Town hall hears county’s diverse approach to fighting gun violence

Lake County criminal justice leaders described a multi-faceted approach to stemming gun violence in a town hall meeting this week with residents from Highland Park and surrounding communities.

Representatives from the state’s attorney’s Gun Violence Prevention Initiative described what they called a “trauma-informed approach” to gun violence prevention, using a puzzle-piece graphic that displayed all sectors of their program, including schools, restorative justice, services and violence interruption.

“What's being experienced here in Highland Park may be different than what is being felt and experienced by the residents in North Chicago,” said Sandra Bankston, who leads victim services for GVPI. “So I'm not going to take an approach with you as a resident of Highland Park in the same way I work with North Chicago if you're saying something totally different than what the person in North Chicago has said.”

The distinctions in fighting gun crime, however, were not so strong. Other unit leaders went on to describe efforts that were largely similar among various communities.

Trey Baker, the youth outreach coordinator for GVPI, said the “overall mission with our school partnerships is engaging with youth by meeting them where they are, providing mentorship services and facilitating narrative changing practices to cultivate the entire child's identity, meaning exposing them and giving them opportunities to understand who they are for who they are.”

Jacoby explained that the restorative justice aspect of the program attempts to reframe the idea of accountability from punishment to prevention and support, because they believe that investment is critical to reducing gun violence in the future, rather than perpetuating a cycle of imprisonment and recidivism where those convicted never get the resources to grow.

The initiative also includes community partners, including courts, law enforcement, community-based organizations, hospitals, faith-based organizations and more. GVPI believes it is going to take every sector of the community to come together to strive for gun prevention, according to Jacoby.

Rachel Jacoby, GVPI’s gun prevention specialist, said that 2023 saw a 50% decline in firearm homicides in Lake County compared to 2022. She attributed much of this to the work of the Lake County Peacemakers, a community violence interruptor program that does on the ground work in the county.

Sean Lewis, program manager of the Peacemakers, spoke about that group’s direct efforts to stop gun violence from its root causes. He said the team members are often patrolling neighborhoods until one or two in the morning, talking someone through an issue or a family crisis, and giving them resources and opportunities they would not have access to otherwise, in order to divert them from turning to violent outlets.

“A lot of things that we're going through right now is getting everybody on the streets to believe in themselves. It gets people to get back into literacy programs, (help) people that's out here get a better job because it's hard out here,” Lewis said. “You're making a minimum wage; you can't pay you can't really pay anything. They have families; they have kids that might want that want to have a good Christmas. So we might be able to refer them to a Toys for Tots or someone who might want to just be able to get our information so they can get that job.”

Many of the Lake County Peacemakers grew up in Waukegan, Zion, North Chicago and parts of Chicago, where violence and gun culture was more common, often handling guns at ages as young as 13, the representatives said. Their traumatic experiences inspired them to create better opportunities for those who are from their backgrounds, they said.

Jacoby presented the initiative’s newest puzzle piece, extreme risk, which aims to reduce homicides, suicides and incidental shootings by restricting access to firearms by children and individuals who may harm themselves or others, through firearm restraining orders and teaching safe firearm storage.

After the main presentation, the leaders split the town hall up into six smaller listening sessions, where each GVPI leader led smaller discussions to gain community input on what residents what gun violence prevention, asking questions about gun violence in the residents’ communities and what they envisioned an ideal society to look like. The leaders told the residents they would remain anonymous to encourage full participation.

Residents of Gurnee, Highland Park and Chicago’s south side were on hand and cited different attitudes toward guns make it a challenge to hold productive conversations about gun violence when attempting gun prevention initiatives.. A Highland Park woman said she believes that increasing people’s opportunities will decrease gun violence. She emphasized the importance of education and environmental sustainability, claiming holistic thinking would be more productive rather than isolating issues.

GVPI launched in 2021 to address gun violence in Lake County, primarily in Waukegan, Zion and North Chicago, which have the highest gun violence rates in Lake County, seeing 77% of the county’s average homicides, according to the GVPI town hall presentation.

The town hall was the initiative’s fourth meeting in a series of five, hosted in Waukegan, Zion, North Chicago and the last one will be in Vernon Hills on Thursday, January 18.