About the Blog
Chain of Change is committed to advancing justice in and through media. We see gaps and contradictions between how mainstream media often report on violence involving and affecting youth and what you are experiencing in your everyday life. This blog seeks to fill in the gaps by including your story.
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Media Justice Blog
Stop the Violence: Program tackles gangs, guns
June 14, 2010 - 3 CommentsA Chicago program is working to get gangs and guns off the streets.
Tags:
10-15, 15-19, ABC local, church involvement, community involvement, CPS, drugs, gang violence, gun violence, hispaniclatino, june 2010, little village, male, parent involvement, pilsen, police involvement, youth voices
Wounded: Stop the Violence
June 14, 2010 - no commentsVideo interviews of youth survivors of gun violence
Tags:
15-19, African American, community involvement, CPS, Englewood, gun violence, hispaniclatino, kenwood high school, male, murder, pilsen, police involvement, washington heights, youth voices
CPS anti-violence program takes off, slowly
June 03, 2010 - no commentsAs CJ lay in a hospital last winter nursing a gunshot wound to his arm, the prospect of graduating from high school seemed a distant dream for the skinny Roseland teen. Mostly left to his own devices, he had drifted to the streets at an early age and often skipped school, since attending class required crossing a web of gang lines that conflicted with his own affiliations.
Five months later, CJ rarely misses a day, participates in class and is on track to graduate. He credits his turnaround to an ambitious program launched by Chicago Public Schools this school year to stem youth violence.
Tags:
chicago tribune, church involvement, CPS, Farragut Career Academy, gang violence, government involvement, gun violence, Hyde Park high, invisible boundaries, june 2010, male, manley high school, murder, noble network charter school, non CPS, Roseland, school violence, south side, street violence, tilden high school, youth voices
Students’ party brings sparkle — and hopes for peace — to Rogers Park
May 26, 2010 - no commentsLast school year, several students on their way to school watched a teacher get carjacked. Fights are a constant, and kids often are chased. Sirens wail and shots ring out when they are home at night. The kids avoid Pottawattomie Park, just outside their school's front door, because of the gangs hanging out there. Recently, a woman was lurking around the school handing out fliers to the teen girls, trying to entice them into sex work, with a phone number to call.
But rather than fear their community, the teens are trying to change it. For the second year in a row, they are hosting a party with a straightforward and time-tested goal: peace. A student-organized party informally called the "peace event,'' will be held on the streets around the school and part of Pottawattomie Park on Saturday, and the students are hoping the whole neighborhood will come.
Tags:
10-15, 15-19, community involvement, CPS, female, female, gang violence, gun violence, Jordan elementary, North Side, rogers park, school violence, street violence, violence prevention, youth voices
Success ‘up to you,’ teens told
May 08, 2010 - no commentsWhen Dorian Boyland was growing up in South Shore, he joined a gang, the former Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player turned multimillionaire auto dealer confessed.
Seeing he was headed for trouble, his single mother sent him away to live with his grandmother.
Tags:
15-19, African American, church involvement, corporate involvement, CPS, drugs, gang violence, morgan park high school, murder, robeson high school, street violence, youth voices
Illinois Youth Town Hall focuses on reducing violence
April 28, 2010 - 1 CommentThe Illinois Youth Town Hall, co-sponsored by the Roosevelt Institute and the Leaders Investing For Equality campaign, attracted about 400 students from Chicago area universities and high schools, including 40 Northwestern students.
Tags:
10-15, 15-19, 19-24, academia involvement, Albany park, Chicago, community involvement, CPS, dyett high school, gang violence, government involvement, northwestern university, november 2009, roosevelt institute, the daily northwestern, youth voices
The Power of Words
April 21, 2010 - no commentsTamara Lynch didn't perform in a local poetry slam contest last Wednesday for the money or the guaranteed job offered at a West Side McDonald¡¦s restaurant.
The Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy student did it because she enjoys writing poetry.
Tags:
15-19, African American, Austin, Austin Weekly News, Chicago, chicago suburbs, community involvement, CPS, december 2009, East Garfield, gang violence, urban prep charted academy for young men, west side, youth voices
Reforming the American Gangster
April 09, 2010 - no commentsRick Ross and Frank Lucas, two of the most notorious former drug dealers in America, told Chicago youth to stay in school and ignore hustlers on the corner block to avoid the perils of prison and lead a righteously successful life.
Both Mr. Lucas, who is wheelchair-bound, and Mr. Ross, fresh out of prison, were both featured in the BET series, “American Gangster,” but they told their own stories during the “Redefining the American Gangster” seminar during the Nation of Islam's Saviours' Day Convention.
Tags:
15-19, African American, church involvement, drugs, female, finalcall.com, gang violence, male, march 2010, youth voices
Teens see little progress in effort to stop gun violence
March 01, 2010 - 1 CommentThe UCAN teen gun survey this year shows 26 percent of nearly 700 teens questioned know someone who was shot. That number goes up to more than 40 percent when answered by African-Americans. Thirty-three percent fear being shot and one-third of teens questioned are afraid they themselves will be shot.
Tags:
15-19, ABC local, African American, CPS, government involvement, gun violence, male, march 2010, murder, street violence, west side, youth voices
Juvenile Probation-A Day on the Front Lines
February 26, 2010 - no commentsRodney Purdy is a Cook County Juvenile Probation officer. His job kicks in after a young person is found delinquent, or guilty, by a judge. Probation officers, or P.O.s, are, in a way, the eyes and ears of the court, making sure the kid follows through on the judge’s orders. Maybe to go through drug rehab or do community service or attend anger management class. The P.O is supposed to make sure the young person’s getting what’s needed, to stay out of prison and get a new footing in life.
Tags:
15-19, 848, African American, Chicago, CPS, criminal charges, drugs, Englewood, female, gang violence, government involvement, gun violence, january 2010, male, NPR, police involvement, poverty, prison industrial complex, roseland, school violence, south side, youth voices