old recently, and I know the trauma that happened in his family

00:07:45I don't know the situation with another 16 year old killer retired police officer. How was he?

00:07:49You know

00:07:5373

00:07:5573 so 16 year old killed a 73 year old. I don't know that story, but something's going on there

00:08:00And I have no insider knowledge. This is the police chief's job

00:08:04And he's doing an extraordinary job, but if we solve what happened at 71st and Woodlawn

00:08:08I wouldn't be surprised at all if that's another 14 or 15 or 16 year old

00:08:12Dealing with recent trauma and handling it in exactly the wrong way

00:08:16So helping people heal from trauma is critical

00:08:19And then finally we have to continue to put in place

00:08:21Non-aggression agreements and peace treaties and the kind of stuff for all the violence

00:08:25We saw the city where we had peace treaties hold non-aggression agreements hold what we saw on the near west side something is very fresh

00:08:30still raw

00:08:32That's the way we're going to get to a safer city

00:08:34That's our collective work together, and we have a chance to do all of this together a

00:08:39Couple of thanks, and I'll be quiet. We have a number of speakers. I've taken too much time, and I apologize for that first

00:08:44I'm just incredibly honored to be here at sort of Jim crowns office and

00:08:50Having the business community step up to have folks

00:08:54Continue this work in his honor

00:08:57His last public appearance was actually talking about this at the city club of Chicago with me and a few other folks

00:09:04Two weeks before he tragically passed

00:09:06But to see not just his family to see the entire civic community rally behind his vision and keep this going and double down

00:09:13I can't tell you how much that that means to me

00:09:17Secondly just having these public-private partnerships this work does nothing if it doesn't humble you none of us can do this by ourselves

00:09:23But having leaders across public and private sector come together

00:09:26We all have a piece to play if we can play it smarter and more effectively and more collaboratively

00:09:32We have a chance to do something that's never happened in history of the city and finally

00:09:37I always say the public safety is a public good and we need private sector

00:09:40Innovation to pilot some things and do some risky things

00:09:43But if the data proves they're effective

00:09:45We need the public sector to scale and to have the governor and so many legislative leaders here

00:09:51Who have taken this to heart who have followed the data and invested heavily in what's working to start to take it to scale?

00:09:58Gives us a chance to do something

00:10:00The final thing I'll say is that we're trying to do in Chicago what no other city has done

00:10:05Violence is acutely bad here in Chicago, but it is not unique to Chicago

00:10:11We need two things. We need very effective policing and I want to thank the mayor my humble opinion

00:10:17He picked absolutely the right person to lead the police department to help them increase effectiveness. That's a tough tough job

00:10:22That's a long way to go

00:10:24But I have unbelievable confidence in this man to do that work and we need to scale the private sector

00:10:30CVI work together and in no community are we at scale? We started this work in North Lawndale

00:10:36We thought we were doing a pretty good job

00:10:37We were serving about 200 men got back to stats that over twelve hundred and fifty or acutely at risk of shooting being shot

00:10:44We weren't even in the game. We weren't at 20%

00:10:46We can't do it by ourselves working partners to start to scale five six seven hundred men there in

00:10:52Humboldt Park in Austin's we move forward. We have a chance to do what has never happened anywhere in the country let alone Chicago

00:10:59So I don't want to blow through it. This is a very dark and difficult and challenging time. This weekend is about as

00:11:06Horrific as we can get but with that reality for me

00:11:09It just redoubles our collective commitment to try and get us to a better place if we can stay the course over the next three four

00:11:14Five years, I think you have a chance to do something that's never been done and make history not just for the city

00:11:19But for the country, let me be quiet. Thank you for indulging me for a minute there and

00:11:23We're gonna have a number of speakers come up

00:11:25Let me pick up Esther Franco pain who's doing an amazing job as the executive director the partnership for safe and peaceful communities

00:11:31She'll update you on our sc2 effort our effort to scale this work to seven communities starting as I talked about in North Lawndale and

00:11:38Try and reach a critical mass of the communities in the city that desperately need these kinds of resources

00:11:50Thank you so much Arnie, thank you to governor Pritzker mayor Brandon Johnson members of the legislature

00:11:58City and county officials and most importantly our community partners

00:12:02We appreciate your support and we thank you for your partnership as Arnie said we cannot do this without

00:12:10Collaboration and partnership and we thank you for believing in this work

00:12:15Esther Franco pain again the executive director with the partnership for safe and peaceful communities and the partnership

00:12:23Also known as PS PC came together eight years ago

00:12:28Eight years ago today

00:12:30We have been working on this and doing this work

00:12:34Diligently and our goal is to continue and to keep grounded and what we have been doing

00:12:40focused on a multi-part agenda

00:12:43We began building a network of organizations to directly reduce gun violence and to build evidence of their effectiveness

00:12:52Some of our researchers are here in the room and we thank you for joining us

00:12:56Eight years later

00:12:57We are now part of a coalition unlike anything we have seen in Chicago or across the country

00:13:04We have philanthropy

00:13:06business

00:13:07government community all

00:13:10United in this mission to reduce gun violence

00:13:15More recently

00:13:17PSPC in partnership with the business business community has embarked upon an unprecedented effort to invest deeply in

00:13:25Communities that are most impacted by gun violence this initiative as we've said before is known as SC 2

00:13:32Which stands for scaling CVI for a safer Chicago?

00:13:37We started our support in the North Lawndale community as the first pilot

00:13:42Two years ago and we are now expanding to Austin Humboldt Park

00:13:47Garfield Park and little village with Englewood and New City also in the pipeline

00:13:53This past February we first announced SC 2 and our joint goal with the Civic Committee to raise

00:14:00100 million dollars

00:14:02Sounds like a lot of money doesn't it?

