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"Our goal is to create a pipeline to employment.” The Forrest E. Powell Foundation announced last week that it will support 10 ETHS juniors who are interested in pursuing Career and Technical Education after high school. Applications are due Friday, October 14 and are available here and at Hecky's Barbecue, 1902 Green Bay Road. Here's the rest of the story: The new Evanston We Program (WE for Work Ethic), which was announced late last week by Foundation, will mentor ETHS juniors who are interested in pursuing a two-year Career and Technical Education (CTE) path rather than the more generally pursued four-year college track. The program’s Executive Director, Nancy Baker , who also sits on the Foundation’s board, sees the new non-profit’s role as not only mentoring students to pursue a Career and Tech degree, but also to raise awareness about CTE as a post-high-school option. “We want parents and students who are used to thinking that four-year college is the only way to go to read more about CTE, open their minds, to recognize the career- and life-goal differences that kids identify. To honor diversity in another way,” she explains. “As parents, we want our children to be able to support themselves and a family, and to do things they want to do. But it’s myopic to think that this is only possible through a four-year degree. There are many lucrative jobs out there that require a two-year degree,” Baker says. “The Evanston WE program will never discourage students from attending a four-year institution, but we will value and support the decision of those students who choose the Career and Tech Ed path. Our goal is to create a pipeline to employment.” This year, the program will help 10 juniors with career preparation, certification and placement though one-on-one mentoring, workshops, and access to financial aid. “Ultimately, with more funding and interest from the community, we hope to grow. Ideally, we’d love to have 100 kids in the program every year,” Baker says. The WE program will offer outside career support in which a mentor will be expected to have two quality contacts a month with their student either by phone or in person. “Of course, it will be up to the student and mentor to decide how long they’ll meet and how often. It’s a relatively minor commitment, but it works,” says Baker. Students will also receive one-on-one customized counseling from the program. “We’ll monitor grades and offer tutoring and workshops through collaborations with JYC and YOU. The program is all about partnering. We don’t want to be a silo,” she says. Read on for more of my conversation with Nancy Baker. Q: Why do you think this program is necessary? A: The four-year college track eliminates students facing different decisions about what they want to do and how they want to get there. There’s a widely held perception in this country that professions that require less than a four-year degree are less interesting, less remunerative and less important. That simply isn’t true, and it’s unfair. We tell kids that the only admirable and dignified path is a four-year college. In other countries, apprenticeships and trades are respected, but not here. "In other countries, apprenticeships and trades are respected, but not here." It’s not just that the U.S. college system is inequitable and overpriced, but we’ve failed to address those kids who simply self-identify that they don’t want a profession that requires a four-year college degree. You can discuss the state of the U.S. college system and say it should be fixed. We hope it improves, but in the meantime, thousands of kids are losing out. Q: What kind of student will benefit from this program? A: The kids we’ll work with should already have a spark. We can’t ignite that spark, but we can get and keep them more engaged. Forty-seven percent of kids who drop out of high school say that the classes weren’t interesting to them. There are lots of reasons that kids are disinterested in school and lots of kids who aren’t engaged because they just don’t see the four-year college path, which is what’s held out as the norm, as pertaining to them. Q: Who is eligible to participate in the program? A: The program is open to anyone who meets the application criteria, which you can find at www.evanstonwe.org. We'd like the kids we help to have few other financial resources or supports. But this is such a widespread issue, we'd hate to cut out any kid. ETHS is increasingly diverse, and this is not a black and white problem. Q: ETHS has a CTE department. Why do you think kids need additional support? A: ETHS is already the gold standard. They’re doing their absolute best job educating thousands of students from many different backgrounds. It’s like expecting a teacher to teach a kid all day and then go home with them. It’s not possible. We’re going to build on the successes of ETHS. They already have an excellent career and tech program. We’ll work with them as partners. That’s why we’re thrilled that Shelly Gates, the chair of the CTE department, has agreed to be on our advisory board. Q: Do you think this program can help high-schoolers who otherwise might take a wrong turn? A: According to the ETHS Illinois Report card, ETHS has an 89 percent graduation rate, and 65 percent of those graduates are deemed "ready for college" according to their test results (achieved at least 21 on the ACT). The Report Card also notes that 84 percent of ETHS