Searching for solutions to gun violence: West Garfield Park community leaders work to heal deep wounds
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago has had the most mass shootings of any city in the United States this year – with 24 since the beginning of 2022, leaving 12 people dead and 101 injured.
Many people ask – how did we get here?
Disparities in housing, education, and health care are just a few reasons the South and West sides of Chicago have struggled to flourish. Adding to all that is neighborhood disinvestment.
We know there is a link between poverty and violence. And the violence takes a toll – creating generational trauma.
On Wednesday, CBS 2's Jim Williams visited the West Garfield Park neighborhood – where community leaders are working every day to heal deep wounds.
The news reports are so frequent that you might be inclined to write off the gunfire and bloodshed on the West Side as just another day in a violent city. But only if you don't live in the areas where it's happening.
For the people of West Garfield Park — and other communities like it — the violence is searing. It is also no less traumatic than it was on July 4th at the parade in Highland Park.
"The shooting in Highland Park is tragic — I don't wish that on anyone," said the Rev. Walter Jones. "But young folks experience this every day in West Garfield Park. Every day."
Rev. Jones is right in the middle of it - wearing many hats. Fathers Who Care, the West Side and West Garfield Park Community Stakeholders, and the West Garfield Park Youth Council are among the organizations he heads up.
Jones insists attention must be paid in West Garfield Park too. Listen to the young, he says.
"We were talking specifically about when you hear gunfire in the community — what do you do? They say, 'Some of us jump down and hide behind cars. Some of us just look where it's coming from, because we've become immune to it. We hear it all the time,'" Jones said. "Now that's heavy for a young person to have to say that."
Mental health experts remind us that the traumatized — the victims of violence — are more likely to become victimizers.
"Those who've been basically violated end up violating.. We're talking about folks, who are in fact, in pain," said Donald Dew, chief executive officer of Habilitative Systems. "So you cannot blame the child for the life circumstances they're born into. You just simply cannot do that."
Habilitative Systems which includes the Westside Community Triage and Wellness Center. As we showed you three weeks ago, they treat victims of trauma.
"Our intention was to basically deflect folk from unnecessary emergency room placement, to deflect from incarceration, and to deflect folks from unnecessary institutionalization," Dew said.
Rev. Jones adds to the holistic approach.
"It's a labor of love," he said. "It has to be a labor of love."
He provides counseling for young people - teaching them goal-setting, and showing them life outside the neighborhood.
"The more we keep investing in them, the more we keep loving on them — and their parent — and the more we bring them out of this neighborhood and show them it's something bigger - then we have a chance," Jones said.
Rev. Jones tells us at least 90 percent of the young people he works with have suffered trauma. They have either been victims of violence or have witnessed violence.