00:14:05But today I am proud to say that we have reached that first milestone

00:14:10Some

00:14:18Of our donors are here in the audience and so we thank you

00:14:22I would ask that you give them a round of applause because they have come through

00:14:31And we thank each of you for your

00:14:34Participation your support and most importantly your partnership

00:14:37But we know it does not stop there

00:14:40We are not done while a hundred million dollars sounds like a lot

00:14:44It is not enough to support these communities and we know it will take much more

00:14:50Going forward. We are determined to help bring CVI to scale in every community

00:14:56Where it is needed and to make CVI a part a permanent feature of Chicago's public safety strategy

00:15:05There is no single answer to gun violence. We know this we need effective policing

00:15:11We need CVI

00:15:13we need other elements of

00:15:15PSPC's agenda better gun policies more investment in high-risk youth and

00:15:21Community building initiatives like the ones we fund every year

00:15:25We also need other central parts of a comprehensive agenda that the Civic Committee is working towards

00:15:32All of this comes together to reduce and ultimately our goal to eliminate gun violence

00:15:40Chicago is our home

00:15:42It's my home born and raised and we are in this for the long haul

00:15:47We will do whatever it takes and we will not stop until children and families are able to live in communities

00:15:55without fear trauma and violence

00:15:59Our community partners and frontline workers are doing the hard work each and every day

00:16:04They are putting their lives on the line and we are grateful to them

00:16:08There is no amount of thank you that we could express our gratitude to them for the work that they are doing

00:16:15So we appreciate you all for being here today

00:16:18This crowd is tremendous and let's continue to work together to create safer and more peaceful communities

00:16:29Thank

00:16:32You so much Esther

00:16:33it's now my honor to invite Eric Smith to come up who's the vice chair of

00:16:37BMO and the co-chair of the Civic Committee's Public Safety Task Force

00:16:40As I said, my personal fear was when Jim Crown tragically passed

00:16:44It's a huge loss for his family and for the city. This work would end the opposite has happened has been redoubled. It's because

00:16:51It's with Eric and Mark Hoplomayze and so many others have stepped up in Chicago

00:16:55One of his best assets is the Civic Committee the Civic Community when they come together great things happen

00:17:00So Eric, I want to thank you so much for stepping up and leading all yours. Thank you

00:17:07Good afternoon and thanks to Esther and to Arnie

00:17:11special thanks also to Governor Pritzker and to Mayor Brandon Johnson for their leadership and a special thanks to

00:17:19Crown family foundations for hosting us here this afternoon a

00:17:23Little over a year ago

00:17:25the late Jim Crown announced a

00:17:27Comprehensive five-point plan on behalf of the business community to help address the crisis of gun violence here in Chicago

00:17:36The first commitment was to raise 100 million dollars to invest in scaling community violence intervention

00:17:42organizations in order to expand programming and up to seven neighborhoods across Chicago as

00:17:48Esther shared we're very pleased to have now met that initial milestone and we're deeply grateful

00:17:55For all of our donors many of whom are here today

00:17:59We have obviously representation from the Crown Family Foundation and the Pritzker Family Foundation the Su Ling Jin Foundation the Chicago Community Trust

00:18:08Chuck Lewis

00:18:09John Rogers and Ariel

00:18:12PNC Northern Trust McDonald's BMO Harris Bank

00:18:17All state

00:18:19ITW and the list goes on and I'd like to give each of them a round of applause for the very generous support

00:18:32Likewise we're grateful to our elected officials for their support and confidence

00:18:36this partnership between philanthropy business community and

00:18:40Government is unique and powerful and we know that it will help make our city safer and our state stronger

00:18:47I also want to say a quick word of thanks to the consulting firm BCG

00:18:52Which has supported the work pro bono and the BCG team has done an exceptional job

00:18:57To help us in analyzing the root causes of violent crime so that through collaboration and partnership

00:19:04we could then develop and begin to implement a

00:19:07Transformational plan of action to invest in underserved communities in

00:19:12addition to pillar one which is calls for us supporting CVI the civic communities

00:19:19Committee's public safety task force is equally focused on our other four pillows and concluding pillar two

00:19:26Which is hiring CVI graduates and that work has actually begun

00:19:30Pillar three is hiring from the communities facing extreme levels of gun violence and doing so we're partnering with others like the

00:19:38Corporate coalition to help make that happen

00:19:42Pillar four is investing in those communities and this is a long-term strategy

00:19:47but it's critically important and we look forward to sharing more details with you regarding the key initiatives and

00:19:53Last pillar five is supporting efforts to modernize and strengthen local policing

00:19:58Here again, the work has begun and we're grateful to Superintendent Snelling and the Chicago Police Department

00:20:05For their commitment to promoting effective law enforcement

00:20:09accountability and trust

00:20:10We've been fundraising to support all of this work as well and will provide updates on our progress in the future

00:20:16But one thing is clear the business community is all in on public safety

00:20:21Which is priority number one in order for our city and state to grow and thrive we must reduce gun violence

00:20:29We cannot ask police to do this alone

00:20:31All of us must be part of the solution and I believe it was the great Daniel Burnham who said it best

00:20:38When he inspired Chicago's leaders to make no little plans

00:20:42Because they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized

00:20:48So thanks again to everyone for your support

00:20:51We have a lot of hard work ahead and we're eager to move forward with our shared

00:20:56Commitment to make Chicago one of the safest cities to work and live and a thriving city that works for all. Thank you

00:21:10Thank you so much Eric, I just want to channel Derek here that we're here to celebrate hitting a milestone

00:21:15We are just getting in the game we have so much hard work ahead of us

00:21:18There's so much more money to raise. It's a huge accomplishment to get to this point

00:21:22But again state the obvious coming out this weekend

00:21:24We're nowhere near where we need to be and just appreciate the sense of momentum. We need to keep building on that

00:21:29I'm not like to bring up my I would say partner in crime

00:21:31That's not the right thing to say in this audience

00:21:33So just say my partner Vaughn Brian who's executive director of Metropolitan peace initiatives

00:21:37What they have done to start to scale this work in neighborhoods has given us a blueprint of how to do this

00:21:42How they're training frontline workers to really professionalize them has been extraordinary. I'm so thankful for your leadership of partnership Vaughn Brian

00:21:54So, thank you for having me thank you for having us I want to echo the thanks to our

00:22:01Our donors to get us to this milestone. I want to thank you to our public and private sector partners

00:22:08That helped us get to this point. I want to really focus on

00:22:12How we got here people talk about eight years ago. Well, not only did the foundation community come together, but

00:22:19Local providers got together and decided they were gonna stick together in the effort of us tackling this public safety challenge

00:22:26And it's really the effort for them to stick together sacrifice their own

