RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Mayor's Office of Public Safety oversees a team focused on developing a robust policy agenda that advocates for reducing crime in every neighborhood; and
WHEREAS, The Mayor's Office of Public Safety will focus on reducing violent crimes, including gang and gun-related violence while ensuring that these efforts are paired with investments in social service supports, including access to mental health resources and other services; and
WHEREAS, There are hundreds of different street outreach teams and violence interrupters across Chicago, the City has historically never tracked the funding resources, stability and support needs of each community-based organization to identify gaps in services, areas of improvement or resource demands within each neighborhood and community; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) will allocate, through an RFP, $6 million to fund a no-profit agency to provide a cohesive cohort of street outreach organizations with violence interruption training and access to cross-sector collaborators; and
WHEREAS, Even with this and similar funding provided over the past several years to reduce violence, Chicago Crime Statistics show that in 2016, 3658 people were shot and wounded and 722 were shot and killed. In 2017, 2935 were shot and wounded, and 626 were shot and killed. In 2018, 2466 people were shot and wounded, and 496 were shot and killed. In 2019, 2292 people were shot and wounded, and 463 were shot and killed; and
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago, in the last several years, has provided millions of dollars in violence prevention funding with little or no accountability by this body as to which organizations have been funded, the violence prevention plans of operation by the recipients of funding, and results achieved by each organization receiving funding; and
WHEREAS, Metropolitan Family Services is designated as the core agency for disbursement of funds to qualified organizations under the current $6 m...
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