grads were enrolled in post-secondary education within two semesters of high school graduation. So we need to ask: What happens to those students who don't graduate? Could the promotion of a non-four-year-college option, mentoring, and enrollment in Career and Tech Ed classes have given those students who dropped out a reason to stay in school? What happens to the students who graduate, but choose to not attend college? What happens to the students who start, but do not complete, a Bachelor's degree? Now the ETHS statistics I’m referring to are not intended to illustrate that the school is not performing well, but rather to underline the current college environment in the US. And even in high-achieving Evanston, college may not be a productive, desirable, or affordable path for some students. Q: Could making the Career and Tech Ed path a viable option for some students have an effect on crime rates? A: National crime statistics show that there’s a 70 percent reduction in drop-out rates of kids in high-school tech programs. When kids drop out of high school, they are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested, and eight times more likely to be incarcerated. In fact, a study out of LA shows that if the drop-out rate decreased by 10 percent nationally, that would prevent 3,000 murders annually.* "National crime statistics show that there’s a 70 percent reduction in drop-out rates of kids in high-school tech programs." Q: What kinds of careers are included in the CTE track? A: Careers such as Personal Appearance Professionals, which includes hair, makeup, and aestheticians; all the construction trades; catering and cooking; many nursing professionals don’t require a four-year degree and there’s an incredible shortage in that area; lab technicians of all kinds; pharmacy technicians; electricians; vehicle and mobile equipment technicians. And then the new programs that are springing up all over for kids who want to be coders. Google and Apple are snapping them up. We feel that every time a person sits down to a meal, moves in to a newly built home, has their car or home repaired, we all reap the benefits of trained, skilled career and tech professionals. Yet we devalue them. Q: Can students be successful if they pursue a two-year degree? A: Absolutely. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that by 2018, 75 percent of all new jobs will require just a two-year degree. In the meantime, kids are graduating from four-year colleges with $37,000 of debt. Nationally, 50 percent of kids who start college end up graduating by age 25, and 10 percent of minorities finish by that age. The system is so broken. If you look at the numbers as they really are, we have to offer many kids a productive alternative path. "By 2018, 75 percent of all new jobs will require just a two-year degree." Q: How much will the program cost for participants? A: Students and families won’t pay anything for this program, plus students will receive a $500 completion stipend, which they can use toward the program of their choice. And we will offer mentoring all the way through to career placement. We’ve established a partnership with Oakton where, with FAFSA funding and scholarships available, the program could potentially be of extremely low cost or no cost to the student." We are also negotiating with Pivot Point and other trade schools for scholarships. Q: Who is funding the program? A: Right now, the Forrest Powell Foundation is the only funding. We are meeting with other grantors both locally and nationally. We’re also hoping that donations increase to the Foundation as word gets out about the program and interest in it grows. For questions about the program, or to nominate an ETHS junior, contact Nancy Baker at nbaker@evanstonwe.org. _________________________________ *“School or the Streets: Crime and America’s Dropout Crisis,” a report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a nonprofit anti-crime organization comprised of more than 3,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders—2008 report. #HeckyPowell #LindaGerber #NancyBaker #achievementgap #youthgunviolence

Today, as the sun sets in Evanston, we remember Dajae Coleman. Four years ago on this date, Dajae was shot and killed as he walked home from a party with friends. He was 14 years old. Since then, the following Evanstonians have also lost their lives to gun violence: Justin Murray (19), shot and killed, November 29, 2012 Azim (38) and Mobeen (34) Hakeem, shot and killed July 30, 2013 Floyd Gibert (30), shot and killed December 7, 2013 Alante Vallejo (18), shot and killed June 6, 2014 Albert Norman (22), shot and killed June 28, 2014 Ray Owens (27), shot and killed June 8, 2015 Cesario Cox (45), shot and killed September 15, 2015 Kaylyn Pryor (20), shot and killed November 2, 2015 Bejamin Bradford-Mandujano (20) shot and killed January 19, 2016 Antonio Johnson (18) shot and killed March 23, 2016 Star Paramore (19) shot and killed March 25, 2016 All these lives. Lost to gun violence. All the friends and families left devastated. How can each of us commit ourselves toward eliminating gun violence in Evanston? Today, let's honor Dajae Coleman's memory. Tomorrow, Dear Evanston will post a list of organizations that work in a variety of ways toward increasing equity in our city, fostering hope in our youth, and fighting for stronger gun laws. If you're already involved in reducing gun violence, we'd love to hear from you. Tell us your story.

