Business leaders who are plunging more than $100 million into fighting Chicago violence are unveiling a new method to gauge the impact of their investments.
The Chicago Public Safety DataHub, developed by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the University of Chicago, will track the most recent data on violent crime in Chicago and allow users to compare it to public safety data of other major cities. The DataHub will also measure the effectiveness of the Civic Committee’s investments in local Community Violence Intervention initiatives.
Some experts credit community intervention with the reduction of violent crime that Chicago has seen this year. This dip coincides with the Trump administration’s recent move to slash federal funding to violence reduction organizations across the nation.
The Civic Committee believes that investing in intervention, in which people with deep ties to their neighborhoods mediate conflicts and try and steer young people away from crime, will help them reach their goal of reducing violent crime in Chicago by 80% by 2034.
“That’s our North Star goal,” said Robert Boik, the Civic Committee’s senior vice president of public safety. “But we’re not the only ones. It takes everybody … rowing in the same direction to achieve sustained violence reduction over time,”
The Civic Committee is investing $100 million in scaling up Community Violence Intervention in North Lawndale, Austin, Humboldt Park and Little Village.
Community Violence Intervention is a public health approach to reducing violence. It addresses the root causes of violence by focusing on helping the small group of people who are at the highest risk of being victims or perpetrators of crime.
The DataHub will track the number of high-risk participants the Civic Committee is reaching through its investments in order to gauge whether the initiative is working, said Boik.
“What we are investing in is an experiment to take CVI to scale in a number of neighborhoods,” Boik said. “We’re talking about making investments that further professionalize the CVI infrastructure in Chicago. What we’re going to be doing over time is measure the level of impact that CVI actually has on crime reduction.”
Boik said they’re also working with multiple institutions to create more jobs for South and West side residents.
The Civic Committee is allocating $25 million towards supporting those placements, Boik said.
The DataHub will track how many individuals from the Civic Committee’s target communities get hired and retained through this initiative.
The Civic Committee plans to dole out another $20 million towards projects that would support improvements to the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.