CeaseFire Receives $400,000 for Anti-Violence Work on Chicago’s West Side

The U.S. Department of Justice has awarded two grants to CeaseFire to continue its violence intervention work in Chicago’s West Garfield Park and West Humboldt Park neighborhoods.

The grants from the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the Department of Justice total $400,000 and will allow CeaseFire, based at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health, to keep workers on the street to intervene and mediate conflicts and to stop shootings and killings.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Chicago) expressed strong support for CeaseFire as an integral part of a comprehensive strategy to stop violence, especially shootings, in Chicago and elsewhere.

“In recent months, the Chicago area has seen an alarming increase in gang-related shootings and violence. Half of all homicides in Chicago have been linked to gangs,” Durbin said. “We must continue to fight gang violence through a comprehensive strategy that prioritizes gang enforcement, prevention and intervention measures. Today’s grant for the CeaseFire program will help strengthen the overall effort to reduce gang violence in the region."

“CeaseFire is an evidence-based program that really works, and we’re very pleased to see that the Justice Department is responding by providing some resources to work with it,” Davis said.

A recent three-year evaluation of CeaseFire, commissioned by the Department of Justice, validated the CeaseFire model as an intervention that reduces shooting and killings and makes communities safer. The report, led by Wesley Skogan of Northwestern University, found the program to be “effective,” with “significant” and “moderate-to-large impact,” and with effects that are “immediate.”

Dr. Gary Slutkin, professor of epidemiology at UIC’s School of Public Health and executive director of the Chicago Project for Violence prevention, which runs CeaseFire, expressed his gratitude for the continued support of the Department of Justice to help stop shootings and killings in Chicago.

“With this federal support, we are able to maintain the CeaseFire model on Chicago’s West Side and demonstrate the effectiveness of this public health approach to reducing violence,” Slutkin said. “Communities throughout Chicago and Illinois are grateful to Senator Durbin and Congressman Davis for their critical support of this effort and their commitment to making neighborhoods safer.”

Cease Fire violence intervention