“We wanted to do something this summer to help prevent gun violence, so this is what we came up with,” Nina Kavin, a team member of Dear Evanston said. Read Story Here.

"Violence and poverty are linked. Poverty is a result of deliberate racist policies at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to achieve racial and socioeconomic equity, we need a revolution - an overhaul of how our nation is structured." Patrick Keenan-Devlin, former Deputy Director of the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy, was just named Executive Director of the organization. He replaces Kathy Lyons, who recently retired. As Executive Director, Patrick continues to represent Evanston’s youth in juvenile delinquency proceedings. The Moran Center provides free legal representation and comprehensive social-work services to youth and their families, as well as legal resources and trainings to community partners. The Moran Center’s goal is to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and provide kids justice in the courtroom, access to the classroom and support in our community. Q: What was your path to the Moran Center? A: I’m from a small suburb of New York City. I came to Evanston to attend Northwestern. The moment that changed my geographic trajectory was when Cheryl Wollin, whom I met at church, asked me to help with her campaign for alderman. I didn’t know anything about local politics. Through Cheryl’s campaign, I got to know Evanstonians who worked on issues ranging from housing to economic justice issues, and I fell in love with them. Cheryl then inspired me to run for Student Body President at Northwestern. I won, and then serving as Student Body President I became even more involved within the Evanston community. When I was graduating, I did not know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to live. My father gave me some great advice, “Grow where you are rooted.” I was rooted in Evanston, so I stayed. I became a policy aid at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, which is based in Chicago. After that, I worked as the Legislative Director for Citizen Action/Illinois – the state’s largest public interest organization. While working at Citizen Action, our Director, Lynda DeLaforgue told me, “You need to go to law school.” So I did. I clerked at the Moran Center during law school, which led to being hired four years ago. I’m so glad to be doing something meaningful and to work in my community. Q: How do families find out about your legal services? A: For cases involving juvenile delinquency and adult (ages 18-21) criminal charges, the Moran Center attorneys are appointed by the court to represent indigent youth within the Evanston community. In terms of the Moran Center’s special education/school discipline advocacy program, we started that program eight years ago. It began because the agency recognized that 90 percent or more of the children we represent in juvenile or adult court had special education needs or needs that had not been identified. It didn’t take long for families to find out about our special education/school discipline practice. We also attend community meetings in Evanston to educate guardians about their legal rights within schools. Q: Do you like living and working in Evanston? A: Yes, I do. I’m like a country bumpkin lawyer. I live here, I work here, I go to church here. When I go to Jewel, I’ll see a child with whom I work. Or I'll see a teacher who went to extraordinary lengths to help one of my kids. Now, I always tell my clients and families, I will never say hello to you to maintain confidentiality—but if you say hello to me, that’s absolutely fine. They often say hello, and they’ll try to talk about their cases in the Jewel checkout line. Q: Do a lot of students get expelled in District 65 and ETHS? A: ETHS and D65 would say they don’t expel students, and that’s accurate, because expulsion under the Illinois School Code means that the school board or an independent hearing officer has determined that a child can’t be educated anywhere from 11 days to two years within a public school in Illinois. However, ETHS and D65 have other tools they use to exclude children they deem to be a risk to themselves or the school community. To avoid expulsion, ETHS and D65 offer general education students the opportunity to attend a “safe school”—North Cook Academy in Des Plaines. This is when a child, who has grossly violated the school code, can be outplaced for up to two years. After a student has served their time at North Cook Academy, the student may come back to ETHS. Disproportionately, minority children are disciplined by both school districts. Q: So how do you advocate for these students? A: Our response to this kind of outplacement for students in the general education population is to ask the school whether they’ve conducted a special education evaluation to find out if the child is eligible for special education services. If they haven’t done so, we