I was having
lunch with my mom today and she was telling me about how she went out and got a
part time job today working with families, in particular helping them
communicate better with their children.
My mom worked for Hull House Association for 20+ years and retired
months before we found out that they were closing their doors. My mom was hurt by the news and quickly
became worried about the families she was working with. Today she tells me that she can see better
how one that works in a social service agency can be blinded by what is
actually going on in the community and she saw that today for the first
time. My mom said that she realizes that
she needs to do more in the community because what the traditional community
based organizations are doing is not enough.
So she asked me about the violence and why is it that I’m not involved
with an agency working to reduce the violence.
So I described to her how life of a social worker and violence
prevention specialist is like these days and here it goes:
Cease Fire (CF)
has managed to suck up all the funding for violence prevention and then acts as
a clearing house for other community based organizations that need their “expert”
advice. CF hires well known Brothers and
Sisters in the community and by that I mean siblings, aunts, uncles, daughters,
sons, etc…of former and/or current gang leaders. They also hire Brothers that have recently
come home from prison that held some weight in the past or currently do (Tio
the Exec. Dir of CF IL will say that CF is unaware of anyone being currently involved in a gang…that’s
just to save his ass) to work as outreach workers. Now, on the face of it looks like a good idea
and it can be but there has to be intensive work going on with these Brothers
at the same time. See, when you have
been in prison for a long time it’s like coming home from a tour in Iraq. You’ve
seen things that no one should see, you were in a tense state of mind 24/7 with
no break in sight, you lacked emotions because you didn’t want others to think
you were weak. As time goes on it develops into PTSD among other types of physiological
issues. I don’t know this first hand
because I’ve never gone to the military nor have I done time but I have had the
opportunity to be around plenty of Brothers that have been in either spot. So without an opportunity of becoming part of
the society again we throw them back into a tense situation where they have to
rely on past behaviors to deal with the issues.
Not only that but then they don’t have a full understanding that
smoking, drinking, and helping look out for the police are NOT behaviors that a
prevention worker should be exhibiting with their “clients.” If you’re out on
the street working the very last thing you should be doing is acting like you
in the street…I know it might be hard for some of you to understand that but bear
with me.
So given all of
that we now give them a salary and full benefits and these are two things these
Brothers and Sisters thought they would never have. All they do is try to control the reaction of
some of these Brothers out on the street but shouldn’t they be doing something
else? Well that would mean that they all
need a Master’s degree in Social Work because apparently only then will you
have the key to fix everything! (with a sarcastic tone) When these community
based organizations (CBO’s) get their crew of CF workers the local agency has
no control or say so over them but do require them to participate in the agency’s
activities and programs and here’s where the false thought of “we did something
today” comes into play.
CF workers are
told that the CBO is holding a Youth BBQ to kick off the summer so they are
asked to bring a certain number of youth.
CF workers go back into their hoods and draw up a list of people that
are going and are told to show up. Who
in their right mind is going to turn down a free BBQ?! So youth show up and the CBO’s Exec. Dir. is glowing
with excitement because there’s troubled youth at the BBQ. The youth walk over to CF worker and asks “how
long we got to stay because we got to get back to the hood?” CF worker says “not too long I’ll let you
know.” The Exec. Dir walks over to CF
workers and asks “are they having fun? I
saw them come over and talk to you guys”
CF workers says “yea they like it but they going to have to go soon
because they got some things to take care of.”
Exec. Dir leans in and says “oh like gang stuff? OK well I’ll go tell them thanks for coming.” Exec. Dir. walks over to youth and says “HEY
GUYS! Thanks so much for coming today
and if you guys want to take a plate with you go ahead” the youth start to kind
of smile and nudge each other that it’s time to go and one of them will start
to make a plate of all the good stuff.
The youth all walk over to CF workers and let them know that they want
to go and the CF worker says “yea ok I’ll walk you guys back to your cars.” So as the CF workers walk away with the youth
the Exec. Dir. and other staff are all watching them and thinking to themselves
‘I impacted someone today’ when in actual events one of the CF workers is the
chief and order these Brothers to come through.
My point in
this is that when you have to order someone or as I used to say “strongly
suggest” someone to participate in something like that the only impact you made
is to let them know you really don’t care if they have the skills to survive in
life. Now, some of these CBO’s will have
a “youth leadership” event or something but it never talks to where these
Brothers are at in their lives. We fill
a book bag worth of stuff we copied or printed out, pamphlets about STD’s,
business cards of people that might be hiring, a t-shirt with some silly logo
on it, and fill their stomachs with Pizza and Pepsi. They get home from the event and dad is still
kicking moms ass, Brother is out around the corner doing stuff he shouldn’t,
sister is secretly texting someone older from the hood that has been watching
her grow up waiting for the right time to screw her but she thinks it’s
positive attention, and well the Pizza you had was more food than there is in
the house…did you really impact that youth’s life?
Some people
might say that these CBO’s are trying and to be honest No they are not trying because
if they were trying then Zero tolerance policy’s wouldn’t be posted all over
their walls about who they will and will not help according to that
policy. There’s a much deeper need that
is NOT being met in our communities and the places you would think would have
that ability to fulfill that need are the one’s helping the violence continue
in an indirect way.
Regardless of
my background I would always lay it out loud and clear to who I worked with
that my objective was to get them in a better place in their lives meaning that
I would address everything around them.
I know that some of the older guys that I know had issue with me being
like that but I also know that I helped them change a bit as well.
What CF is
doing is based on a model that was given to them by someone that did not
understand how to implement the strategy because they had no part in it. For those of us that helped create that model
we know what is missing and no one cares to hear about it and CF is incapable of implementing it because the Brothers that they have expressed no desire of
going that deep.
With each death
of every child in Chicago I lose more and more respect for the community based
organizations that I once championed as well for the “organizers” that are
unwilling to deal with this issue. The
amazing thing about it is that there is no need for a $15million building to be
built for it to happen…did Jesus, Buddha, MLK, Malcolm X, or Che need that to
impact people?....I’m sure someone out there will criticize me for putting those names
together but think about what they did and how they did it and YOU tell me if
we need a $15million building to get things done.
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