00:22:32individual

00:22:33interests in terms of having donations from

00:22:37Foundations that they were getting individually

00:22:39the foundation's pooled their money together to go deep on a couple of initiatives and

00:22:44communities partner for peace and ready Chicago were launched eight years ago and

00:22:49The fact that we stuck together and kept that coalition together is really why we're here today

00:22:54It's much easier for us to go to the private sector in the public sector when at the community level

00:23:00We've stuck together

00:23:01We've proven our case and we have a coalition and backing of people to to back what we're trying to do

00:23:08But it starts with the collective unity with at the community level. And so we had outreach

00:23:15We had case management victim services

00:23:17We have a place-based strategy that we all got together and then we've iterated on that and added

00:23:22Behavioral health services added workforce development added civil legal aid to the mix

00:23:27We've built the Metropolitan Peace Academy

00:23:29And if you haven't seen it yet, you've got to see it we started off in

00:23:33Northeastern at Kennedy King

00:23:35We've been an outside at the Park District and now we finally have a home because that is one of the jewels of the work

00:23:41That we've done so we have a standard of practice

00:23:44across our city of people who are putting their lives on the line on a daily basis to make our city a safer city and

00:23:51we wanted to do something special for them and creating a very

00:23:55Welcoming space because none of this works without our outreach workers the people who put their lives on the line on a daily basis

00:24:02And we have to yeah

00:24:09We have to invest in them not only

00:24:11Professionally, but personally because all of our outreach workers are the story that we want to tell people who have lived the life in

00:24:19Their local communities most of them are returning citizens

00:24:22Most of the time this outreach job is the first real job

00:24:25they've had and that is the story of Chicago a comeback story a story of resilience and a story of triumph and

00:24:32Today, we're gonna move the ball forward and making our city the safest city in the world. Thank you

00:24:43Thank you so much Vaughn

00:24:44I'm gonna introduce the superintendent briefly and then ask him to come up and introduce the mayor because their partnership is critical the state's been

00:24:50Amazing, but we as a city we have to own this and having their collective leadership is so important. I'm gonna introduce him

00:24:56Something you guys probably don't know and we do public events like this and they are important

00:25:01But I think they're arguably the least important thing we do. It's all the little stuff

00:25:04We do day to day that changes things

00:25:06He doesn't know I know there's probably none of you in the room know this but I would say it coming out of this horrific

00:25:10weekend 17 killed over a hundred shot

00:25:13On Monday, he took time to honor a partner of his who was killed in the line of duty 14 years ago

00:25:20named Thor they trained together at the police police Academy police training Academy and

00:25:26He died 14 years ago could easy to say let's let that go

00:25:31Easy to deal with all the real crises facing the city

00:25:34but he took time out to go honor his his spell his fallen partner and

00:25:39Only reason I know that is his widow is a friend of ours

00:25:42And so just away from the spotlight away from all this that's the kind of man this this police chief is please welcome superintendent

00:25:57Thank you and good afternoon everybody

00:26:01First thing I'd like to say to Arnie

00:26:05It shows your commitment that you're here, you know, I just

00:26:10heard the

00:26:12Your loss my condolences, but even through that loss you're still here because this is important to you

00:26:18That says a lot about the work and your dedication

00:26:21To this effort, so I'd like to applaud you for that

00:26:28I'd also like to thank the crown family for hosting

00:26:35Eric Smith, I mean, you know, what can I say about Eric Smith?

00:26:38We've had several meetings and his dedication to this cause and raising the amount of money that he was able to raise for this

00:26:46Is just amazing

00:26:48Derek, you know, we've had multiple conversations and I know your dedication to the cause also so Derek Douglas

00:26:55I definitely appreciate you Civic Committee as a whole and the work that's being done

00:27:02Mayor Johnson, thank you for being here

00:27:04I know you're concerned about everything that's going on in in the communities. We have multiple conversations

00:27:11About the safety of our city and our citizens within this city our neighborhoods and the importance of protecting our children

00:27:19Because we have to protect our children

00:27:23Governor Pritzker, thank you for being here and thank you for your dedication to this cause of making sure that our neighborhoods are safe

00:27:31I'd also like to thank everyone here in attendance and the entire panel here. I

00:27:36Won't spend too much time. I just

00:27:38Want to talk about a couple of issues and there were some things that were brought up

00:27:43the tragedy that happened at 71st and Woodlawn where two mothers and

00:27:48An eight-year-old child were murdered

00:27:52You also had two other children in that home

00:27:56Who were also shot still fighting for their lives

00:28:00There was also a one-year-old there that everybody needs to understand this and luckily luckily the one-year-old was not harmed

00:28:10That one-year-old was drenched in blood

00:28:13Now I say that because I want everybody to feel that

00:28:20Different when I tell you about it, it's different when you hear about it

00:28:24But it really hits home

00:28:26When you see it when you can feel it when you can touch it and then you start to understand the importance of this

00:28:33type of work

00:28:34There are people out there and I see some people in this room that I've done work with out there and they've done some great

00:28:40Work and there are people out there now who are not in this room right now who are out there doing great work

00:28:46We have to work together

00:28:48I've said this a million times

00:28:51The police cannot do this alone a

00:28:54Lot of this that you're seeing right now is not necessarily a police or law enforcement issue

00:29:01This is a societal issue. This is an issue

00:29:05That's ailing communities

00:29:08those communities need resources and

00:29:12the people in this room here today

00:29:15have

00:29:17Taken a huge step in providing those resources for these communities

00:29:21So what I will tell you is this as the Chicago Police Department

00:29:24We're going to be here to make sure that we're working in partnership with you. I

00:29:30Don't want to go this alone. I don't want my officers to go this alone and

00:29:37Bigger than that. I don't want you to go this alone

00:29:40We have to do this together. And if we're not working together with failing

00:29:47I refuse to allow us to fail

00:29:50so

00:29:52any opportunity

00:29:54That myself and the Chicago Police Department has to work with anyone in this room

00:30:00To keep this city safe and to help our communities that are seriously seriously suffering from violent crime

00:30:09We will be there

00:30:11100% and you have my promise on that

00:30:14So again, the most important thing that we have to do right now is we have to protect our children

00:30:23It never gets any easier 32 years where I've seen violence

00:30:29gun violence I've seen

00:30:33murdered human beings children

00:30:35It never gets any easier

00:30:38so hopefully

00:30:40We can help it get better. So I look forward to working with everyone in the room