would argue that it’s possible that the child may have an undiagnosed issue that led to their behavior. Children with disabilities, with few exceptions, cannot be expelled by schools. If a child with special needs has accumulated 10 out-of-school suspensions in the course of a school year, either consecutively or collectively, the district has to hold a Manifestation Determination Review hearing to determine whether a pattern of behavior or a specific behavior is a manifestation of the child’s disability. The questions the school district must answer at the hearing are: 1. was the behavior a manifestation of the child’s disability, and 2. did the district fail to deliver supports and services to that child? If they answer either question in the affirmative, it takes further discipline of the child off the table. Regardless of the outcome of the Manifestation Determination Review hearing, schools may still outplace a child with special needs to a therapeutic day school, if the child’s behaviors warrant such a restrictive setting. There’s a small subset of therapeutic day schools to which students are out-placed if they are a danger to themselves or others; if they have aggressive, violent or erratic behaviors within the school setting. They are also primarily students of color. Q: It’s been a difficult few months in Evanston for young people, with shootings, deaths, and an unloaded gun found in a student’s backpack. Do you think ETHS should install metal detectors? A: That’s a really complicated question. I obviously want all Evanston children to be safe. I sincerely care about the kids in the community. I’m a father, my child will eventually go to ETHS, and I want her and her classmates to be safe, as well. Having said that, whenever I go to ETHS, I am very sensitive to what the students have to go through just to BE in that building: flashing IDs, passing by school resource officers in uniform, seeing peers being arrested, safety officers patrolling the halls. I imagine all of that has to be traumatizing—it has to be. Maybe they’re desensitized to it, but even if it’s their norm, it doesn’t mean they’re not traumatized by it. I think metal detectors would add to that trauma, but I have the luxury of saying that because I’m not Principal Marcus Campbell or Superintendent Eric Witherspoon. They have the toughest jobs in Evanston. Q: How do we stop the violence in Evanston? A: I have lots of answers to that question. Some of them are actionable here within our community. Some are solutions that would require state and national action. Violence and poverty are linked. Poverty is a result of deliberate racist policies at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to achieve racial and socioeconomic equity, we need a revolution - an overhaul of how our nation is structured. Locally, I believe there are small things we can do. If you ask great teachers, they will tell you that their number one job is to teach children social-emotional skills more than the three Rs. There’s so much power in peace circles, learning circles, and restorative justice work. If we start doing this work in Kindergarten, which we have begun to do in Evanston, I strongly believe that will make a difference and we’ll see the impact of this work down the line with our community’s youngest generation. Another thing I would love is to double, or triple, the number of social workers in our schools. Presently, school social workers’ caseloads are unmanageable, and as a result they’re unable to go deep with our kids. Many of our kids are traumatized and suffering. I see the power of social work every day at the Moran Center. Lawyers are just Band-Aids, but social workers have the power to make meaningful impact and meaningful change in kids’ lives. With more social workers in the schools, I believe we might see a decrease in more expensive, institutionalized care for our children. Of course, it shouldn’t be about money, but it helps to make the economic argument too. Q: What about gun control? I hate guns. However, if you had told me a few years that there was a proposal in Springfield to double or triple the sentence of men and women caught with a weapon in our schools, in churches, or libraries, I’d have said, yes, absolutely, let’s pass it. I’ve shifted from that. I still hate guns, but if a child has a gun in a school, locking them up doesn’t make us safer and it doesn’t make us better as a community. I think the better thing is to ask: why did the child feel compelled to have a gun at school in the first place? What can we do to make him feel safe, because obviously he doesn’t feel safe and that’s our failure not his; he’s just a child. Q: How would you work with a student who was found to have an unloaded weapon in his backpack at school? A: If a student is charged with a crime, we would represent that student in the courts and in the parallel track within the school setting. That’s how the Moran Center is unique in its integrative