White House Faith-Based Partnership Summit Lands in Chicago
Faith-based partnerships were the main focus of a day long White House sponsored conference held at the UIC Forum on Dec. 6.
The forum titled, Connecting Communities for the Common Good is currently traveling the country. Tuesdays Chicago meeting was number six in the series. The conference initiated a dialogue between government and clergy to target critical issues such as youth violence, education, housing and jobs.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel delivered opening remarks. Emanuel emphasized the need for clergy to help remedy problems the city faces.
I need ministers to come outside the doors of the church and bring [warmth] out onto the streets. As Mayor I can talk about all the resources, [but] I cannot achieve the goal without the partnership of faith based and community groups, he said.
Congressman Danny K. Davis was among several elected officials who also gave opening remarks.
Being in the presence of clergymen and public servants seemed to help the Congressman understand their effectiveness.
Being here with all of the faith leaders, I felt very good as I sat down because I realize the partnership between government and faith institutions, he said.
The conference consisted of several workshops and roundtable discussions on a host of issues including hunger, economic development and healthcare.
A panel on youth violence began discourse on ways faith-based and community organizations can help communities thwart violent youth and gang activity.
Panelists included Felicia Davis, Mayor Emanuels first deputy chief of staff and Roseanna Ander, executive director, University of Chicago Crime Lab.
Davis, a former Chicago Police officer, begins her mornings by counting the number of people that were shot in Chicago the preceding day.
One of the first things I do in the morning is get online and add up how many people have been shot in the City of Chicago and the circumstances, she said.
Mayor Emanuel celebrated a birthday on Nov. 29 and Davis said that his only wish was to have a day in Chicago without a shooting.
We came very close. On Nov. 29, we only had one shooting reported in Chicago, she said.
The mayors public safety leader has also participated in several listening tours hearing the concerns of residents.
Recently, we went out for some listening sessions and actually listened to the voice of young people and I will tell you it was profound, she said.
Davis says that youth violence is preventable but people must be willing to join the fight to end it.
She added that leaders from the public sector including law enforcement, public health stakeholders and school chiefs all must come together to address the issue.
Roseanna Ander discussed the connection between youth violence and education.
If we can get a young person through high school we have just transformed the trajectory of their life, she said.
Ander added that although much emphasis is placed on public school students that are shot, attention should also be paid to youngsters who are not in school.
We tend to focus on the CPS kids who are shot and thats an incredibly important problem, but we also ought to be thinking about the kids who are completely disengaged from school because they are at much higher risk, she said.
Ander believes youth violence is a vast issue and one program cannot solve all of its problems.
A problem like youth violence has so many different factors if we start thinking every program needs to completely fix every problem were never going to find that, she said.
The U of C Crime Lab executive director concluded that stakeholders should begin to think about small changes that can dramatically affect youth violence.
Thinking about the small incremental changes that can be made [to] collectively make a big difference is really the way we ought to be approaching a problem like youth violence, she said.
by Thelma Sardin
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