Rep. Greg Harris • 13th District
District Update • November 2, 2021
A New Approach to Preventing Gun Violence
Yesterday, I joined Governor JB Pritzker, Speaker Welch, Mayor Lightfoot and County Board President Toni Preckwinkle as the Governor signed an order declaring gun violence a public health crisis and announced the Reimagine Public Safety plan, a fresh approach to preventing gun violence in Illinois. This new initiative opens a vast array of resources both short term to address conflicts happening in our neighborhoods now, and long term to address root causes of violence and bring systemic change.
Short term, we are immediately providing resources to communities with high rates of shootings and violence, to interrupt violence using proven data-driven and community-based tactics. Long term, we are investing in trauma-informed mental health and substance abuse services, job training, after-school and positive alternative programming, and mentoring targeted for youth who are at high risk of involvement in violence.
With gun violence rising both in Chicago and across Illinois, a more comprehensive public safety plan is needed to stop the shootings and to keep our communities safe. We need every tool at our disposal to stop the violence. The recently passed Reimagine Public Safety Act (found starting on page 812) and trailer bill, which I sponsored along with Rep. Justin Slaughter, Sen. Robert Peters and Sen. Elgie Sims, puts this plan into action.
The Reimagine Public Safety plan calls for a record $250 million investment in community based violence prevention, youth development, and trauma recovery services. Funding will be prioritized to communities within Chicago, and towns in other parts of Illinois that are suffering from high rates of current and emerging violence. This will bring critical resources to help support on-the-ground organizations doing the hard, life-risking work to actively disrupt conflict and put people on a better pathway in life.
With the Governor’s declaration, we can now leverage public health resources and deliver a whole-of-government response, bringing in federal, county and municipal partners. To help develop and implement these strategies, the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention has been established within the Illinois Department of Human Services. Governor Pritzker has appointed Chris Patterson, a community organizer who has led successful grassroots gun violence prevention efforts for over a decade, to lead this new office.
These steps lay the foundation for our work in the coming weeks and months to prevent gun violence in our communities. We will continue to develop a strategy that not only helps prevent the acute violence on our streets today, but also addresses the root causes such as economic disinvestment, systemic racism and inequity to build a safer and more just community.
Please share any questions or comments you might have by contacting our office at (773) 348-3434 or emailing me at greg@gregharris.org.