services: we’re not only criminal defense lawyers but also school-based attorneys. If our objective is to end the school-to-prison pipeline, we need to have lawyers on both ends of the pipeline. We need lawyers advocating in the schools to keep children in school, and on the other end, we need lawyers advocating for rehabilitative and restorative services at home, in the community and not in institutions. Q: You work with young people with the potential to be violent. Are you ever afraid? No. Absolutely not. I represent children. I never refer to the kids as the “defendant” or “minor respondent” or “the student.” I only refer to them as the “child.” I do that for myself and for the listener. I want to constantly remind school administrators, judges, prosecutors —that we are dealing with children. At the Moran Center, we adamantly believe that no child is bad, all children want to please, and all children want to do and be well. Do I represent kids in gangs? Yes. Do I think that makes them bad? No. Do I think they should be judged for it? No. I don’t think so. I think it’s so easy to say, that kid in a gang got shot, but my kid’s not in a gang therefore my kid’s not going to get shot. All kids are deserving of our concern. It’s not okay to think, not my kid, not my concern. I’ve never for a moment been scared. Maybe that will change over the course of my career, but I respect all of my kids and I think they know that. I hope they know that. Q: What’s your hope? A: I was invited to the Evanston Youth Citizen’s Police Academy two summers ago, along with the local juvenile Assistant State’s Attorney. She stood up in front of the kids and said, “My job is to keep the community and the children who come to court charged with a crime safe. My job is to ensure also that the child, if sentenced, is rehabilitated.” I looked at her and thought, “Wow. That’s where we just totally disagree.” I turned to the kids and I said, “My job is to keep children out of the system, because I don’t believe the system has the capacity to rehabilitate children, or people generally. I believe only communities, families, neighborhoods can do that, not courts. We have to help each other here at home. So, although I’m all for rehabilitation and restoration, I don’t believe it can be accomplished by the courts." Ultimately my goals is to restore hope for youth in our community. One of my personal hero’s is civil rights attorney, Bryan Stevenson. One of my favorite quotes is, “I think hopelessness is the enemy of justice.” So we must seek justice by providing hope.

"Violence and poverty are linked. Poverty is a result of deliberate racist policies at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to achieve racial and socioeconomic equity, we need a revolution - an overhaul of how our nation is structured." Patrick Keenan-Devlin, former Deputy Director of the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy, was just named Executive Director of the organization. He replaces Kathy Lyons, who recently retired. As Executive Director, Patrick continues to represent Evanston’s youth in juvenile delinquency proceedings. The Moran Center provides free legal representation and comprehensive social-work services to youth and their families, as well as legal resources and trainings to community partners. The Moran Center’s goal is to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and provide kids justice in the courtroom, access to the classroom and support in our community. Q: What was your path to the Moran Center? A: I’m from a small suburb of New York City. I came to Evanston to attend Northwestern. The moment that changed my geographic trajectory was when Cheryl Wollin, whom I met at church, asked me to help with her campaign for alderman. I didn’t know anything about local politics. Through Cheryl’s campaign, I got to know Evanstonians who worked on issues ranging from housing to economic justice issues, and I fell in love with them. Cheryl then inspired me to run for Student Body President at Northwestern. I won, and then serving as Student Body President I became even more involved within the Evanston community. When I was graduating, I did not know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to live. My father gave me some great advice, “Grow where you are rooted.” I was rooted in Evanston, so I stayed. I became a policy aid at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, which is based in Chicago. After that, I worked as the Legislative Director for Citizen Action/Illinois – the state’s largest public interest organization. While working at Citizen Action, our Director, Lynda DeLaforgue told me, “You need to go to law school.” So I did. I clerked at the Moran Center during law school, which led to being hired four years ago. I’m so glad to be doing something meaningful and to work in my community. Q: How do families find out about your legal services? A: For cases involving juvenile delinquency and adult (ages 18-21) criminal