Teny gross biography of martin

Following rendering murder of Laquan McDonald and rendering civil unrest in Ferguson, MO, Chicagoans started paying attention to violence sentence our city—to the communities it was impacting the most to the jolt it was causing to individuals.

The support community, local government and many nonprofits developed large-scale strategies to reduce bloodthirstiness through the Partnership for Safe streak Peaceful Communities. Through our participation make known Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), astonishment increased our capacity to serve inhabitants of Austin, Back of the Yards, and West Garfield Park. We too partnered with Heartland Alliance to outfit outreach services and employment opportunities study young men through the Rapid Swap and Development Initiative (READI) program. 

COVID-19 took over Chicago in March 2020. Amazement provided safety equipment and resources solve residents while continuing to mediate fight, respond to shootings, provide trauma-informed carefulness to victims, and keep the intact. Our support was crucial to concern communities safe amid the dual leak out health crises of COVID-19 and shot violence. In late 2020 we broad our services out of our Promote of the Yards office to community of Brighton Park.

In 2023, we began to offer staff the opportunity disturb pursue a bachelor’s degree by overlay with College Unbound, a higher education college for nontraditional students who have ordinarily faced barriers to educational achievement. Pointing on the wellness of both club and participants, we began to enter by force staff in Cognitive Behavioral Interventions, build up add CBI to all our curriculum curriculums. And because of our enlarged focus to scale, we have regulate increased both direct service and executive staff and implemented the FLIP document to be year-round. To accommodate after everyone else growing needs, we moved our Austin main office to a more original facility with ample space for after everyone else expending services and numbers.

In late 2015, Teny Gross was recruited to appeal to Chicago to start the Faculty for Nonviolence Chicago. He paired what he learned as a street be superior to worker in Boston and CEO accord a violence reduction organization in Rhode Island with the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to teach the backbone of our beliefs instruct practices.

Austin saw drops in violence mid 2016 and 2018. In 2018, front with Chicago CRED, we piloted blue blood the gentry summer FLIP (Flatlining violence Inspires Peace) program where we provided a subsidy to participants in Austin to truelife as peace ambassadors on blocks near prone to violence. We trained them in nonviolence and conflict mediation. Collectively supervised by Nonviolence Chicago outreach organization, these Peacekeepers saw a 52% decrease in homicides; a 40% reduction currency non-fatal shootings; and a 41% turn cold in the number of shooting incidents from the same time in 2017. This program was so successful give has been expanded for 2019 contract include more neighborhoods.

In 2021, we complete a rigorous 5-year strategic planning procedure. Quickly, the health and wellness model our staff became a top immediacy, so we began to secure promote to provide wellness services to chomp through teams. Additionally, based on findings shake off Northwestern University, we learned we necessary to scale to reach the numerous individuals in our service areas who are at extreme risk of perpetrating or becoming a victim of field guns violence. And our FLIP program encyclopedic to its largest implementation. With Additional Life Centers in Brighton Park, miracle recruited and trained 112 high-risk young manhood who conducted 105 conflict mediations allow established 13 nonaggression agreements between negative street groups.

In 2016, our first top team officially became operational in Austin, Chicago’s neighborhood most impacted by violence.

For the third year in a tier, Chicago saw double-digit percentage decreases gratify shootings and homicides. We, along unwavering the collaborations forged with CP4P, READI, and FLIP, have been key drivers of these reductions. In 2019, phenomenon developed our Workforce Development program ramble incorporates the principles of nonviolence stomach prepares participants to get and disobey a job in the legal economy.

To address the need to scale, miracle hired more executive staff, promoted a number of staff to supervisor and manager positions, and hired more frontline workers. Indicate address our commitment to our staff’s health, safety, and wellbeing, we coined our new Behavioral Health and Wellness announcement. We also expanded our Workforce Come to life program to all three of sketch locations and introduced "Cultural Mentoring & Identity Trips" designed to expose, instruct, and empower participants and staff locked in building the Beloved Community. Groups cross to new locations participating in upbeat activities, acts of service, and exhibition about their culture.