Youth And Safe Neighborhoods

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Children killing children is the most profoundly tragic social reality in America today.  We as a society have not made ending it a priority.  But our children are the future of our state.  We can and must give our African-American young men hope and alternatives to gangs in the form of jobs and other opportunities.  Not every problem has a legislative solution, but there is more that government can do.  The barriers to freedom and opportunity that young men face – from poverty to gangs to joblessness, police harassment, to overcoming juvenile and criminal records - are real and formidable.  The youth unemployment rate in Chicago is currently 26 percent; in the African-American community, it is close to 59 percent.  The problems are larger than any one person, and so we need a collective effort to solve them.  The effort must include experts, counselors, psychologists, social workers, mental health experts, community organizations, anti-violence groups, law enforcement and many others; it must draw on the resources of the city, county, state and federal governments.  We must focus both on whole communities and on each individual child.  To help reduce violence in communities and create more opportunities, I advocate the following legislative measures:

• Pursue additional federal and state funding to ensure safe passage for children to and from the most dangerous communities and schools;

• Quadruple funding for Ceasefire to $22 million for Chicago to expand the program (from 32) to all 101 of the police beats that are considered most dangerous; Ceasefire’s work has been proven to reduce gang-related rivalries, tensions and violence in our neighborhoods;

• Pass HB 48, which requires universal background checks for the purchase of concealable guns;

• Expand high quality parenting programs to break the cycle of children being raised in violence; children of mothers in these programs have been shown to have a 60% lower arrest rate;
  
  
• Create quality public schools for all children by enacting the education initiatives I call for in my position paper on education, including:
  
  • Immediately restore $180 million in cuts to the Board of Education;
  
  • Increase our investment in high-quality, early childhood education;
  
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