Investing in Youth Leadership Development is Essential for Community Safety

Safe spaces allow hope to thrive, visions to be realized, and youth to find their voices. Whether it is young women learning about media literacy and how to use the tools within reach to tell the stories of their community with integrity or young men becoming change agents through self-discovery, mentorship, and travel, safe spaces are the soil in which youth leadership is fertilized. 

In Chicago and across the country, there is no shortage of research and opinions on what is needed to make communities safer and reduce violence. The efforts are comprehensive and coordinated, and private and philanthropic funding has grown.  

The Chicago Community Trust and more than 50 other foundations have worked in coalition through the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC) to identify and support community-led, evidence-based solutions that the public sector can scale as part of a comprehensive approach. We understand that violence is both a symptom and an outcome of years of discrimination and disinvestment in communities. 

The overall integrated strategy of the Trust to close the racial and ethnic wealth gap works collectively to create safer communities by addressing critical needs, building collective power, catalyzing neighborhood investment, growing household wealth, and advocating for policy change. Both PSPC and the Trust recognize that this is long-term work that must be sustained. Generations of disinvestment in communities mean that a generational approach to community safety is also necessary.  

Recently, the Trust made grants totaling $450,000 to Elevate Community Leaders on the South and West sides of the city, understanding that community residents are the greatest assets of any neighborhood and that those who are closest to the issues must have a role in the solutions of preventing violence. Funding organizations that are building the next generation of leaders provides opportunities for expansion and sustainability in creating safe spaces for youth and reducing violence.  

The Trust believes that supporting grassroots organizations and young adult leaders equips the next generation to become problem solvers for issues that directly affect them. This community-led approach builds on the proven model of the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities and provides additional support and capacity for select organizations throughout the year.   All of the Trust’s Elevate Community Leaders grant recipients also receive funding for summer activities via the Chicago Fund. 

The organizations provide youth and young adult leadership development through a variety of avenues: sports, art and music, design, digital media, and more. Though there are different approaches, the commonality is that each program pairs youth and young adults with thoughtful mentors and leaders, authentic connections with family members, and opportunities to learn and grow in leadership.  

Here are some examples of Elevate Community Leaders grant recipients working to create the next generation of leaders:  

• Project OneTen works with three Chicago schools to engage and mentor Black and Latinx boys during the transition to high school by empowering them to recognize and develop their strengths, academic confidence, and innate brilliance. This program envisions these young men as leaders in their schools, their communities, and beyond.  
• Hood Heroes’ new Leadership in Training program provides work experience, character development, and community ownership for teens and young adults in Humboldt Park, Austin, West Garfield Park, West Pullman, Roseland, and North Lawndale. 
• LUV City focuses on the 25^th Ward, which includes Pilsen, West Loop, Tri-Taylor, McKinley Park, and Chinatown, by empowering youth to re-shape their narratives and be the authors of their futures through training and apprenticeships in filmmaking, multi-media production, and performing arts.  

Programs like these provide pathways for youth to use their voices and hone their skills as they embark on the journey of becoming change agents. Some youth will likely become civic leaders amongst their peers, and some may even go on to mentor others in hopes of helping light someone else’s path.  

Through intentional leadership development, young people are best positioned to tell the stories of their neighborhoods, create effective violence prevention strategies that target their social demographic, build safe spaces for others, and add to the fertilization of the next generation of leadership that succeeds them. This holistic approach is what we believe, over time, will make communities safer, especially with these young adults leading the way.