Education & Child Development
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago is a home rule unit of government pursuant to the 1970 Illinois Constitution, Article VII, Section. 6(a); and
WHEREAS, pursuant to its home rule power, the City of Chicago may exercise any power and perform any function relating to its government and affairs including the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; and
WHEREAS, the City has no greater duty than to protect and ensure the well-being of our children, as Frederick Douglass once said, "It is easier to raise strong children than to repair broken men;" and
WHEREAS, the City has seen an unacceptable degree of violence in our streets and in 2017 alone, 843 shooting victims were reported by the Chicago Tribune from January 1, 2017 to April 12, 2017; and
WHEREAS, the number of shooting victims alone is staggering, it does not represent the emotional distress and trauma experienced by the friends, family members, classmates, neighbors, and teachers of the victims; and
WHEREAS, there is a growing body of research on the psycho-social effects of violence in general and the impact on children in particular; and
WHEREAS, one in three children between the ages of 15 and 17 has lost a close friend or family member to violence and nearly one in five has witnessed a murder firsthand based on a 2013 study of Chicago communities impacted by violence; and
WHEREAS, a 2015 study from the Heartland Alliance documented the significant link between poverty, violence, and trauma, reinforcing the urgency of treating trauma and explaining how untreated trauma leads to more violence and poverty; and
WHEREAS, the University of Chicago Crime Lab evaluated the effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy and found a 44 percent reduction in violent crime arrests, a 36 percent reduction in vandalism, and 10 to 23 percent increase in graduation rates, supporting the idea that providing emotional support to the City's youth can suppress violence throughout Chicago's most violent neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, on March 20, 2017, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin and U.S. Representative Danny Davis unveiled the Trauma Informed Care for Children and Families Act ("the Act") recognizing the need to address violence-induced trauma in our children; and
WHEREAS, according to Senator Durbin, childhood exposure to traumatic events can alter a child's brain chemistry and, without the appropriate help, can lead to depression, fear, anger, and violence; and
Education & Child Development
WHEREAS, the Act focuses on the long term effects unaddressed trauma can have on the City's youth, including its impact on mental and physical health, academic success, income, employment, and its contribution to a continued cycle of violence; and
WHEREAS, the Act is designed to address the stress and trauma that impacts many children from Chicago's most violent neighborhoods and seeks to heal children suffering from trauma in order to break the cycle of mass childhood trauma; and
WHEREAS, to achieve this, the Act would provide more teachers, doctors, social service providers, and first responders with necessary resources, which through federal grant funding, would be trained to recognize and assess the signs of childhood trauma; and
WHEREAS, the Act would create a large grant program to bring together stakeholders to identify needs, collect data, efficiently target efforts, and allow communities to pool federal grants from multiple agencies to help increase trauma services for children; and
WHEREAS, the Act would also create a federal task force to recommend improvements for identifying, referring, and supporting children and families that have experienced trauma; and
WHEREAS, the Act seeks to expand Medicaid coverage for child trauma services, expand loan repayment and graduate school behavioral health training programs to increase the number of clinicians in our communities, enhance teacher-training programs, and to enlist trained mentors and community leaders to help; and
WHEREAS, the Act has been endorsed by numerous national and local organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Center for Childhood Resilience at Laurie Children's Hospital, Erickson Institute, Illinois Justice Project, Instituto del Progresso Latino, La Rabida, National Education Association, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Chicago, Ounce of Prevention Fund, University of Chicago Medical Center, and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago; and
WHEREAS, addressing the issue of violence-induced trauma will require cooperation between the public, private, and non-profit sector. This proposed legislation, the commitment from the state legislature, and numerous local and national organizations supporting it serve as a call to action to all stakeholders including the City of Chicago; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO:
That the Committee on Education and Child Development does hereby request the Department of Family and Support Services and the Department of Public Health to appear before this Committee to address the need and the ability to address violence-induced trauma in children within the City of Chicago; and'
Education & Child Development
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
That the members ofthe Chicago City Council, assembled this nineteenth day of April, 2017, do hereby support the efforts of U.S. Senator Richard Durbin and U.S. Representative Danny Davis in introducing the Trauma Informed Care for Children and Families Act to help identify and aid children who have experienced violence-induced trauma, as well as break the cycle of violence caused by unaddressed childhood trauma.
Alderman, 37th Ward
Howard Brookins, Jr. Alderman, 21st Ward