charges, the Moran Center attorneys are appointed by the court to represent indigent youth within the Evanston community. In terms of the Moran Center’s special education/school discipline advocacy program, we started that program eight years ago. It began because the agency recognized that 90 percent or more of the children we represent in juvenile or adult court had special education needs or needs that had not been identified. It didn’t take long for families to find out about our special education/school discipline practice. We also attend community meetings in Evanston to educate guardians about their legal rights within schools. Q: Do you like living and working in Evanston? A: Yes, I do. I’m like a country bumpkin lawyer. I live here, I work here, I go to church here. When I go to Jewel, I’ll see a child with whom I work. Or I'll see a teacher who went to extraordinary lengths to help one of my kids. Now, I always tell my clients and families, I will never say hello to you to maintain confidentiality—but if you say hello to me, that’s absolutely fine. They often say hello, and they’ll try to talk about their cases in the Jewel checkout line. Q: Do a lot of students get expelled in District 65 and ETHS? A: ETHS and D65 would say they don’t expel students, and that’s accurate, because expulsion under the Illinois School Code means that the school board or an independent hearing officer has determined that a child can’t be educated anywhere from 11 days to two years within a public school in Illinois. However, ETHS and D65 have other tools they use to exclude children they deem to be a risk to themselves or the school community. To avoid expulsion, ETHS and D65 offer general education students the opportunity to attend a “safe school”—North Cook Academy in Des Plaines. This is when a child, who has grossly violated the school code, can be outplaced for up to two years. After a student has served their time at North Cook Academy, the student may come back to ETHS. Disproportionately, minority children are disciplined by both school districts. Q: So how do you advocate for these students? A: Our response to this kind of outplacement for students in the general education population is to ask the school whether they’ve conducted a special education evaluation to find out if the child is eligible for special education services. If they haven’t done so, we would argue that it’s possible that the child may have an undiagnosed issue that led to their behavior. Children with disabilities, with few exceptions, cannot be expelled by schools. If a child with special needs has accumulated 10 out-of-school suspensions in the course of a school year, either consecutively or collectively, the district has to hold a Manifestation Determination Review hearing to determine whether a pattern of behavior or a specific behavior is a manifestation of the child’s disability. The questions the school district must answer at the hearing are: 1. was the behavior a manifestation of the child’s disability, and 2. did the district fail to deliver supports and services to that child? If they answer either question in the affirmative, it takes further discipline of the child off the table. Regardless of the outcome of the Manifestation Determination Review hearing, schools may still outplace a child with special needs to a therapeutic day school, if the child’s behaviors warrant such a restrictive setting. There’s a small subset of therapeutic day schools to which students are out-placed if they are a danger to themselves or others; if they have aggressive, violent or erratic behaviors within the school setting. They are also primarily students of color. Q: It’s been a difficult few months in Evanston for young people, with shootings, deaths, and an unloaded gun found in a student’s backpack. Do you think ETHS should install metal detectors? A: That’s a really complicated question. I obviously want all Evanston children to be safe. I sincerely care about the kids in the community. I’m a father, my child will eventually go to ETHS, and I want her and her classmates to be safe, as well. Having said that, whenever I go to ETHS, I am very sensitive to what the students have to go through just to BE in that building: flashing IDs, passing by school resource officers in uniform, seeing peers being arrested, safety officers patrolling the halls. I imagine all of that has to be traumatizing—it has to be. Maybe they’re desensitized to it, but even if it’s their norm, it doesn’t mean they’re not traumatized by it. I think metal detectors would add to that trauma, but I have the luxury of saying that because I’m not Principal Marcus Campbell or Superintendent Eric Witherspoon. They have the toughest jobs in Evanston. Q: How do we stop the violence in Evanston? A: I have lots of answers to that question. Some of them are actionable here within our community. Some are solutions that would require state and national action. Violence and poverty are