00:30:44I just like to say thank you to each and every one of you for your dedication to trying to keep this city safe

00:30:49And with that I'm going to turn it over to the mayor of the city of Chicago mayor Johnson

00:31:01Thank You superintendent Snelling and good afternoon everyone

00:31:04Thank You Arnie Duncan for your commitment and love and dedication to the people of Chicago

00:31:09And you have of course our deepest condolences to the crown family in this beautiful building

00:31:15It's given me ideas of how I'm going to redecorate in my second term

00:31:20Thank you for your leadership and the legacy of Jim, of course Derek

00:31:24You've been an incredible friend and partner over the course of my first year in office

00:31:28Eric and Mark and all of those who have contributed to the efforts, of course to my colleagues

00:31:34There are a couple of here that joining me alderman Mike Rodriguez our vice mayor alderman Walter Burnett

00:31:40Thank you both for your leadership and being here to the state reps state senators to speak of the House Senate president

00:31:45And thank you governor for your leadership and your dedication to the people of Illinois and quite frankly people of this country

00:31:51You know, I'm truly grateful that we are gathering here today to reaffirm our commitment to work together to stop violence

00:31:57Because that's been stated and as I've said repeatedly it is going to take all of us

00:32:03In order for us to have safe communities all of us have to put in real work

00:32:10And let me express my sincere gratitude to the individuals and organizations who are making the critical investments again to prevent violence

00:32:18but also let me

00:32:20Provide my deepest appreciation for those who are showing up on the front lines every single day. I

00:32:26Also want to thank again

00:32:28Just the people of Chicago

00:32:30For recognizing that this is a moment an opportunity for us to build a collective response

00:32:37to violence in this city

00:32:38And I'm confident that the investments that we are celebrating today

00:32:42Will have a direct and positive impact on the lives of Chicagoans and the communities in which they live in

00:32:48This out this announcement comes of course at a very critical time

00:32:52This weekend was brutal. It's harsh

00:32:57But let me remind people today

00:32:59That the pain and the suffering that the people of Chicago have endured over decades

00:33:05These are not just numbers or headlines

00:33:08These are real lives our neighbors or co-workers

00:33:11There are people who are waking up today who?

00:33:14Won't wake up to a mother or daughter son aunt uncle

00:33:19These people deserve justice

00:33:22and we would do everything in our power to make sure that we are healing and

00:33:26Bringing closure to their families and to the communities at large

00:33:30This violence does not happen in a vacuum. However

00:33:33It happens because generations of Chicagoans were disinvested in disenfranchised and neglected and dare I say

00:33:42intentionally

00:33:44But we know the solutions of our challenges that is the gospel today. We have an answer

00:33:53It will take deep sustained investments in our people giving them access to more housing

00:34:00Making sure that they have fully funded neighborhood schools

00:34:03increased job opportunities youth programming and so much more

00:34:08Everything the people need to live and to succeed in this city

00:34:12There's nothing that we should withhold from them

00:34:15The Chicago Department of Public Health

00:34:18issued an RFP seeking hospitals and community-based violence

00:34:21Intervention organizations to deliver wraparound services to victims of gun violence who are at risk of repeating violent injury

00:34:29And supporting victims of violence is an important component of this work

00:34:33That's why my office is expanding and improving upon programs that assist victims with finances and mental health and so much more

00:34:40But additionally we have invested 100 million dollars as part of the fiscal year

00:34:452024 into CVI programs gender-based violence intervention and reentry programs. It has been rightfully pointed out

00:34:53and unfortunately

00:34:54That only 15 to 20 percent of estimated 20,000 highest promise individuals are actually reached through CVI

00:35:02So we know that CVI programming actually works. And so we have to do what works

00:35:07I'll close with this. I'm so proud of the members of

00:35:10SC2 the steering committee

00:35:12Helping to deliver these investments and to provide the type of change that these communities need who have been suffering from systemic violence for ages

00:35:21And our partnership in this mission is critical

00:35:25Government cannot do it alone

00:35:27Community violence interrupters cannot do it alone. The police certainly cannot do it alone

00:35:31But in order for us to achieve a lasting peace it requires all of us to lean in

00:35:37It's unfortunate though that we live in a society in

00:35:41which black death

00:35:46Where economies have been built around black death

00:35:51Thank you for the people to the people of Chicago for stepping up and saying in this moment that we have had enough

00:35:58The tragedy began before the bullets were fired

00:36:01The tragedy began the fact that we have ak-47s on the streets of the city of Chicago

00:36:07Tragedy, of course

00:36:08it's the fact that we do not have enough to really fully provide our people with the quality of life that they deserve and

00:36:15That's why it takes all of us to make sure that we are providing immediate responses to the challenges

00:36:20but we have to invest in the root causes of violence in order for us to transform this city because that's

00:36:27Ultimately what it's going to take in Florida for us to build a better stronger safer city. We have to transform it

00:36:33We had a chance 60 years ago to invest in the root causes and it was mocked

00:36:42One of the most profound things ever said by elected officials governor

00:36:47George Wallace where he mocked

00:36:51President Johnson

00:36:53When President Johnson said we have to get at the root causes

00:36:56And he said that people like President Johnson believe that we have crime in this country

00:37:01Because a ten-year-old did not have enough watermelon to eat

00:37:06It's not enough to just say it's enough

00:37:10With your heart

00:37:12And your treasure are aligned

00:37:14Then we know we are working collectively to ensure a safe Chicago and with that

00:37:20I'm grateful to have partners at the state level state representative Justin slaughter

00:37:32Thank You mr. Mayor

00:37:34Good afternoon, everyone

00:37:36Great crowd. I'm Illinois State Representative Justin slaughter as a state representative that

00:37:43Represents the far south side of Chicago. That's very close to this work. Let me just say thank you

00:37:50Thank you. Thank you to the Civic Committee

00:37:53Are you dr. Knob bumped into each other just the other day and we discussed how elated we are that

00:38:00This partnership wasn't just lip service. It wasn't a symbolic

00:38:06ceremonial partnership

00:38:08But you know, we've actually gotten going on this the fact that the business

00:38:14community

00:38:16Corporate sector private sector has already came together

00:38:20To raise a hundred million dollars for this effort is outstanding and please let's give them another round of applause

