by Miles Harvey
Parents of Murdered Children, Inc. (POMC)
Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers
2800 W. 95th St.
West Pavilion, Room 8536
Evergreen Park, IL 60805
Phone: 708.720.6104
Alt. Phone: 773.847.1613
Website: www.pomc.com/chicago/index.htm
Parents of Murdered Children, Inc. is a non-profit self-help support group for survivors of homicide victims. The group offers follow-up with supportive family services after the murder of a family member or friend. The Chicago Area Chapter of POMC holds monthly meetings, provides a telephone network of support, supplies information about the grief process, organizes a speaker’s bureau and provides accompaniment for survivors who must attend court proceedings.
Precious Blood Ministry
P.O. Box 09379
Chicago, IL 60609
Phone: 773.952.6643
Fax: 773.952.6739
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.pbmr.org
Located in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Precious Blood Ministry works with young people 14 to 24 years old, many of whom are court-involved or are coming out of detention or incarceration. Precious Blood Ministry employs a restorative-justice program that tries to create a safe haven for young people, engage them and help them access whatever resources they need, including mentoring, job placement, housing and education.
Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny)
6620 S. Martin Luther King Dr.
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: 773.326.4200
Website: http://www.projecthood.org/
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/PastorCoreyBrooks or https://twitter.com/CoreyBBrooks
Pastor Corey Brooks, whose story appears on these pages, founded Project H.O.O.D. to build a community center and call attention to street violence on Chicago’s South Side.
Project NIA
1530 W. Morse Ave.
Chicago, IL 60626
Phone: 773.392.5165
Email: [email protected]
Social Media: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-NIA/218584157088 or https://twitter.com/projectnia
Website: www.project-nia.org
Project NIA supports youth in trouble with the law, as well as those victimized by violence and crime, through community-based alternatives to the criminal legal system. The group advocates for redirecting resources from youth incarceration to youth opportunities.
Purpose Over Pain
P.O. Box 1235
South Holland, IL 60473
Phone: 773.234.8117
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.purposeoverpain.org
Purpose Over Pain was formed in 2007 by members of seven families who had lost children to senseless gun violence. The co-founders include Pamela Montgomery-Bosley, whose story is in this book. Purpose Over Pain works to assist families victimized by gun violence by helping with funeral expenses, offering counseling and directing them to support groups. Members of the group also lobby for common-sense gun legislation and speak at schools and community events about gun violence and what it does to communities.
Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP)
602 E. 61st St.
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: 773.217.9598
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.stopchicago.org
STOP is a community organization that fights for South Side residents on issues such as gentrification, displacement and health cuts, as well as youth incarceration and criminalization.
Strengthening Chicago’s Youth (SCY)
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
225 E. Chicago Ave., Box 157
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312.227.6678
Email: [email protected]
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/StrengtheningChicagosYouth or https://twitter.com/SCY_Chicago
Website: www.scy-chicago.org
Spearheaded by Lurie Children’s, SCY is a group of private and public stakeholders that takes a public-health approach to violence prevention, with a focus on policy, systems and environmental change. SCY believes that preventing violence before it occurs requires a balanced effort that addresses the complex factors underlying violence and builds on the assets of youth, families and communities.
UCAN
3737 N. Mozart St.
Chicago, IL 60618
Phone: 773.588.0180
Fax: 773.588.7762
Email: [email protected]
Social: https://www.facebook.com/UCANChicagoland or www.twitter.com/UCANchicago
Website: www.ucanchicago.org
UCAN strives to build strong youth and families through compassionate healing, education and empowerment. UCAN aims to help prevent violence by focusing on non-violent conflict resolution strategies, mentoring, youth empowerment, leadership development and advocacy.
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago -
Youth Safety and Violence Prevention
1608 W. 21st Place
Chicago, IL 60608
Phone: 312.587.2243
Fax: 312.447.3096
Email: [email protected]
Website: ymcachicago.org/programs/gang-intervention
The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago provides leadership and initiatives that help make neighborhoods safe through a unique combination of collaborative community organizing, education and training, family-wellness programs, and intensive youth and family outreach. Through the Youth Safety and Violence Prevention and Street Intervention Program, the Y integrates evidence-based prevention, intervention and reduction strategies and has a presence in 11 of Chicago’s at-risk communities including Humboldt Park, Little Village, Logan Square, Pilsen and South Chicago.
Youth Guidance
1 N. LaSalle St., Suite 900
Chicago, IL 60602
Phone: 312.253.4900
Fax: 312.253.4917
Email: [email protected]
Social Media: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJHHjBRA7zQ&feature=plcp
Website: www.youth-guidance.org
Youth Guidance operates the Becoming a Man program, a school-based counseling, mentoring, violence prevention and educational-enrichment program that promotes social, emotional and behavioral competencies for at-risk male youth from Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods.
