COMMUNITY LEADERS DISCUSS VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Congressman Danny Davis recently hosted a Violence Prevention Summit on the city’s Westside. The event, which took place on Saturday,December 31, brought together pastors, community activists, civic leaders and mental health practitioners who came to address the ever increasing acts of gun violence present in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Pictured: Pastor Ira Acree of Greater St. John Bible Church (left) and Congressman Danny Davis (right). Photo Credit: Safiyyah Muhammad
Congressman Danny Davis recently hosted a Violence Prevention Summit on the city’s Westside. The event, which took place on Saturday,December 31, brought together pastors, community activists, civic leaders and mental health practitioners who came to address the ever increasing acts of gun violence present in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Pictured: Pastor Ira Acree of Greater St. John Bible Church (left) and Congressman Danny Davis (right). Photo Credit: Safiyyah Muhammad

COMMUNITY LEADERS DISCUSS VIOLENCE PREVENTION

By Safiyyah P. Muhammad

To get a handle on the increasing acts of violence that’s taking

place in Chicago neighborhoods, Congressman Danny Davis

recently spearheaded a Violence Prevention Summit at the

Greater St. John Bible Church, 1256 N. Waller.

“There will be a continuation of effort (to end gun violence).

Many people are already connected here; so what we want to do is to

coordinate the activities in which different people are engaged, so that

we will become more of a collective as opposed to the individual activities

in which we are involved,” Congressman Davis said.

The end-of-year violence prevention summit brought together a

network of pastors, politicians, civil rights leaders, judges, block club

organizers, behavior health therapists, stakeholders, and community

activists who voiced their concerns over why violence has taken a

stronghold on communities throughout the city.

More than 100 participants spent four hours offering various

social, economic and spiritual solutions to the complexities of the everincreasing

issue of violence.

Reverend Ira Acree, the pastor of the Greater St. John Bible

Church, said, “Chicago is in a state of emergency, and we needed

somebody to step forward and provide some leadership. Congressman

Davis brought together people from various institutions; community

leaders representing civil rights organizations such as the NAACP,

various pastors and legislators, business owners and community

activists. All of them were at the same table talking about violence

prevention solutions. That’s a great start, but we have a long way to go.”

To end the violence, experts stated that today’s youth need to see

leaders coming together. Others stated that the reinstitution of truancy

laws and parenting classes will bring healing and hope to the prevailing

issue of gun violence.

President of the NAACP West Side Branch Karl Brinson said the summit

served as a necessary tool from a community stand point to end the

violence. “I think these discussions we are having are extremely needed.

This summit has brought various community organizations together

to discuss how to curb the violence across the city of Chicago and on

the west side. We want people to know that the west side stands in

solidarity with community organizations and block clubs (across the

city) to solve the problems of violence.”

Violence Summit experts called on the collaboration of churches to

teach and instill family values. Congressman Davis said, “The family has

to be cohesive. You must have a family value of ethics before we can

solve the problem of gun violence. There’s been a breakdown in the

family unit. How do we get those values back to the school?”

Psychotherapist, Luis Lopez, CEO, and Director for Journeys stated

that the mental and emotional aspectS of gun violence need more

research. Lopez further stated how important it is to know how family

dynamics influence behavior and how the community needs to address

the family value system, which according to him, is broken in the Black

community.

First Vice-President of the South Side Branch of the NAACP, Brenda

Sheriff also spoke to the issue of family values. She said, “Children

need four things to thrive in any given society. They need affection,

acceptance, appreciation and a sense of achievement. If they don’t

have those four things (coming out of the family); then life can be very

challenging. Years ago, if you had a home life, you would be able to

pick up maybe three or four of those things at school; but now school

is not that surrogate parent anymore. The nucleus part of the family is

missing, and nobody talks about how society has failed these children.”

Sharita Logan, a spokesperson for Congressman Davis office advocated

that the church must re-educate youth by teaching African history to

bolster children’s self-esteem. “We must teach our children African

history. The church must fill the void of educating our children. The

church has to embrace our communities to teach our children Black

history.”

“The kids want to know that we are here and that we are doing

something for them,” said Renell Perry, third vice-president for

Chicago’s West Side NAACP. “We held a teen summit with Matt Forte,

a New York Jet running back, who went to 14 different high schools

on the city’s west side. We are continuing to work on strategies and

tactical solutions to end gun violence.”

“Congressman Davis’ ability to convene such a dynamic group of

concerned citizens, elected officials and community leaders on the

last day of the year demonstrates the deep commitment to addressing

violence,” said Marcus Betts, senior director community and corporate

relations office of public and government affairs at the University of

Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

“Identifying solutions to the crisis of violence in our communities

require input and action from all corners of our city. UIC strongly

supports this effort and we look forward to continuing this work with

community stakeholders while reinforcing our mission to address the

challenges and opportunities facing not only Chicago, but all the Great

Cities of the 21st century,” Betts continued.

Violence Prevention panelists included Congressman Danny Davis, Rev.

Ira Acree, Pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church; Rev. Steven Richard,

Pastor of Jordan Temple; Alderman Chris Talifero; Marcus Betts, senior

director community and corporate relations

office of public and government affairs, UIC; Karl Brinson, president

of the West side NAACP, Judge Marianne Johnson, judge for the Cook

County Juvenile Courts; Mark Carter, West side activist; Revin Fellow,

community activist, Ron Lofton, vice-president of Black McDonald’s of

America, among others

On November 18, 2016, Tariq Harris, 16; and Dijae Banks, 17, were

charged as adults with first-degree murder and home invasion in

the death of Javon Wilson, Congressman Danny Davis’ 15-year-old

grandson.

According to a CNN report, 2016 ended with 762 homicides in Chicago.

Numerous reports show that more than 3,200 people were shot and

injured due to gun violence.

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