linked. Poverty is a result of deliberate racist policies at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to achieve racial and socioeconomic equity, we need a revolution - an overhaul of how our nation is structured. Locally, I believe there are small things we can do. If you ask great teachers, they will tell you that their number one job is to teach children social-emotional skills more than the three Rs. There’s so much power in peace circles, learning circles, and restorative justice work. If we start doing this work in Kindergarten, which we have begun to do in Evanston, I strongly believe that will make a difference and we’ll see the impact of this work down the line with our community’s youngest generation. Another thing I would love is to double, or triple, the number of social workers in our schools. Presently, school social workers’ caseloads are unmanageable, and as a result they’re unable to go deep with our kids. Many of our kids are traumatized and suffering. I see the power of social work every day at the Moran Center. Lawyers are just Band-Aids, but social workers have the power to make meaningful impact and meaningful change in kids’ lives. With more social workers in the schools, I believe we might see a decrease in more expensive, institutionalized care for our children. Of course, it shouldn’t be about money, but it helps to make the economic argument too. Q: What about gun control? I hate guns. However, if you had told me a few years that there was a proposal in Springfield to double or triple the sentence of men and women caught with a weapon in our schools, in churches, or libraries, I’d have said, yes, absolutely, let’s pass it. I’ve shifted from that. I still hate guns, but if a child has a gun in a school, locking them up doesn’t make us safer and it doesn’t make us better as a community. I think the better thing is to ask: why did the child feel compelled to have a gun at school in the first place? What can we do to make him feel safe, because obviously he doesn’t feel safe and that’s our failure not his; he’s just a child. Q: How would you work with a student who was found to have an unloaded weapon in his backpack at school? A: If a student is charged with a crime, we would represent that student in the courts and in the parallel track within the school setting. That’s how the Moran Center is unique in its integrative services: we’re not only criminal defense lawyers but also school-based attorneys. If our objective is to end the school-to-prison pipeline, we need to have lawyers on both ends of the pipeline. We need lawyers advocating in the schools to keep children in school, and on the other end, we need lawyers advocating for rehabilitative and restorative services at home, in the community and not in institutions. Q: You work with young people with the potential to be violent. Are you ever afraid? No. Absolutely not. I represent children. I never refer to the kids as the “defendant” or “minor respondent” or “the student.” I only refer to them as the “child.” I do that for myself and for the listener. I want to constantly remind school administrators, judges, prosecutors —that we are dealing with children. At the Moran Center, we adamantly believe that no child is bad, all children want to please, and all children want to do and be well. Do I represent kids in gangs? Yes. Do I think that makes them bad? No. Do I think they should be judged for it? No. I don’t think so. I think it’s so easy to say, that kid in a gang got shot, but my kid’s not in a gang therefore my kid’s not going to get shot. All kids are deserving of our concern. It’s not okay to think, not my kid, not my concern. I’ve never for a moment been scared. Maybe that will change over the course of my career, but I respect all of my kids and I think they know that. I hope they know that. Q: What’s your hope? A: I was invited to the Evanston Youth Citizen’s Police Academy two summers ago, along with the local juvenile Assistant State’s Attorney. She stood up in front of the kids and said, “My job is to keep the community and the children who come to court charged with a crime safe. My job is to ensure also that the child, if sentenced, is rehabilitated.” I looked at her and thought, “Wow. That’s where we just totally disagree.” I turned to the kids and I said, “My job is to keep children out of the system, because I don’t believe the system has the capacity to rehabilitate children, or people generally. I believe only communities, families, neighborhoods can do that, not courts. We have to help each other here at home. So, although I’m all for rehabilitation and restoration, I don’t believe it can be accomplished by the courts." Ultimately my goals is to restore hope for youth in our community. One of my personal hero’s is civil rights attorney, Bryan Stevenson. One of my favorite quotes is, “I think hopelessness is the enemy of justice.” So we must seek justice by providing hope. — with Patrick Keenan-Devlin.

