Champaign Community Coalition 3/13

The Champaign County Community Coalition (overview of this organization here) had its March Meeting yesterday. The room was full again and the facilitator, Tracy Parsons, explained that they were outgrowing the space at the Library and there would be more information on that next time. He did say that the April meeting will still be at the same place, however, at the end.

The "good news" highlights included Pius Weibel explaining the success of the Eastern Illinois Foodbank's "prom night" fundraising effort. From the facebook event page:

Abbie Osterbur and Jason Reda were crowned Prom Queen and King of the 2019 Prom Benefit for Eastern Illinois Foodbank! Congratulations to all of the court candidates! Thanks to the court, attendees, and sponsors, we raised more than $141,000. Official results still to come, but we know that translates to hundreds of thousands of meals to feed our neighbors in need.

Tracy Parsons highlighted Maurice Hayes, a local business owner who was formerly incarcerated for murder. He has become involved with the CU Fresh Start program, using his experiences to get through to kids and young men who are on a similar path. More on his story from WCCU here, including his work mentoring youth.

The local police chiefs went through the most recent shooting incidents, development of suspects, and arrests. The Street Crime Task Force was responsible for some of those arrests which included a situation with two juvenile arrests in a situation with multiple guns. Parsons highlighted the fact that no shots were fired and that nobody in the community wins with juveniles getting into shootouts. He also stressed that these are our kids and our families and not isolated cases in Chicago (a possible push back to myths that local violence is due to out of towners at a recent event). Since the last meeting Champaign had two incidents with shootings, Urbana had zero. The U of I police chief explained that "unofficial" St. Patrick's Day celebrations was becoming more of a non-event with a lot of student groups helping on top of continued city regulations. He also later highlighted a youth leadership camp later.

There was a presentation by the Youth Employment Services program supervisor, Jeanine Russell. The News-Gazette coverage of the meeting focused on the YES program in today's paper:

Director of Champaign's youth-employment program shares vision for expansion
Looking to expand on an already-successful initiative, Jeanine Russell shared her vision for Champaign's Youth Employment Services program with local leaders Wednesday.

Since 2011, the program — formerly known as the Summer Youth Employment Program — has provided hands-on work opportunities to Champaign school district students between the ages of 14 and 19. For six weeks during the summer, more than 100 students who qualify for free and reduced lunch are placed in jobs around the community and paid through the program. They're exposed to training, resume-building and workshops in an effort to better prepare them to find jobs outside of school, Russell said...

"As we get a chance to think about these things, we need to remember that their need for money is a whole other level than what we understand," Parsons said. "For a lot of them, in their family dynamics, the need for money is critical. Often, that money can make a difference between the students and their siblings eating or having access to other things. So we must continue thinking about how we strengthen these programs for our youth."

More at the full article here. Parsons mentioned a Summer Youth Employment Program and the Care 4 U program. Apparently there is a job fair coming up in April including opportunities for kids to practice the job interview process. He highlighted Champaign Chamber of Commerce stepping up to work with programs addressing the critical issue of youth employment here and health care providers working with programs for entry level jobs in health care (e.g. housekeeping).

There were updates by the Race Relations Subcommittee about more discussions in the community about race including youth (such as a Parkland event yesterday evening) and a future presentation in coordination with the woman who runs the African-American Cultural & Genealogical Society of Illinois Museum in Decatur (more on her story in the Decatur Herald & Review here).

The Gun Violence Subcommittee updates included information on the Trauma and Resiliency Initiative's upcoming events and efforts (click to enlarge):

More from the CU Child Abuse Awareness Month facebook page here and the Men, Boys, Violence and Trauma: A Summit eventbrite page.


Information Sharing by local organizations:

Mothers Demand Action highlighted their wear orange events in town and their work with the coalition, Truce and the CU Area Project, to reduce gun violence in the community. 

Kristin Walters from Illinois Public Media highlighted the Democracy in CU event today and stressed their efforts to work with the community to get information about candidates to voters and vice versa. An on-line survey is available for people who were unable to attend tonight's event.

Rattle the Stars highlighted their work in youth suicide prevention. They emphasized that self-destructive paths, such as gun violence, can be driven by the same factors that lead to suicide. Similar to suicide by cop, the phenomenon of "suicide by brother" was described as violent behavior that puts the youth in immediate danger of retaliation. They noted that mass shooters are often found to have had suicidal motivations as well.

The Champaign County Voters Alliance highlighted their efforts to get information out to voters (e.g. their candidate guide) on the current election (for which Early Voting has already begun) and highlighted their easy to remember website names: votecu.org or votechampaign.org. They can use all the help they can get for their non-partisan get out the vote efforts.

The Krannert Center highlighted its "50 years of Krannert" events. More information here.

The Disability Resource Expo was highlighted. Previous Cheat Sheet post on that event here.

A couple last minute highlights:

• A never-before-seen Aretha Franklin movie will be shown at Ebertfest.
• The University of Illinois Police Department highlighted its leadership camp.
• Parsons asked folks to "like" the Community Coalition on facebook.
• And a tutoring program at the Dublin Street Church of Christ in Urbana was mentioned. I wasn't able to hear the details, but I imagine more information is available at their number:     (217) 367-4867.