00:38:30At the

00:38:32Root of what the state is doing here is something called the RS RS PA

00:38:37the reimagined Public Safety Act

00:38:40First one to lift up I guess the state leaders of this initiative

00:38:46what we did was

00:38:47Create the first of its kind

00:38:51statewide

00:38:52firearms Office of Firearm Prevention

00:38:55Director Quyana Bell is here somewhere. Please raise your hand

00:39:02Also the the birthday boy the the first the former director of this office is here Chris Patterson

00:39:12This has been an outstanding effort it's made its way all the way to the White House

00:39:17Vice President Harris now spearheading that effort nationally out of the White House

00:39:23They have now created an Office of Firearm Prevention

00:39:27In particularly, I want to lift up the efforts of Speaker Welch

00:39:33He has been relentless

00:39:36tirelessly working on not just establishing the

00:39:40objectives of

00:39:42The reimagined Public Safety Act but putting forth the effort to sustain

00:39:47this

00:39:48phenomenal effort

00:39:50And also, I want to recognize our partners over in the Senate my brother you'll hear from him in a second senator Peters

00:39:57our chief budgeteer over there senator Sims and also

00:40:03Senate President Harmon for the work that they've done

00:40:07As we collaborate and continue to push this effort forward. And of course, I want to thank Governor Pritzker

00:40:14for his vision

00:40:16his wherewithal to be a

00:40:19Leader to provide an approach that is going to address root causes of violence and to also look at these issues

00:40:27Through the lens of it being a public health crisis. And so as you look at

00:40:34funding being scarce

00:40:37Kovat money running out. It's our governor who is

00:40:41Prioritizing this issue when it comes to putting forth the resources that we need

00:40:49For RSP

00:40:51And it's not just a Chicago or state of Illinois thing

00:40:55We have all really set out to become a national model

00:41:00to put forth best practices as

00:41:03It relates to addressing this public health crisis

00:41:08And so speaking of best practices many of you may want to know what exactly is the reimagined Public Safety Act?

00:41:15There's a few components one is

00:41:19Let's actually understand what works, right? What are these best practices?

00:41:26Right, so, you know, I want to lift up Arnie Duncan and the team at cred

00:41:32Especially when you look at practices like flip and I may get the acronym wrong

00:41:37Flatlining increases peace that do a good job with okay flatlining increases peace

00:41:44We don't want to continue to just throw money out there

00:41:49How do we look at being financially?

00:41:52responsible as

00:41:54We tackle this issue

00:41:56the second thing is

00:41:59Intergovernmental partnerships you see state leaders up here. You see our mayor our superintendent

00:42:07This is going to take an intergovernmental partnership

00:42:10To address these issues and you'll be hearing more about that

00:42:13I also want to lift up the work of Cook County and Cook County Board President Tony Pretwinkle

00:42:17But the governor government alliance for safe communities

00:42:21You will hear a lot more about this and this is what the community wants. This is what the community needs

00:42:27They want to see government working together in this effort

00:42:32The third piece of this is what you see here today public-private partnerships, and we can't emphasize enough

00:42:39We don't take this lightly the corporate sector getting involved in such a complex issue means so very much

00:42:46To us and to

00:42:48This city into this state. And so we're just so proud and thankful that

00:42:53We've embarked upon

00:42:55SC2 and then lastly and I'll close with this a bit of a really great news

00:43:01But I don't know if your phones were blowing up, but just this morning just this morning

00:43:09the federal government has approved our

00:43:13state's

00:43:151115

00:43:16Medicaid demonstration waiver. So now this work becomes Medicaid eligible

00:43:23Yeah, no, this is a huge huge thing

00:43:27for the state

00:43:28Of Illinois governor we thank you for your leadership on this

00:43:34again setting the bar

00:43:36for the country

00:43:38But these are the sort of innovative

00:43:41Strategic approaches right that we want to take as we continue to embark down this path

00:43:47Thank you so very much to the Civic Committee

00:43:49Now we turn the page to a different chapter and it's not just about violence prevention. That's great if an individual can

00:43:58Wake up and then in their day not committing violence great. That is a great start

00:44:03But now we turn the page to two more creative

00:44:07innovative

00:44:08interventions that facilitate and allow individuals to be become positive

00:44:14productive individuals

00:44:15So so very grateful to where we are

00:44:18We have a lot of work to do and we stand here at the ready to continue

00:44:23To spend important critical time and energy and effort to push this along with that said I want to bring up

00:44:29my brother

00:44:31Senator Peters

00:44:36Good afternoon

00:44:38I want to thank the Civic Committee and leaders who are working on the ground

00:44:43When I look around this room and see how packed it is

00:44:47It just shows how much people care about making our city in our state as safe as possible. I

00:44:54Fundamentally deeply care and believe that we can bring safety to every zip code in this city in

00:45:01This county and in this state and I think that oftentimes when we talk about safety

00:45:07We talk about it like it's rocket science, but I actually think it's somewhat simple you give people a good job

00:45:15You give people good housing. You give people good schools

00:45:19You give people the opportunity to easily get from point A to point B

00:45:24groceries and food on their table

00:45:27kids who have their backpacks full

00:45:30You have a safe city. You have a safe state and

00:45:35I fundamentally believe that this room and what we're working on is the foundation of that safety

00:45:42that CVI is

00:45:45something that we build on top of

00:45:47That when someone I want someone to be able to say my dad did this work and I want to do this work

00:45:54I want us to use our

00:45:57Imagination to expand it to say that it's not just the fact that we're disrupting the cycles of violence

00:46:04But we're going into mental health care we're going into the care field

00:46:11We are talking about

00:46:13generational trauma in the form of generational PTSD and

00:46:18We've been doing public safety the same way for 30 to 40 years and every summer

00:46:24we have the same complaints about what we see on July 4th weekend and

00:46:29I'll be honest with you that ticks me off and

00:46:31I think that we are at a unique opportunity with these leaders with you all as leaders

00:46:37To turn the page to a 21st century safety that lifts up every community and lifts up people

00:46:45we need to remove the depressing down and

00:46:49sadness that comes every summer and see it as an opportunity for hope to believe in people to lift them up and

00:46:57So, you know, I I have to say as the sponsor of the RPSA and to be able to work with these people

