Community Violence Intervention
moderated by Vaughn Bryant, MPI Executive Director
Jesus Salazar, Angela Hurlock and Soledad Adrianzén McGrath
Tuesday, Oct 31, 2023
Doors Open at 11:30 am / Event Begins at 12:00 pm
Location
Maggiano's Banquets
111 W. Grand Avenue
Chicago, IL 60654
Map and directions
Community Violence Intervention: How the Metropolitan Peace Initiatives are Saving Lives and Reducing Gun Violence in Chicago’s Highest Risk Neighborhoods
The Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI), a division of Metropolitan Family Services, convenes Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), a unique network of 13 community-based organizations focused on reducing gun violence in 27 of Chicago’s highest-risk neighborhoods.
Join us to hear how MPI and CP4P’s work is saving lives and reducing gun violence in Chicago’s highest risk neighborhoods, from a panel featuring Jesus Salazar, Senior Field Manager at the Metropolitan Peace Initiatives; Angela Hurlock, CEO of Claretian Associates; Soledad Adrianzén McGrath, Research Professor of Northwestern University’s Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science (CORNERS); and moderator Vaughn Bryant, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Peace Initiatives.
Speakers
Vaughn Bryant
Vaughn Bryant is Executive Director of Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI), a division of Metropolitan Family Services which features a team of professionals working in partnership with community-based and citywide organizations to coordinate, support and sustain comprehensive services designed to heal communities that have experienced the highest levels of gun violence. Core specialties include the Metropolitan Peace Academy, behavioral health, workforce readiness, legal aid and street outreach supervision.
Metropolitan Peace Initiatives emerged from and supports Communities Partnering 4
Peace (CP4P), an unprecedented partnership of leading outreach and restorative justice organizations that are reducing gun violence in Chicago with a comprehensive, evidence- based, trauma-informed approach. Convened by Metropolitan Family Services and working with police as well as the private and public sectors, CP4P is a coordinated response to the public health crisis that is gun violence. CP4P has expanded to include 15 organizations serving 21 communities. Since CP4P’s launch in April 2016, Bryant has led CP4P to provide case management, re-entry and victim assistance services to more than 3,000 individuals, host 1,636 Light in the Night (LIN) events, and mediate 2,177 violent incidents in key communities.
Bryant previously held leadership roles with the Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Schools (where he developed the “Safe Passage” program), the NFL and Stanford University. He also was a former fourth-round draft choice of the Detroit Lions, a three-year starter, and a two time All-Pac-10 selection at Stanford, and a 1994 inductee into the Detroit Catholic League Hall of Fame.
A graduate of Leadership Greater Chicago, Bryant serves on the National Advisory Board of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University and on various committees with the Chicago Community Trust. He is also a board member for the Positive Coaching Alliance – Chicago.
Bryant has a BA in Sociology from Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in Marital and Family Therapy from Northwestern University.
Soledad Adrianzén McGrath
Soledad Adrianzén McGrath, JD, is a Research Professor at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research, and Executive Director of CORNERS: the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science, a university-based research center conducting cutting-edge research into the ways that Neighborhood Sciencecan be used to understand and address gun violence and other pressing social issues. CORNERS’ research illustrates how social relationships shape what happens across entire communities, and how the power of networks can be leveraged to improve health and safety for more equitable neighborhoods. As a lawyer and policy researcher, Ms. McGrath has extensive experience in supporting and advancing various justice reform efforts, and in policy and legislative advocacy. She is committed to improving community health and well-being by building community and organizational partnerships and translating research into concrete policy solutions. Ms. McGrath earned her BA from Northwestern University and her JD from Emory University.
Angela Hurlock
As Executive Director of Claretian Associates, Angela Hurlock is dedicated to building a sense of family among those who reside within the organization’s four housing developments in the South Chicago neighborhood. Claretian Associates is a community development corporation that has dedicated almost 30 years to providing affordable, safe and environmentally efficient housing to the residents of South Chicago.
Prior to assuming the position of Executive Director, Angela held the position of Senior Director of Real Estate Development for Bethel New Life, a nonprofit serving Chicago’s West Side. Under her tenure, the organization was able to provide families at or below 50%AMI with affordable transit-oriented housing opportunities and employment resources while reviving the community area through economic development.
Subsequently, Angela began leading the work of Claretian Associates which is centered on working with local schools, churches, and other organizations to build up services and resources for low-income and homeless families in South Chicago. Angela’s expertise has significantly enhanced the quality of life for South Chicago residents.
Her accomplishments have also garnered considerable recognition. Selected honors and appointments include: Citizen of the Year by the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, inaugural fellow with the University of Chicago's Civic Leadership Academy, and appointed by Mayor Lightfoot to Chair the Chicago Housing Authority.
Over the course of her career, Angela has also been asked to speak on numerous occasions about her work, including at the Aspen Institute, Leadership Seminar on Racial Equity & Society- Roundtable on Community Change and at the 2018 Global Diplomacy Lab (BMW Foundation) convening in Berlin Germany and Chicago.
Jesus Salazar
Jesus Salazar is a Senior Field Manager for the Metropolitan Peace Academy (MPA), the Metropolitan Peace Initiatives’ (MPI) multi-disciplinary training platform designed to professionalize and strengthen the fields of street outreach and community violence intervention.
A lifelong resident of the Little Village community of Chicago, Salazar has a background and education in nonprofit work, violence prevention and organizing throughout the Little Village community.
He started his work with Cure Violence in 2011 and graduated from the Metropolitan Peace Academy in 2018.
He has created programs like the Graffiti to Mural Project where the focus was to engage young men and women in covering gang graffiti in areas of conflict; and Barrio Scholars, a program focused on enrolling young people into college. Salazar was also part of the Erase the Gang database campaign and worked to end environmental racism in Little Village.
Salazar has worked in bilingual communities as a Field Manager and transitioned to Senior Field Manager of the Metropolitan Peace Academy in 2023, where he facilitates and teaches curricula aimed at helping others become professional outreach workers.
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