Champaign County Community Coalition in 2019

The first meeting of the Champaign County Community Coalition this year had a packed house with representatives from community organizations, local government liaisons, police department chiefs and other representatives all in one place to collaborate on needs and services for the community. Tracy Parsons, the group and meeting facilitator, described the full crowd going into the new year as humbling. He and one of the police chiefs pointed out that there is interest in other Illinois communities to build similar coalitions. Parsons noted that the willingness of local law enforcement agencies to come to the table is a blessing and key to building a coalition.


Police Chiefs Updates:

The Police Chiefs Updates included gun violence events since the last meeting throughout the area as well as a rundown of 2018's final tally including the Christmas Eve shootings and the rest of December. Total gun violence incidents were 116 with 76 in Champaign, 32 in Urbana, 0 on campus and 8 in the surrounding County jurisdiction. Urbana Police broke down their numbers to show that of the 32 shooting events, there were 9 victims, and 2 of those had died. There had also been a shooting event shortly after midnight in the new year which appeared to be "celebratory" gunfire according to a preliminary investigation.

Both police and anti-violence organization members emphasized the need for outreach to and from the community to both prevent violence but also to help solve and prosecute violent crimes. Working through the very real issues of trust and mistrust between the community and law enforcement continues to be central goal of the coalition going forward.


Organization Updates and Presentations:

The CU Trauma and Resiliency Initiative highlighted their "resiliency rocks" project to raise awareness in the community on the need to address trauma and its ripple effect through our lives. They pointed out that "'hurt people' hurt people." The art project involves painting literal rocks that encourage social media sharing and participation to spread awareness. They have a toolkit for groups interested in participating in the project that has already launched and will continue throughout the year. They're also looking for people interested in donating toolkit supplies and volunteers to work on outreach.

CU Fresh Start gave a brief synopsis of the three men they're working with right now in housing transition. She pointed out the extreme hurdles involved with people reentering from the criminal justice system, especially for housing. They're establishing a Resource Committee towards navigating them to that end.

A crisis plan is being worked on by the gun violence subcommittee of the the Community Coalition. As a community we have plans for fires and tornadoes and other tragedies, but the chaotic aftermath of gun violence still results in uncoordinated needs for trauma care, counseling, up to and including opposing gangs fighting in emergency rooms while health care providers desperately try to save lives. But it also includes a need to interrupt patterns of retaliation and community intervention to tamp down on the multiplicative effect that can have.

There's another training for the community Peace Keepers and Violence Interrupters to train to become involved in that process on January 25 and 26th. It appears to be a followup to the December Training led by Tio Hardiman, the former Ceasefire director, that was covered last month here. More details on the upcoming training soon. There was a question about funding from local government, but it was explained that funding isn't the primary hurdle (although more funding would also be helpful), but at issue is the community's will. Another question on ER safety issues elicited an explanation of the National Hospital Interrupter Model being implemented with Carle Hospital and the hope that similar models could be used in Champaign Schools as well.

Laura Weis, from the Champaign Chamber of Commerce, highlighted the upcoming "I Read, I Count" program they're supporting to improve education outcomes in Champaign by helping students become proficient readers. They're looking for volunteers who would work one hour a week with kids for 11 weeks to help kids learn critical skills from a curriculum that may seem basic, but can make a world of difference for struggling kids. She explained that they're starting with four pilot schools on reading skills and hope to expand to more schools and math skills in the future. She pointed out there will be additional information on the Chamber website in the coming days.

The Young Adult Reentry Program at the Regional Planning Commission presented and overview of their new program targeting 18-24 year olds reentering from the criminal justice system in high crime and high poverty areas of Champaign County including Champaign-Urbana, but several surrounding communities. A quick overview is available in a PDF brochure here as well as more information on the grant from the RPC website here.

The Youth Assessment Center through the RPC also gave an update about its new location and an overview of Moral Reconation Therapy which "rewires" the brain to take responsibility for ones actions and to make moral decisions instead of selfish ones. It's common enough that you'll see the MRT acronym thrown around in a lot of programs dealing with reentry and treatment needs in relation to recidivism.

CU One to One Mentoring is looking for mentors to be matched with a large stack of available mentee applications. January is National Mentoring Month and there are upcoming training opporturnities for interested mentors at the end of this month and the beginning of February. There is an additional shortage of male mentors if you know anyone who might be great at it who could use the nudge. This program goes through the school system so the time commitment is during the week on school days and roughly an hour weekly.

There are a full week of Martin Luther King Day events announced including a countywide celebration event and unity breakfast at the Urbana Vineyard church. There are a couple upcoming events at Krannert. There are also other activities like the Day of Service on campus, "walking the talk" campus event on the 23rd (see calendar), and a poverty simulation event.

There was more that I'm sure I missed and endless opportunities to connect and collaborate as usual. If you're looking to get involved in some of the more critical work to make our community a better and safer place for everyone, there are more opportunities than volunteers. Even some of the smallest commitments can change lives for the better when we work together.