This is a guide to help you think about your coverage of youth violence. It will walk you through reporting strategies, offer examples of reporting, and ask you to consider how you can do your best for an issue that touches so many lives today. Why do we need a guide? Because the [...]
In the 20 square block world of Englewood last year, there were more half of the number of murders that took place in all of Washington,D.C. Quickly shrinking Englewood, down to about 30,000 persons, had less than a third of of the total murders in Houston, a city of 2.6 million. What does this say [...]
We cover the violence and disappear. That’s a problem. We don’t see what lingers on and who comes forward and how they struggle to set life anew. Here’s an article in Spanish from Alejandro Escalona from AOL VOCES about a community and individuals standing up for a violence free life in La Villita. We’ll talk [...]
Sometimes it seems as if nobody is listening. Or maybe nobody is asking enough questions. Or just different questions. This is a problem with reporting on violence. How much of it tells us what folks in the community are saying and doing? How much gives us a pulse of what’s happened over time? How much [...]
What do we know about youth violence? What can we say about why it persists? What can we say about the larger picture? Can we point to statistics that tell us more those about who suffer? Who is marked by it and how does its impact linger? Can we point to experts who can tell [...]
We want different stories about youth violence and they are there. They are about the changes taking place, changes that need to be emphasized and repeated. Changes that are solutions. Here’s a list of such stories and efforts by colleague Curtis Black. Mark Brown offers an inspiring report on the success of restorative justice in “creating [...]
this is from, it explains, a trauma social worker….listen to her story. I agree. This needs to be told as well. Steve I am the trauma social worker at one of the city’s Level I trauma centers. I see and meet with almost every gunshot/stabbing victim (and all other patients) that get admitted to [...]
I’m frustrated and maybe you can help. I hope you can. When I first read the news accounts of six-year-old Aliyah Shell’s death, it sadly seemed like so many other news stories. A child killed by a random bullet. Police say it may be gang-related. Family, neighbors, and many others are heart-broken and outraged. Same [...]
Please read the powerful reporting and foto effort that tells a troubling story about the high rate of death among youths in Chicago’s black and Latino communities. http://www.chicagoreporter.com/news/2012/01/more-young-people-are-killed-chicago-any-other-american-city It raises some questions. Why the steady growth and then a spike in violence? Is it the powerful force of poverty or the lack of jobs [...]
Activist Breaks Silence on His Past and Violence in Chicago By Dana Rettig Tio Hardiman knows a lot about survival and it is not just from running CeaseFire, a very unique anti-violence effort here in Chicago. He grew up in one of the toughest housing projects on the west side [...]
Two men fighting. They rush into a fast-food restaurant. One shoots. Five are wounded. Two die. One is 16. The other 17. When I read this story about yet more deaths in Englewood, I am troubled because I know that crime doesn’t fall from the sky. But that’s the unspoken impression I get from what [...]
Photo by Carlos Javier Ortiz. View More
Most of the stories you see here are written for the We Are Not Alone – No Estamos Solos campaign and provided to ethnic news media outlets free of charge. You are welcome to republish these stories as long as you attribute the author and source under the Creative Commons License. If you want to contribute please contact Steve Franklin, steve@chicagoistheworld.org or 312 369 7782. We encourage stories that counter stereotypes, that emphasize the folks and groups who work against violence in their communities and that point us to solutions.
The message of this project centers on residents working to make life better in their communities, that we need to know what others are doing and to remind us that this is a struggle that can be overcome.
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Do you want to find an agency that helps youths? Are you an agency and you want to spread the word about your work? Please go to our list of Chicago area youth agencies. We think it is the only one of its kind here. And we created it so that journalists, agencies and folks in need can have a place to turn. So check it out.
