During a dire week in which Chicago approached 500 homicides for the year, we also saw a beacon of hope.

JPMorgan Chase announced that it would invest $40 million in economically deprived neighborhoods on the South and West sides where chronic poverty and violence go hand in hand.

Certainly, no one thinks an infusion of cash can solve all of the problems associated with African-American and Hispanic men who are killing each other at an alarming pace. But it is, at least, a start to addressing the root causes of the homicides in a tangible way.

Chase is providing Chicago with a chance to test an argument that community activists, sociologists, neighborhood residents and others have been making for years — that the young people who are killing each other aren’t all inherently bad. Rather, it’s the lack of opportunities driving them to become people they were not meant to be.

Read the full article by the Chicago Tribune‘s Dahleen Glanton.