The MOCS team launched the “Take Back the Block” initiative this summer as part of a city-wide plan to energize and inspire residents, create prosocial opportunities, and directly connect communities with local government services and resources. We hosted 6 activations held on Fridays from July through September. Mayor Brandon Johnson and Deputy Mayor Garien Gatewood brought together community organizations, faith-based groups, businesses, alderpersons, and the full force of city government, all united in the mission to support communities impacted by summer violence. The Take Back the Block initiative successfully demonstrated the city’s unwavering commitment to community safety by creating tangible positive changes in neighborhoods experiencing violence. The initiative was about more than just addressing violence but also supporting residents with local resources while providing a safe space to connect with neighbors.

Developed and piloted a standard operating procedure from March 2024 to September 2024 for coordinating and activating resources in response to incidents of violence. This procedure sped up assistance to victims, including additional City departments and community stakeholders. Incident response protocol activates the full force of government to aid the community in healing during the aftermath of these tragic incidents. During this pilot, 40 incidents activated the protocol. All 40 incidents were given a coordinated response with victim services, mental health supports, street outreach, safe spaces, enhanced security and collaboration with city departments and agencies. The goal for 2025 is to expand incident response protocol to more city departments and agencies to further this coordination. ​

Convened leaders from City depts. & agencies 2x/month - far exceeding quarterly Consent Decree requirement - to collaborate on safety strategies; brought in community orgs to support communities' quality of life plans​

Hosted public quarterly meetings to share progress on PPCS and hear directly from residents. 

4 CBOs selected as community conveners to provide on-the-ground insights for hyperlocal approach

The Deputy Mayor of Community Safety and the First Deputy were invited to join a conversation as a leading city, with academic policy labs, data experts ad philanthropy about how to accelerate the use of data and evidence to prevent gun violence. Deputy Mayor Gatewood spoke about leveraging data for hyperlocal ​violence prevention strategies. Violence in Chicago is disproportionally concentrated on the South and West sides and even more concentrated to a small number of specific blocks​. Neighborhoods with the highest homicide rates experience ~30x more homicides than the neighborhoods with the lowest rates​. The People’s Plan for Community Safety launched by the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety used a people based and place-based strategy to interrupt violence and eradicate the root causes of harm. Combining data insights with community voice leads to impactful strategies.

The Victim/Survivors Pillar in the Peoples Plan of Community Safety is apart of people-based approach to community safety. One of the initiatives is to build capacity of quality trained victim advocates. The office of community safety led a team who created a robust cirrculum to train victim advocates in a standard of care. On Friday, December 20th, the 40 hour training was celebrated with a graduation hosted at Malcom X College Continued Education program. The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Mayor’s Office for Community Safety (MOCS) held the graduation of the first cohort from its Victim Advocates training pilot program. The program underlines the city’s commitment to supporting survivors of violent crime. The comprehensive training curriculum provides participants with the essential knowledge and skills needed to effectively support and empower survivors of violent crime throughout Chicago. By focusing on a trauma-informed approach, the program ensures that advocates are well-equipped to address the unique challenges survivors face.  

Chicago’s lawsuit vs. Glock is aggressive step against gun violence