FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 15, 2018 Nonprofit organizations and engaged residents are invited to apply for grants of up to $10,000 to support summer and early fall violence prevention programs WHAT The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities ("the Fund") opens its 2018 grant application period on Thursday, March 15, calling for proposals from organizations to develop programming

Chicagoans like Natalie Perkins spent last summer building community cohesion and promoting safety and peace on Chicago's South Side. As education coordinator for South Merrill Community Garden, she helped run an entire summer of Saturday activities for neighborhood kids called Planting and Playing Summer Garden Arts. The effort was one of 120 projects funded by the

By Shari E. Runner In the predominantly African-American communities on Chicago's South and West sides, things have been bad for far too long, and they seem to be getting worse — for those communities and for the city as a whole. The fast-approaching March 20 primary election presents a chance for voters to demand better. Across the city and

Sean Malinowski was invited by Supt. Eddie Johnson to help the Chicago Police Department (CPD) create new, high-tech crime-fighting centers. Malinowski, a former lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department who adopted predictive analysis as a way to prevent shootings, was tapped to help build Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs) with the University of Chicago. At

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is adding management-level positions to oversee reform and strategy. The newly-created positions will be charged with implementing a strategic plan for the police department and making sure reforms are delivered by specific deadlines, according to the Sun-Times. CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson acknowledged the civilian jobs are a break from the past

The Chicago Police Department is using an experimental computer program to predict murders -- and prevent them. Calling the results "uncanny," the department said the predictive policing computer program spits out the names of those most likely to shoot or be shot. With those names in hand, police are actively intervening and saving lives, according to CBS's

"Chicagoans deserve solutions to the crisis." That's how WBEZ's Every Other Hour reporting team explains its piece assessing the initial impact of government, philanthropic, and community responses to Chicago's gun violence epidemic. While acknowledging the difficulty in measuring progress at this point, WBEZ's team says "it's important to try" given the depth of the crisis. "This year opened

Chicagoans are stepping up to meet the challenge of our city's gun violence crisis. They are hosting block parties, engaging in police reform, conducting street outreach, and more. The Chicago Tribune reports that optimism is growing in Englewood. A variety of urgent responses is helping transform the neighborhood, which has long been synonymous with violence and

Local nonprofit groups that respond to violence by cleaning streets, building playgrounds, mentoring children and employing young men have a real effect on the crime rate, says Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at New York University. His new research suggests that people in communities where violence plummeted the most were working hard, with little credit, to address