CeaseFire Kicks Off Week-Long Festivities To Promote Peace

Hundreds of motorcyclists gathered in Chicago’s Englewood community Sunday to help kick-off CeaseFire Week, June 14 – 20, setting the tone for a violent-free summer in the city.

Community partners and local, elected officials joined CeaseFire representatives to launch the week’s festivities with a Ride for Peace motorcycle parade, which began in Englewood on the Southwest side of Chicago and ended in Ogden Park.

Tio Hardiman, director of CeaseFire Illinois, said the annual festivities will unite residents.

“CeaseFire Week is not only about saving lives, it’s about saving entire communities,” he said.

CeaseFire began in 1995 as a public health approach to treating violence, when Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, saw violence as a disease transmitted from person to person, like an epidemic. Since then, the community has embraced CeaseFire’s scientifically proven methods. Activities through Saturday will include a soccer tournament in Cicero, coordinated by Corazon Community Services; the Alliance of Local Service Organization’s bicycle peace ride in Logan Square and Humboldt Park; and a peace festival in the Austin community.

Hardiman said he hopes these programs will also increase awareness of CeaseFire’s mission and encourage a summer that is free of aggression.

“CeaseFire Week celebrates peace, life and promotes the thought that violence is not an intractable problem - that we can do something about it. This year we are emphasizing the need for coverage in communities that are plagued with violence where CeaseFire does not operate. Now that school is out, and warmer weather is here, our work to stop the shootings is more critical than ever,” Hardiman said.

CeaseFire covers only 25 percent of the most violent areas of Chicago. Last month the program’s community partners urged legislators to provide consistent, state funding to help keep the scientifically-proven public health program in Illinois’ most vulnerable communities.

“We encourage community residents to join us as we take our neighborhoods back and send a strong message of unity, peace and support for a health approach that is proven to reduce shootings and killing,” Hardiman said.

A three-year independent evaluation by the Department of Justice on CeaseFire’s impact found communities in CeaseFire zones had 16-28 percent fewer shootings and attempted shootings than comparable communities without the program.

The CeaseFire Week celebrations will end with a neighborhood peace festival on Saturday, June 20 in Kells Park, 3201 W. Chicago.