CDPH Focuses On Summer Safety

During the Chicago Department of Public Health Gun Safety Workshops people can receive training on Stop the Bleed and receive gun locks. Photo provided by CDPH.
During the Chicago Department of Public Health Gun Safety Workshops people can receive training on Stop the Bleed and receive gun locks. Photo provided by CDPH.

CDPH Focuses On Summer Safety

By Tia Carol Jones

Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is hosting summer activations that are focused on gun safety and substance use as part of its summer safety plan for 2025.

The workshops will take place from 6:00 p.m. -7:30 p.m. June 26th, at 4300 W. North Ave.; July 31st at 2311 S. Kedzie Ave.; Aug. 21st at 11001 S. Indiana Ave.; and Aug. 28th at 2505 E. 73rd St.

Kathy Calderon, Director of Behavioral Health Program Operations at CDPH, said the gun safety awareness workshops are taking place around holidays during the summer months because CDPH saw an uptick in youth involved accidental shootings. She said it prompted CDPH to distribute gun locks to communities that were impacted and to curate a set of resources that could improve gun safety. CDPH also built it into its summer incident command, its response to upticks in violence during the summer months. The workshops promote safe firearm storage, trauma response skills like Stop the Bleed training and firearm turn-in program information.

Calderon said there was an event before Memorial Day weekend, which was well attended and well received by the community. The location for the workshops were chosen based on the locations of where youth accidental shootings took place, as well as where there are spikes in incidents of violence, as a way to triage their response with resources.

“While it is in response to incidents that have occurred, we also are considering it primary prevention, in that we’re promoting supplies that will assist with prevention of incidents from occurring,” she said.

Gun locks are available at police stations and Chicago Public Libraries. For the locations of the locks, visit chicago.gov/gunsafety. They will also be available in public health vending machines. The public health vending machines, which have been around since Fall 2023, have drug test kits, naloxzone (NARCAN), personal hygiene kits, socks and underwear and sexual health supplies. Public health vending machines are located at Uptown Library, 929 W. Buena; the Garfield Community Service Center, 10 S. Kedzie; the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St,; the 95th and Dan Ryan Red Line CTA Station, 14 W. 95th St; and the Roseland Community Triage Center, 200 E. 111th St.

Calderon said the public health vending machines were placed to help prevent overdoses and to support the health and well-being of people in Chicago. She said it is part of CDPH’s larger substance use strategy and they are a very important method to get critical harm reduction supplies to the community. She said there has been very high utilization of the vending machines throughout the city where they are located. She added that CDPH is partnering with the CHA and Chicago Park District to make NARCAN available.

“CDPH is working very hard to saturate, especially in communities with high overdose rates and to communities that are impacted by substance use disproportionately. We want to make sure that we get these life-saving resources out to the people who can use them, as well as get training out so people know what it is and how to house it,” she said.

In addition to the gun safety workshops and gun lock distribution, peacekeepers are being dispatched to de-escalate situations, there will be door-to-door canvassing where harm reduction kits will be distributed and drug test kits and NARCAN will be available at summer festivals.

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