00:47:05It's something that I feel great about in terms of legislative work. But what I care most about

00:47:10and and we have Clarice and Associates here is I like to go directly to the people doing this work and

00:47:16Talking to them about what they're going through and to hear about their story and every time you hear their story

00:47:23You hear about what they've went through in life and how they want to see change and I sit with it sometimes

00:47:29It's the toughest conversations

00:47:32But it gives me hope because it tells me we have something we can build on and so I'm honored to be here

00:47:37I'm grateful for everybody doing this work

00:47:39I know we had a tough July 4th weekend

00:47:42but what I truly believe is that we have a unique opportunity to make this city the safest city in this country and

00:47:47To make this state the safest state in this country. Thank you

00:47:51I'm gonna turn over to a true champion LG Sims

00:48:00Well, good afternoon

00:48:02First let me start by saying Arnie

00:48:05Thank you for for being here our condolences to you and your family on your tremendous loss

00:48:11I mean the loss of a parent is never easy

00:48:15But the fact that you are here despite that loss says a lot about not only your character

00:48:21But about your mother's investment in you. So I want to thank you for for being here my friend

00:48:26And so that's it. I know again. We're all here with you and expressing our condolences

00:48:32You know

00:48:34What a difference partnership makes

00:48:37When you have this is when you when you have the ability to have folks who will work together. I

00:48:44Can't say enough about enough. Thank yous to the crown family for hosting

00:48:49But also to the Civic Committee for the work that they have done to lean into this work

00:48:55It's one thing to say you're going to be on the front lines

00:48:58It's one thing to say you're going to do something, but it's something very different to actually do it. So to the business community. Thank you

00:49:06For all of the individuals who we are celebrating the 100 million dollars that have been raised

00:49:12But out as as you all know

00:49:15And in Springfield, I work with our state budget. So I want more money. I

00:49:21Want more? I want a bigger partnership

00:49:24Because we've got a lot of work to do

00:49:26You know, we've got work to do on the south and side of Chicago

00:49:30We've got work to do on the west side of Chicago. We got work doing the east side of Peoria

00:49:33We've got work to do and in Springfield. We've got work to do all across this state

00:49:38So the efforts that you are making are not just a demonstration for the efforts and we're taking the impact that we're making here in

00:49:44Chicago, but it's the impact that we can make all across this state. So I thank you for your efforts

00:49:50I thank you for being here. I thank you for what you have done to date

00:49:54But also what you're going to what you've done today what you're going to do tomorrow

00:49:58Because the work didn't end today. We can take the victory light today

00:50:03But as we've all seen this weekend was a particularly difficult one

00:50:08and

00:50:09that's that's

00:50:11After a long line of difficult weekends

00:50:14I was there as the family celebrated the life of Reverend of Reverend Larry Newman officer Newman

00:50:21Down the street from the church that he served in the community that he lived in the community that he served

00:50:26Diligently his life was taken

00:50:29And that's why it's it's important for us to come together

00:50:32You know as I was sitting here today

00:50:34I I was I was thinking about you know

00:50:38The efforts that we've taken to date and governor Pritzker, you know, what a difference a governor makes

00:50:50To have the courage to stand up and say gun violence is a public health crisis

00:50:56Despite what others might tell you despite the folks might tell you that you know

00:51:00You have to have access to handguns. I was out walking my dog recently and

00:51:05I encountered a 70 plus year old man

00:51:09Who talked about the fear that he experiences?

00:51:14Just being just living in the city and he says I've never owned a handgun

00:51:19But I am contemplating buying a gun to protect myself and my wife

00:51:23The and I said I said to him we don't want you to have to have to go and buy a handgun and feel it

00:51:29To feel safe. I said you have individuals and this is where I have to thank Mayor Johnson and

00:51:34superintendent Snelling

00:51:36For standing up and leaning into this work

00:51:40You you I said you have officers who want you to be safe

00:51:43You have a community who wants you to be safe and you don't have to turn to a handgun to solve that problem

00:51:48But far too many but people believe that they do

00:51:51And we have to make sure that that's not the only option

00:51:55That's why I'm so proud of this of this of this initial

00:52:00success

00:52:01But the success isn't done

00:52:04You know, there's an African proverb that says if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together

00:52:10That's the only way we're gonna go fat go far is to going together

00:52:14Business community government

00:52:17Philanthropic the philanthropic sector sector all working together

00:52:21for the common good

00:52:23We have we've achieved achieved a great deal, but we are not done

00:52:28As I as I close

00:52:31I think to think back to

00:52:33Some of the most powerful warriors the world has ever known the Maasai tribe

00:52:38out of Africa

00:52:40The Maasai tribe

00:52:42out of Africa

00:52:44And the call that the Maasai warriors would say to one another they would say Kaserian and Girat and it would say

00:52:50And how are the children?

00:52:54If the children and everything were well, they would say the children are well

00:52:59If the children were not well

00:53:02Their response would be that the children are in danger

00:53:05Our children are in danger

00:53:08We need to stand up and I and I would say that the only

00:53:14Warriors who would who are who are rivaling the the Maasai tribe right now is the civic committee and the warriors of the civic committee

00:53:22Who are standing up?

00:53:23And saying our children are out well, and we are going to do something about it

00:53:28So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your efforts. Thank you for the work that you have done

00:53:33Thank you for being partners in this work

00:53:35But thank you for also leaning into equity across the city

00:53:39Making sure that the south and the west sides of the city of chicago have what they need and the investments

00:53:43They need to be successful and with that I have to bring what it is my honor to bring forward

00:53:49My partner in progress the leader of our chamber someone who believes in this work someone who has dedicated this work

00:53:56Senate president don harman

00:54:04Well when you are the 11th of 13 speakers

00:54:09You realize that everything that there is to say may already have been said

00:54:14But it hasn't been said by everybody who needs to say it

00:54:19So

00:54:20So congratulations to everyone on the success and thank you for the opportunity to be here

00:54:25Uh the reminders of why we need to press forward unfortunately come all too often

00:54:30Everyone's mentioned the weekend mayor. I know how heavily that weighs on you from our earlier conversations. It should weigh on all of us

00:54:39But you all have lent your resources and your voices to a growing chorus that proclaims enough