Youth Service Project, Inc. (YSP)
3942 W. North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
Phone: 773.772.6270
Fax: 773.772.8755
Email: [email protected]
Social Media: https://twitter.com/YSPChicago, http://www.youtube.com/user/YouthServiceProject, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Youth-Service-Project/245115743727 or http://www.youthserviceproject.org/?feed=rss2
Website: www.youthserviceproject.org
Since 1975, YSP has worked with youth and families in the greater Humboldt Park community. The group offers programs in seven core areas: education, recreation, intervention, prevention, arts and culture, community building and diversion.
STUDY GUIDE
When the theatrical companion to this book premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in February 2013, it was part of a citywide call
to action against youth violence and intolerance called Now Is The Time. This initiative, co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library, promotes
dialogue between young people seeking solutions to minimize violence and strengthen their communities.
Consider these questions for further discussion:
• In Miles Harvey’s introduction to How Long Will I Cry?, he notes that Chicago is the most racially segregated city in the country. Do you think that there’s a connection between racial segregation and youth violence? And how do you think racial tensions in Chicago could be abated?
• After the murder of 16-year-old Derrion Albert, Miles Harvey won
dered what he could do—or what anybody was supposed to do—to tackle
a problem as big, scary and complex as youth violence. How do you think one person, or one group of people, could make a difference (small or big)?
• Miles Harvey notes that in today’s world, everyone is blogging, texting, tweeting, Friending–but nobody’s really listening. One of the main goals of this book is to make people feel more connected with each other. What other sorts of stories would help people “hear” each other and would be inspirational to collect?
• Statistics show that nearly 80 percent of recent youth homicides (kids killed under the age of 21) took place in 22 low-income black or Latino communities on Chicago’s South, Southwest and West Sides—even though just one-third of the city’s population lives in those areas. What do you think the government should do about black-on-black and Latino-on-Latino crime? How about the police? How about people who live in these communities, and those who live outside of them?
• In which of the stories did you witness someone taking positive action? Was it action for themselves, action for their community or both?
• Whose story did you most relate to out of the people interviewed? Who did you find inspiring and why?
• In Max Cerda’s story, he talks about first joining a gang for a sense of camaraderie. What are positive outlets a person can turn to when looking for camaraderie? As a society, how can we create constructive opportunities for young people searching for a sense of community as an alternative to joining a gang or turning to violence?
• In Diane Latiker’s story, she mentions that when she was growing
up, gangs were protectors of neighborhoods; they took care of innocent people. Do positive “gangs” exist today? If so, what do they look like?
• In Pastor Brooks’ story, he sees the need for a community center in place of a hotel serving as a hub for criminal activity. Are there specific things that can be done in your community to reduce violence or criminal behavior?
• What are your fears surrounding violence in your neighborhood or community? Brainstorm a list of three solutions that could minimize your fears and help you feel safer.
• Where did you see examples of hope within these stories?
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Miles Harvey (editor) wrote the stage version of How Long Will I Cry?: Voices of Youth Violence, which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2013. He is also the author of The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime (Random House, 2000) and Painter in a Savage Land: The Strange Saga of the First European Artist in North America (Random House, 2008). He teaches creative writing at DePaul University.
Alex Kotlowitz (foreword) is the award-winning author of three books, including the national best-seller There Are No Children Here. A producer of the documentary The Interrupters, he has published work in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Granta and on public radio’s This American Life. He’s a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University.
Chris Green (associate editor) is the author of two books of poetry: Epiphany School and The Sky Over Walgreens. His poetry has appeared in such journals as Poetry, New Letters, Verse, Nimrod, RATTLE and Black Clock. He recently edited the anthology Brute Neighbors: Urban Nature Poetry, Prose & Photography. He teaches in the English Department at DePaul University.
Jonathan Messinger (associate editor) is co-publisher of featherproof books. For more information about him and his work, visit shootthemessinger.com.
Jason Harvey (book designer) has been living and designing in the Chicago area for the past 20 years. His work focuses on book and website design and has been recognized by many design competitions including 50 Books/50 Covers, sponsored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. To see more of Jason’s work, visit www.jhbookdesign.com.
Carlos Javier Ortiz (cover photographer) won the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Photography (2009) award for Too Young to Die, his multiyear examination of youth violence in the United States and Central America. In 2011, he received the Open Society Institute Audience Engagement Grant for his continuing work on that project. Recently he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for his work on Too Young to Die and youth violence in Guatemala. His work has been published in The Washington Post, Ebony Magazine, Le Monde Magazine, GEO, and in numerous international print, broadcast and online venues.