In hopes of stopping bloodshed, a multimillion-dollar effort is providing jobs, therapy to city’s most violent
The brakes of the No. 52 Kedzie bus groaned to a stop about 8:30 a.m., and the doors swooshed open.
Corey Givens hopped on and settled into the middle of the bus, holding his backpack as he looked out the window.
Givens was disappointed he wasn’t heading to his job in a work van that day but instead had to catch the bus to go to the branch courthouse at Grand and Central avenues on Chicago’s Northwest Side. He faced a hearing on a misdemeanor charge for peddling weed, the less serious of his two pending criminal cases.
Such are the two worlds Givens is straddling — honest work with a steady paycheck in contrast with quick cash, violence and court dates.
This story is about READI Chicago, one of several Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities strategies to address gun violence in Chicago.