Mission Statement
SUN promotes nonviolence, working to make South Chicago a safe neighborhood where families can live free from fear.
What is SUN?
Metropolitan Family Services South Chicago Center has received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for violence prevention in South Chicago. South Chicago United for Nonviolence (SUN) began on October 1, 1998, as a community-based planning process bringing together residents and local organizations to develop programming to reduce violence in the community. During the first two years of the project, SUN generated support and enthusiasm in the community as South Chicago residents stepped forward to take an active role in preventing violence in their neighborhood.
Background
The first year of the project was a planning period. SUN convened a series of 12 community meetings in South Chicago to determine residents’ perceptions of violence in the neighborhood; over 140 members of the South Chicago community participated in these meetings, providing valuable background information. Findings from the meetings include:
·Violence is seen as a normal part of everyday
life;
·Domestic violence is considered the norm and
is fully accepted in many families;
·Violence significantly impacts residents’ freedom
to move from place to place -- residents can not walk to the bank or grocery
store without being afraid;
·Residents feel that they always have to look
over their shoulders while on the street;
·Hearing gunfire is a normal occurrence;
·Windows of homes and apartments are regularly
shot out;
·Residents feel threatened, hopeless and powerless.
These common resident perceptions have guided subsequent work of SUN. The second step of the project was the development of a Local Planning Group of 20 community residents and leaders. The group learned about violence and violence prevention and confirmed the epidemic proportions of violence in the community. The SUN Planning Group developed a mission statement and goals for the project and recommended specific intervention strategies to reduce violence in South Chicago. The recommendations of the Planning Group are outlined in this report.
Vision Statements
In response to identified risk factors for violence in South Chicago, the Planning Group has written four vision statements that guide the work of SUN:
·The community will support cultural and societal
attitudes that promote nonviolence;
·The community will provide positive supports
and programming for young people;
·South Chicago families will provide a healthy,
nonviolent environment for all family members;
·Residents will have access to community resources
that teach, reinforce, and/or support healthy coping skills and effective
stress management.
Recommendations of violence prevention programming were developed to address each vision statement.
Recommendations
SUN efforts during the second year of funding will focus on continued planning as well as implementation of programming recommended by the planning group. Recommendations center on the four vision statements:
1. The community will support cultural and societal attitudes that promote nonviolence.
SUN will design and implement a public education campaign promoting nonviolence messages to the community. The campaign will include a slogan and a logo to address a specific area of concern, such as nonviolent conflict resolution, prevention of intimate partner violence, zero tolerance of gang activity, or building healthy families. The specific message to be promoted through this campaign will be developed by residents participating in a SUN subcommittee. A consistent message will be communicated through a variety of media that may include:
·Community safety signs distributed to households
in the target area for display in the windows of people’s homes;
·Community murals and artistic signs designed
and painted by local residents;
·A calendar with pictures of the community and
a nonviolence message;
·Articles and advertising in a local newspaper;
·Posters and fliers displayed through local businesses;
·Directories of community resources;
·Public service announcements on radio and television
stations.
2. The community will provide positive supports and programming for young people.
A SUN subcommittee will study and recommend school-based violence prevention strategies, including both in-school and after-school programming. The work of this group will include exploration of additional funding strategies for school-based violence prevention. Programming options to be explored include:
·School-based community centers to provide comprehensive
programming to the community during non-school hours;
·Surveys of local schools, churches and other
institutions in order to identify violence prevention programming currently
being implemented in the community;
·“Safe Night” activities as positive evening alternatives
for youth to participate in recreation and nonviolence education;
·A whole-school approach to violence prevention
which would include student discipline, nonviolence curricula, and developing
a school climate to promote nonviolence.
3. South Chicago families will provide a healthy, nonviolent environment for all family members.
In order to respond to this vision statement, MFS will develop the SUN Institute as a community resource center on nonviolence. The Institute will be staffed by a full-time Social Worker to design and implement programming to be offered to families and to serve as a resource person to link families with needed resources and services. Possible resources to be offered to families by the institute will include:
·training on dealing with neighborhood safety issues;
·workshops on stress and anger management;
·classes on parenting skills;
·training on anger management and nonviolent conflict
resolution;
·support groups in Spanish and English for children
and adults exposed to violence in the home.
4. Residents will have access to community resources that teach, reinforce, and/or support healthy coping skills and effective stress management.
SUN Institute programming will also address coping skills and stress management. The Institute Social Worker will design and implement programming and will serve as a resource person to link community leaders, educators and organizations with needed resources and services. Possible resources to be offered to the community by the Institute will include:
·training for administrators, educators, and clergy
to facilitate recognizing and responding to staff, students, parishioners
and clients who find themselves in domestic violence situations;
·staff development for teachers on dealing with
student safety issues, classroom management and nonviolent conflict resolution;
·workshops on stress and anger management;
·linking local schools and other organizations
with already existing materials and curricula on nonviolence.
Collaborators
Community Residents: Veronica Blaylock, Ester Cabrales, Michelle DeLaPaz, Jean Delatyree, James Gutierrez, Wilfred Lopez, Louise Lowery, Arther Lyles, Annette MacLin, Nelly Martinez, Carol Morris, Ramona Navarro, Don Norwood, Diana Razo, Susana Razo, Brigitte Robinson, Anita Rosso, Chela Ruiz, Maria Rudisch, Armando Soto, Duwella Stevenson, Darnella Thompson, Sandra Velazquez, Edward Whetstone, Carolyn Young, Linton S. Young
Bowen High School: Fausto Lopez
Coles School: Shirley Dukes
Casa Notre Dame: Joann Persch, Pat Murphy (also community residents)
Chicago Department of Public Health, South Chicago Clinic: Jeri Davidson
Chicago Family Health Center: Ben Padilla
Chicago Police Department: Margie Reid-Pittman (also community resident)
Claretian Associates: Jeanne Duffy, Peggy Mejias
El Valor Children and Family Center: Merrick O’Connell (also community resident)
Family Rescue: Ada Middleton
Mary Ward Center: Rosemary Lynch, Pat Pendleton (also community residents)
Metropolitan Family Services, Calumet Center: Sharmili Majmudar
Mr. Malo Youth Center: Al Reyes
Illinois Violence Prevention Authority:
Save Our Neighborhood Community Organization: Dora Espinoza, Doug Seubert (also community residents)
South Chicago Chamber of Commerce: Neil Bosanko
South Chicago Fine Arts Committee: Gamaliel Ramirez
South Chicago YMCA: Annette Terriquez, Callie Smith
Southeast Chicago Development Commission: Marge Guerra & Mary Karen Reynolds
Sullivan School: Robert Esenberg, John Catomer
University of Illinois at Chicago: Paul Schewe, Principle Investigator
Metropolitan Family Services: Laurie Sedio, Executive
Director and Michelle Scheidt, Project Director
For more information, contact:
Michelle Scheidt, Project Director
South Chicago United for Nonviolence
3029 East 91st Street
Chicago, IL 60617
fax: 773-221-4729
phone: 773-371-2924
or
Paul Schewe, Ph.D., Principle Investigator
email: Schewepa@uic.edu
"We are tired of watching the violence and seeing people
leave our community because they are afraid to live here. It is time we
work together to take back our neighborhood."
-- Sandra Velazquez, community resident and SUN Planning Group Member
This publication was supported by Grant Number U81/CCU517819-02 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC.