(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Former Chicago Bulls star Joakim Noah is doing regular work in violence prevention through his foundation and a basketball league he started with community violence intervention leader Cobe Williams.
At a forum for the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities, Noah said he likes talking with young people and, more importantly, listening to them.
“We could talk about violence prevention. These are just at the end of the day, how do we personalize these kids because they're kids. They're human beings and the way that we talk about them in the news and all this stuff is like as if they're not kids.”
Cobe Williams leads a now international organization that tries to bring down levels of gun violence in communities through citywide basketball leagues.
Young people from different and often rival groups play and learn together.
Williams knows there are other community violence intervention groups doing similar things, but there's a common thread.
“Knowing everybody and knowing the organizations in the city and just bringing the city together and reuniting the brothers and sisters and all that. But the beauty about this, these organizations are working with these young people every day,” Williams said.
Williams himself, a former gang member, is the one out on the streets some nights trying to talk someone out of retaliating after a shooting.
He admits it can be dangerous work, but he says he's trying to clean up a mess he helped to make.
“But one thing that we can say in this work, we don't give up on nobody. So, a lot of times when people think about mediation, they think about just one point of it. You mediated this conflict, it's over with,” Williams said.
“No. The most critical part to me is the follow up. You got to constantly be in their ear.”
Williams says people listen to those who are always right there with them.
Some violence interrupters die every year. Williams says he doesn't think about that.
“For the people who've been doing this for a while – and I do, I do agree with you it is dangerous, right? But I don't see it like that. And the reason I don't – it's like we're doing work in the community, where we come from, where we have messed up. So we rebuilding our community back.
Cobe Williams will be joined by former Chicago Bull Joakim Noah on our "At Issue" program this weekend, and you can hear more coming up at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
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