CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Illinois, Chicago and private sector leaders announced that they have reached a milestone in funding for key anti-violence programs throughout Chicago — and the past weekend’s wave of violence illustrates the need for them.
They didn’t call it a goal. Instead, officials said the “milestone” of $100 million in business and philanthropic funding for Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs in Chicago has been attained. These are efforts where street workers go into neighborhoods to interrupt violence, and Mayor Brandon Johnson said more of these efforts are needed.
“Unfortunately, only 15% – 20% of an estimated 20,000 highest-promise individuals are actually reached through a CVI,” Johnson said. “We know that CVI programming actually works, and so we have to do what works.”
The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago has spearheaded the private efforts. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the problem in the past has been the programs were funded, then defunded, then funded again, maybe. What’s needed is a baseline of year-rounds funding:
“Yes, we need to surge funding when the needs are great, but we also need to make sure that — when maybe not everybody is paying attention — the funds are there to keep these programs going,” he said.
The state of Illinois has committed $250 million to these and similar programs.
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