Southland RISE supports programs to help communities prevent violence
Through music, boxing, gardening, storytelling and even beekeeping, grassroots organizations on Chicago’s South Side are finding creative and constructive ways to keep young people engaged and safe during the summer months — an especially critical time when students are out of school and need access to safe venues and activities.
To support these efforts, the newly formed Southland RISE (Resilience Initiative to Strengthen and Empower) collaborative awarded $100,000 in grant funding for 14 communitybased organizations to support their summer violence prevention and recovery programs.
Launched in April, Southland RISE is powered by Hyde Parkbased UChicago Medicine and Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The two medical centers are strengthening and integrating existing violence recovery and trauma care services throughout the South Side and across the south suburbs.
The 2019 grant awardees are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations that operate or deliver services within the areas served by UChicago Medicine and Advocate Christ Medical Center.
“Through Southland RISE, we are building upon UChicago Medicine’s established grant program to support even more organizations and serve more young people with vital summer programming designed to keep them safe,” said Brenda Battle, vice president of UChicago
Medicine’s Urban Health Initiative and chief diversity and inclusion officer.
Past recipients used the grants to build the capacity of their summer violence prevention and recovery programs. Some were able to hire more counselors, while others bought new equipment or expanded their programming to include more participants.
Two-time grant recipient Chicago Eco House used last year’s funding to transform vacant lots into vegetable gardens and flower farms in West Woodlawn. This year, the group is installing beehives and training its teen participants in beekeeping.
“We’re teaching kids that it’s possible to turn something that looks like nothing into something that’s positive and is a viable asset,” said Quilen Blackwell, the group’s executive director. “This grant and partnership enable it to happen.”
Southland RISE was formed in response to Chicago HEAL — Hospital Engagement, Action and Leadership — an initiative launched by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL, in October to urge health care providers on the city’s South and West Sides to bolster their efforts to help reduce violence and address health care needs associated with violence recovery. The issue has been particularly acute in Chicago, where police data show more than 560 residents were killed and nearly 3,000 were injured as a result of gun violence in 2018.
Caring for a combined 6,600 adult trauma patients in 2018, UChicago Medicine and Advocate Christ Medical Center house two of the busiest trauma centers in the Chicago area — treating patients from communities on the South Side and south suburbs. Both provide a suite of violence recovery services to help patients and their families with immediate and long-term needs in managing the physical and mental health effects of trauma from intentional violence.