MAYOR ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF CHOOSE TO CHANGE

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (pictured) announced the expansion of Choose to Change from a six-month program to a year-round program to help young people at the highest risk of gun violence involvement. Photos taken by Tia Carol Jones
Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (pictured) announced the expansion of Choose to Change from a six-month program to a year-round program to help young people at the highest risk of gun violence involvement. Photos taken by Tia Carol Jones

Mayor announces expansion of Choose to Change

BY TIA CAROL JONES

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, along with Interim Chicago Police Department Superintendent Charlie Beck, Chicago Public School CEO Dr. Janice Jackson, Dr. Sybil Madison, deputy mayor for education and human services, announced an expansion to the Choose to Change program at Wendell Phillips Academy High School, 244 E. Pershing Road.

Choose to Change (C2C) is a program that was launched in 2015 by the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Education Lab and Children’s Home & Aid. The intervention program has served more than 600 young people on the South and West Sides in the last five years.

The expansion includes year-round services for more than 2,000 students who are at the highest risk of gun violence involvements over the next three years. It will begin this summer, with Summer for Change (S4C). The city will contribute $1.1 million. It will be free for participants and their families.

“We owe it to them to invest in their lives and to help transform their lives,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “We know from research done by the University of Chicago Crime Lab that this program, Choose to Change, not only kept students safe and engaged during the program, but has proven a positive impact on students after they complete the program. It reduces the probability that they are arrested, it reduces the opportunity that they are going to be a victim of violence.”

Chris Taliaferro, 29th Ward Alderman, sits on the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. He also served with the Chicago Police Department for more than 23 years.

Taliaferro said it has been an all-hands on deck effort “to ensure that every child in Chicago has a safe environment and nurtured environment in which they can grow in, they can learn in, and that they can thrive in.” And, he applauded Mayor Lightfoot.

“I applaud her for ensuring that our students that are behind us today have a seat at the table as we take part in this effort. I applaud her for her investment in making sure that we support our youth and keep them on the right path to success,” he said. “I want to thank the Mayor for her continued leadership when it comes to public safety and I look forward to expanding our effort.”

Mayor Lightfoot said the expansion of the program is just the latest effort to support survivors of gun violence and to prevent gun violence. She said she had a roundtable discussion with students to ask what could be done to keep them safe.

“They were very candid in sharing their experiences for which I am grateful,” she said. “And, we will learn from what we heard from today. We will make sure we do a better job as a city, not just as a city government, but as a city in making sure we’re doing better to support our young people.”

Lightfoot went on to discuss recent events that involved guns and young people.

“The common thread running through each of these incidents, children and young people with guns, they should never have possessed in the first place,” she said. “Adults in their lives failed them. And, what resulted was tragedy in each instance. No amount of policing, no superior crime strategy can address these private moments where adults allow children and teens access to deadly weapons. Adults, we have to be better.”

Lightfoot plead with the young people to put the guns down. “You’re not a punk or weak if you don’t carry a gun, and you’re certainly not stronger or safer with a gun. A gun means your future is going to be determined and irreparably shaped by a trigger pull. You pick up a gun, you’ve picked up a ticking time bomb,” she said. “Don’t pick it up in the first place, put them down if you have them, but if you’re not feeling safe, find the adult in your life, who you trust, who cares about you, who loves and nurtures you and reach out to them.”

Lightfoot also spoke to the adults and said adults should do better. She added gun violence cannot be normalized and picking up a gun is not okay. “Our jobs as adults is to love and support our children throughout the entirety of their lives; to help them build strength in times of trouble and teach them to love themselves and to love others,” she said.

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