00:54:45And as the mayor said saying enough is not enough

00:54:48You've lent your expertise and your experience to a growing effort that demands. We will make a difference

00:54:54I want to echo something. I heard the mayor say earlier

00:54:58We're not going to tolerate in one community what would never be tolerated in another

00:55:10In my neighborhood the children of austin have the same value and potential as the children across the street in oak park

00:55:17The same is true everywhere

00:55:19A life cut short by violence is an unbearable crime and a human tragedy regardless of zip code

00:55:25We all know that we didn't arrive in this predicament overnight

00:55:28decades of neglect indifference

00:55:31And misplaced priorities that allowed violence to take root and grow

00:55:35There is unfortunately no overnight fix

00:55:37Thankfully, we're surrounded by people committed to the long haul

00:55:41Committed to finding and providing the resources to invest in communities invest in programs and most importantly invest in people

00:55:49We have a working partnership among governor pritzker speaker welsh and myself committed to responsible and responsive budgeting

00:55:56And we have colleagues like senator peters senator sims senator via nueva who I think was here earlier

00:56:02United in their ongoing advocacy to end the violence

00:56:05We have shifted our priorities to recognize failures of the past

00:56:09While at the same time understanding the world only spins forward and that hindsight will not solve our problems

00:56:15There's a long road ahead to a better future, but because of you the journey has begun and there is newfound hope

00:56:22So thank you for this historic commitment to your powerful partnership

00:56:26And our shared goal of a better chicago for everyone who calls this great city home

00:56:31I tried to give him a promotion when I introduced him earlier this morning

00:56:34But next up on the in the batting order is the the speaker of the illinois house my friend and colleague speaker chris welch

00:56:45Good afternoon, everyone

00:56:48I would do my best to be brief

00:56:51But it really is an honor to be here with all of you to be here with my friend and brother arnie duncan

00:56:58governor pritzker mayor johnson superintendent stelling

00:57:02my colleague

00:57:03across the hall senate president don harman

00:57:07Derek douglas and the civic committee and all of you in the business community the crown family foundations

00:57:14You know to my good friend my fraternity brother chairman justin slaughter

00:57:18To all of you dignitaries and guests. Thank you all for being here

00:57:23You know, I was thinking about what I was going to say here

00:57:25My staff prepared me some remarks, but I folded them up and i'm just going to speak from the heart

00:57:30because july 7th

00:57:321984

00:57:34My family's lives were changed forever

00:57:37My aunt joyce ann mullin was murdered when she left our church on the west side of chicago

00:57:4540 years later that murder has never been solved

00:57:50She was murdered

00:57:51By gun violence on the streets of chicago

00:57:55And here we are

00:57:5740 years later

00:57:5940 years to the day almost

00:58:0219 lives were senselessly lost on the streets of chicago

00:58:09How many more lives are we going to lose

00:58:12All of us in this room hope that someday that number will be zero

00:58:18Every single day that I go to work. It is my hope and my prayer that that number will be zero

00:58:26Tomorrow

00:58:27What's going on here today reminds me of a book that I have given to our caucus that I talk about regularly

00:58:34Because I want you all to understand

00:58:36The mindset that I have every day. I go to work as the speaker of the house

00:58:41The book is called the infinite game

00:58:44Written by an author named simon sinning

00:58:46The infinite game is different than a finite game a finite game. We all know it when we see it. It's basketball

00:58:53It's baseball. It's football

00:58:55When you play a finite game you you play to win

00:58:58You know, you want to win that game today

00:59:01You know, that's your mindset. They call it a finite mindset

00:59:05When we go to work every day

00:59:07When we get to walk into that beautiful capital when the mayor gets to walk into that beautiful building called city hall

00:59:13We're playing an infinite game

00:59:16Our game is going to go on and on and on

00:59:19Illinois has been here for almost 206 years

00:59:23I'm the 70th speaker of the house. There's going to be a 71st a 72nd and so on

00:59:28It's going to go on and on and on

00:59:31When you play an infinite game

00:59:34You're not playing to win

00:59:36We're not trying to beat somebody

00:59:39We're playing an infinite game

00:59:42to be better

00:59:44We're trying to leave the city of chicago

00:59:47in the state of illinois

00:59:49Better than we found it

00:59:51And so every day that I go to work we're trying to find policies and practices

00:59:56That's going to make this great state better

00:59:59And I got to tell you

01:00:01When we did the reimagined public safety act

01:00:05That's one of those policies. I know we got right

01:00:08And every day that I go to work i'm going to continue to try to find ways to help

01:00:13Get it right

01:00:15To try to make things better

01:00:17But as we saw this past weekend we have a whole lot more work to do

01:00:22We will only get better

01:00:25When we're working together

01:00:27We are stronger together

01:00:30And so that is why it's so important that we are here today all of us government

01:00:36business

01:00:37the philanthropic community because

01:00:39in this infinite game

01:00:42We are stronger when we do it together

01:00:45That hundred million dollars you have raised is a hell of a start

01:00:49It's going to go a long way to helping to make things better in this great state

01:00:53But we have a lot more work to do we have to commit each and every day

01:00:57That we wake up and go to the jobs that we have

01:01:00That we want to make things better for the people of this great state

01:01:04Someone who's been doing it for five years

01:01:07He's already made this state better than how he found it

01:01:11But every day he goes to work

01:01:14He's trying to find more ways to make it better, please put your hands together and welcome my friend governor jb pritzker

01:01:30Who 13 of 13 speakers that is who I am

01:01:37I I will try to be brief, but I I will also

01:01:41Begin perhaps on a positive note just to say this is a great city

01:01:46We live in a great city. I'm a chicago and I may be governor of the whole state. I live in this city

01:01:52I love this city

01:01:54And I love it in part because of who I see here and who you are and who we are collectively

01:02:01We have violence interrupters here with us people who are working on the ground to make our city better

01:02:08We have philanthropists and philanthropies

01:02:11We've got ceos

01:02:13We've got government leaders

01:02:16We've got police. We've got

01:02:19Arne duncan who has dedicated his life

01:02:22To making sure that we are getting better every day in this city

01:02:30I want to thank all of you, but I want to thank all of you for

01:02:34being here together and for

01:02:36Showing how great this city is just by your very presence here

01:02:43I'm proud

01:02:44To be here. I'm proud to be here in part because I get an opportunity with some crown family members in the room to say

