It Takes A Village: North-West Side Organizations in Chicago Breaking the Generational Cycles of Violence in their Communities
Introduction
Author: Maria M Pampin Costa
Department: UIC Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement (IPCE)
Advisor: Carla Duran, Graduate Assistant, IPCE
Abstract: Violence prevention organizations employ layered responses to address how youth are affected by violence and generational trauma. On Chicago’s North-West side, these responses are grounded in community knowledge and trust. Many organizations rely on street outreach workers with lived experience to build relationships and provide alternative responses amongst their youth. In this side of Chicago, intervention does not occur until the youth encounter the criminal justice system, leading to prolonged system involvement. The methods utilized for this research included a literature review of violence prevention strategies, analysis of 2024-2025 annual reports from local organizations, and qualitative unstructured interviews with staff from organizations. The scope of this research is to explore how the North-West side of Chicago works within its communities to support its youth who have been subjected to the criminal justice system and exposed to violence. The study revealed that these communities have had longstanding tensions between police, community and some of the organizations, though, recent efforts have aimed to improve relationships between all parties. Outreach workers with lived experience (incarceration, gang involvement, and community ties) are effective in helping disrupt the cycles of violence and generational trauma. Multi-layered violence prevention approaches that address active intervention, prevention of future violence, housing, education, and substance use are critical in reducing violence in all the community. However, under current political conditions, organizations such as face funding instability, which highlights the need for policies and budgets that include violence prevention, such as that of the 2025 Mayor’s Budget proposal. Providing educational resources and information on resources should be readily available to youth and any returning citizen community. A limitation of this research is that there are no significant statistical differences that these programs make in the literature.
Keywords: Violence Prevention, Cycles of Violence, Generational Trauma, Chicago, Interview, Youth, Lived Experience