Institute for Nonviolence Chicago

09/27/2025

📣Exciting News! 🌟 Institute for Nonviolence Chicago now offers SMS messaging!
Get exclusive updates on Chicago's impact and public safety strategy, event info, and more. Sign up to receive text messaging today: http://eepurl.com/dcSlqn

(Don't worry, we won't spam you. Critical info only 😉)

09/25/2025

🎉Congratulations to Teny Gross, Shay Knox and Alphonso Prater of Institute for Nonviolence Chicago for their awards at the Trajectory Changing Solutions’ first annual TCS Impact Celebration on September 18.

This special celebration honored individuals who have made powerful contributions to advancing the Community Violence Intervention field and transforming communities locally and beyond. It also marked the official ribbon cutting of the new TCS Innovation Center, a hub for solutions, collaboration, and change.

Shay received the Local Hero award for her focused impact supporting the Back of the Yards neighborhood while Teny and Alphonso both received the Trajectory Changer award for their steadfast commitment to advancing CVI efforts in Chicago resulting in lifetime achievements toward healing, safety and justice.

Congratulations to all the honorees!!! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

09/24/2025

Last week, our Associate Director of Reentry & Support Services and soon-to-be graduate, Les Jenkins, spent a week in LA learning from other leaders. Les will take what he learned to help shape the future of CVI in Chicago. 💪🏽

09/23/2025

Another Austin P.O.W.E.R. 5k is in the books! We had a blast celebrating community and raising health awareness with our Austin friends and neighbors.

This year marked 10 years of movement, community, and empowerment! 🏃🏽‍♂️ The Austin POWER 5K isn’t just a race; it’s a tradition. A place where generations come together to walk, run, and move in unity.

We ❤️ Austin!

09/23/2025

The 4th cohort of the Chicago Crime Lab’s Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy ( ) is set to graduate this November in Atlanta and will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the field.

Institute for Nonviolence Chicago's Les Jenkins is one of the 32 graduates.

Over the course of several months, members of the cohort strengthened their leadership and management skills, providing them with more tools to effectively guide their respective organizations and support their mission to end gun violence.

Professionalizing the field and developing its future leaders will help ensure CVI remains a permanent feature of our public safety strategy.

Communities Partnering 4 Peace - CP4P

09/22/2025

🍂Happy First Day of Fall! 🍁 Before we celebrate everything pumpkin-spiced, let's celebrate Chicago's least violence summer in 60 years! ☮️❤️
While we still lost too many lives to senseless gun violence, and we know there is much work to be done to make Chicago a safer city, a WBEZ analysis found summer 2025 saw the fewest homicides in Chicago in 60 years, while overall violent crime remained near its lowest point in at least four decades.
https://www.wbez.org/news/2025/09/03/chicago-sees-its-fewest-summer-murders-since-1965
Thanks to everyone for playing their part, including the dedicated frontline workers, Peacekeepers, law enforcement, as well as the philanthropic and business communities and all the elected officials who have supported CVI as part of Chicago's public safety strategy! 🙌🏽

Communities Partnering 4 Peace - CP4P Metropolitan Peace Initiatives Chicago CRED BUILD Chicago Together Chicago UCAN ALSO (Alliance of Local Service Organizations) Breakthrough Urban Ministries New Life Centers Metropolitan Peace Academy

The Chicago Police Department’s criminal homicide tally for June, July and August is the lowest in 60 years. And overall violent crime remains near its lowest point in more than four decades.

09/19/2025

YOU ARE AN INFLUENCER! SHARE THIS POST. ❤️
You already support our mission for peace. Now share our profile with your followers to help us build the and make the city safer for us all.

By building awareness of our community-led approach to reduce and prevent violence, we can help make a permanent feature of Chicago's public safety strategy. You can help us save lives and end the cycle of gun violence.

SHARE NOW and tell your followers why you support Institute for Nonviolence Chicago!

09/18/2025

Thanks to everyone for coming out to our Ice Cream Social last week.🍦 It was great meeting new people and discussing as part of our public safety strategy. CEO Teny Gross and some of our street outreach team shared sweet treats with local residents in Oak Park.

Special thanks to Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation and Rep. La Shawn K Ford for sponsoring and to and for providing the ice cream!

09/17/2025

Sam Castro knows "those closest to the fires should have a say so on what we do" as a solution.

Men and women from the communities, who may have been a former driver of violence, should have a chance to rebuild their communities. They know the people in the community and can best establish nonaggression and peace agreements.

Since they are members of the communities they serve, they deeply understand street dynamics and build genuine trust with at-risk individuals, ultimately guiding them toward nonviolence.

Learn more at https://www.nonviolencechicago.org/preventingviolence

Communities Partnering 4 Peace - CP4P Metropolitan Peace Initiatives

09/16/2025

HIGHER LEARNING = LOWER CRIME

Chicago’s Equity Dashboard shows that Black and Latino Chicagoans hold fewer degrees than their white counterparts. In Austin, West Garfield Park, and Back of the Yards where Institute for Nonviolence Chicago serves, those rates are even lower due to years of disinvestment.

But data shows that more degrees = safer communities.
People with a Bachelor’s degree are 5x less likely to be incarcerated.

That’s why we partner with College Unbound so our team can earn their college degree while still working full-time. We’re turning life experience into a degree and using it to fight gun violence head on.

We’re proud to support over 20 staff members currently enrolled in the program.

We’re investing in our staff to make Chicago safer for everyone.

Special thanks to Terrance Lee and Fox 32 Chicago for highlighting our graduates and sharing this story of hope, hard work, and dedication.
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1708029

In some Chicago communities, fewer than one in ten people graduate from college. Now, a program is helping local leaders turn their life experience into a degree and using it to fight gun violence head on.

09/12/2025

We're excited to support Pride & Power!❤️
We invite you and your family to march with Metropolitan Family Services, Communities Partnering 4 Peace - CP4P, Metropolitan Peace Initiatives and our partners in solidarity with all our neighbors.

New Life Centers

09/12/2025

We want to thank Governor JB Pritzker for visiting with our team and community partners today. It’s imperative to have government leaders who take the time to understand what’s happening on the ground in our neighborhoods. Thank you, Governor, for your attention and investment, alongside our local elected leaders, in community-driven solutions to public safety.

Ald. Emma Mitts, Quiwana Bell
BUILD Chicago Together Chicago Westside Health Authority

Communities Partnering 4 Peace - CP4P