01:02:52Jim crown was my friend

01:02:55He was actually a friend to all of us, but he was a personal friend

01:02:58A kind and decent person and he is the one who stepped forward to say

01:03:03I will help lead

01:03:06The civic committee. I will help lead the business community in helping to

01:03:11address gun violence in this city

01:03:14It takes great people

01:03:16To do that it creates it takes a great person

01:03:19To do that and we will miss him terribly. I want to thank the crown family

01:03:24I want to thank crown family philanthropies

01:03:26We have so many great philanthropic partners that are in the room that have helped to get this effort to 100 million dollars

01:03:33As many have said we're not done yet

01:03:37But but it's a it's an unbelievably great start and it's a demonstration

01:03:42Of this city coming together

01:03:44It is what we do if you think back to all the challenges that we've had over many years this city pulls together

01:03:51And that hundred million dollars is just one indication of it

01:03:56To the many community partners who are here

01:03:59I just want to say thank you for the work that you do every day

01:04:03Keeping illinoisans safe and protected is honestly one of the foremost obligations

01:04:09Of those of us who get elected to public office and certainly for my

01:04:14state administration all of our priorities from from health care to education to

01:04:19Economic development. Well, they're contingent on our success in the pursuit of public safety

01:04:26Everything else is drawn from our ability to have public safety

01:04:31And fostering a state where each and every resident

01:04:35Is free to live work and grow without fear

01:04:39for their safety or their lives

01:04:43What happened over this last weekend

01:04:46And I now understand there are 19 lives that were lost

01:04:5089 others that were injured

01:04:52families

01:04:53suffering and torn apart

01:04:56It's a tragic and painful reminder of the urgency of the work that we're here and all about

01:05:04And how much more there is left to be done

01:05:08Today I take comfort though in this gathering knowing that i'm in the company of smart passionate compassionate

01:05:15dedicated people

01:05:17Working to uplift and advance this mission

01:05:21Not long ago we brought together community and philanthropic and business leaders from every corner of the state to put forward a slate of

01:05:29unprecedented holistic reforms and investments

01:05:32And it was called and you've heard it before the reimagined public safety act

01:05:37Which sought to improve the immediate safety and security of our communities while also finally addressing the root causes

01:05:45of violent crimes

01:05:47If it was george wallace that said as the mayor said, uh that we shouldn't be looking at root causes

01:05:57Well, we know he was dead wrong about a lot of things

01:06:03This is all built on the idea that violence prevention isn't only about

01:06:08policing and incarceration

01:06:10It should be about education and employment. It has to be about human services and mental health services

01:06:17It has to be about ensuring that people doing the work on the ground have the resources. They need to lead the way forward

01:06:25Central to our commitment is a historic expansion of community violence intervention programs

01:06:32I had the great good fortune to sit with a number of leaders in the community violence intervention space

01:06:38who

01:06:40I learned a great deal from just listening

01:06:43And one thing I learned and this is very important for us all to keep in mind is that

01:06:48Over the years these programs have been funded and then defunded and then funded and then defunded

01:06:54Sometimes it's defunded and then defunded

01:06:59And the problem is that this is a year-round endeavor

01:07:02So if you stop from one year to the next funding guess what happens people who are trained at this

01:07:09People who are doing the work and know how to do this work

01:07:12Well, they have to go find something else to do

01:07:15They're not going to do the work that we need them to do. We have to make sure

01:07:19That there's a base level of funding at all times. Yes, we need to surge funding when the needs are great

01:07:26but we also need to make sure that

01:07:28when maybe

01:07:29Not everybody's paying attention

01:07:32The funds are there to keep these programs going

01:07:36So let's keep that in mind. That is something

01:07:39That is up to us as government leaders

01:07:42The the business community is surging funding because we have such an incredible need right now

01:07:48But we need to make sure that as those things ramp down over the years

01:07:53That it never drops below a certain level and that is a level to keep these programs going and going and going

01:08:01So

01:08:08Cvi

01:08:10Is where it's at we have a lot of other tools

01:08:13But cvi is what makes

01:08:16Us reduce crime across the city of chicago if we can keep this going

01:08:21We will succeed the early returns on the approach have been promising

01:08:25There's a northwestern study that was published last november that found that those who had completed the cvi program

01:08:32Were 73 percent less likely to be arrested for a violent crime in the following two years

01:08:37I'm a believer in building on what works

01:08:40And i'm very happy to be doing so still today and again tomorrow

01:08:47These efforts have been bolstered by the state with the rpsa

01:08:52By a 250 million dollar commitment

01:08:55It's a multi-year investment that we made as state government and then of course the additional 100 million dollars that's now

01:09:02here from private

01:09:05Philanthropy and the business community

01:09:07I'm, very proud of the coalition that we've put together the the dollars that we've put together to make all this work

01:09:14um

01:09:14There is still so much more to do but but just take pride in what's already been accomplished. It's an inspiring display

01:09:22Of all that we can accomplish when we commit ourselves to a common goal

01:09:26I believe that given the proper resources and support and opportunity our communities can and will live in peace. I know i'm an optimist

01:09:35I've always been an optimist even in the worst of times

01:09:39We know that we can come out of this and part of it is because we're chicagoans

01:09:43We know we have broad shoulders, right? We're the city of big shoulders. We know how to take a challenge

01:09:50And carry it

01:09:52And overcome it

01:09:54So I just want to say to all of you

01:09:56Thank you. Thank you for your belief in the vision of overcoming the challenges that we have today

01:10:02That we will overcome tomorrow for committing your time and your resources to making that possible for being here today

01:10:10and

01:10:11Thank you for listening to the unlucky 13th of 13

01:10:15Speakers today. Thank you

01:10:20Thank you

01:10:26There is no 14th, thanks to all of you for your time

01:10:30After a weekend like this, we got sort of two choices. We could throw up our hands

01:10:33We could walk away just say it is what it is

01:10:35Intractable can't do anything about it

01:10:37But we can redouble our efforts and work smarter and harder and more collaboratively

01:10:41And honestly for all of our speakers for all of you here. Um, all of you inspire me give me hope. Thank you so much

01:10:50Thank you

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Delivers Remarks On Citywide Violence Intervention Programming

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