Camille Allen spoke at Evanston's National Gun Violence Awareness event on Thursday, which was co-sponsored by Dear Evanston and Citizens' Greener Evanston. Here is the transcript of her speech. You can also watch her delivering her message in the video below. Compelling and moving. Camille graduated from ETHS this May with honors. Formerly the Student Representative to the District 202 Board of Education and President of Student Senate, Camille is invested in student government and youth driven initiatives. In addition to four years of singing with ETHS Dazzling Dames and Bazao, Camille enjoyed writing as a News Editor/Columnist for the Evanstonian. As a member of the Leadership Board of Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR), Camille is dedicated to anti-racist work and believes that subversive leadership and collective impact can combat gun violence in our community. Camille will attend Barnard College of Columbia University New York next year. "Hello! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Camille Allen. It’s truly an honor to speak here today and it’s hard to believe it was just a few short weeks ago the Class of 2016 at ETHS walked the stage and graduated. The ceremony, I’m sure, was like many others in past years. Parents swelling with pride, graduates fending off butterflies in their stomach and the arena bustling with relatives. "But this year, our ceremony was different. We still heard the National Anthem, Student Welcome and Commencement Address. But our program took on a more somber tone when Dr. Witherspoon invited Tiffany Rice, mother of Dajae Coleman and founder of the Dajae Coleman Foundation, onstage to recognize our fellow peer who wasn’t able to walk with us. Dajae Coleman, a bright student, a talented basketball player and a loving son and brother, senselessly lost his life to gun violence my freshman year. Dajae would have graduated with us, but that potential was stolen from him when someone fired a gun. "I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Dajae, but I have friends who did, so the day he died, it felt like I was losing him too. I felt this loss when students stopped in the hallway and reached out to hug each other through tears. I felt this loss when I witnessed streams of students leave school to gather at the site of his death, dedicating flowers, candles and love letters to his name. And I felt this loss when thousands in the arena bowed their heads in a moment of silence. "Dajae’s death made gun violence real to me. It’s one thing to see gruesome violence on TV, or listen to songs that glorify owning and sporting guns, but it’s another thing entirely to truly understand that murder, caused by gun violence, from a drive-by shooting or a case of mistaken identity or a domestic conflict turned into assault with a deadly weapon, always has effects that ripple far and wide. One death can break hearts. One death can tear apart relationships between even the closest of family and friends. One death can upturn and upheave an entire community. One death, the death of Dajae, someone I could have had the opportunity to call my friend, smile at in the hallways and cheer on at basketball games, taught me that gun violence is about more than the pull of a trigger. Gun violence is a painful symptom of a larger systemic issue in our communities and our nation. "Because it hasn’t just been one death. Data from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund finds that on an “average” day 91 Americans are killed with guns. On an “average day” seven children and teens are killed with guns. In an “average” month 51 women are shot to death by a current or former boyfriend or husband. Gun violence silences voices and destroys communities, but as many of us know, it kills the black, brown and female more than anyone else. "Black men are 10 times more likely than White men to be murdered with guns. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of the woman being murdered by five times. And that’s just the national data. The New York Magazine found that in Chicago, the neighbor we know and love, over 3,000 citizens were shot last year. One local site estimates four Chicagoans were shot and killed last week alone, and that 81.8% of this year’s homicide victims have been Black." "So where do we go from here? It’s clear that it won’t be easy, and I don’t have all the answers. But as a proud product of this community, an ETHS graduate who can recite the names of peers lost to gun violence, a daughter of a concerned mother who lovingly sought out Evanston to raise me, seeking safety, and the younger sister of a Black brother who has been forced to bow his head in fear, gun violence is personal to me. It should be personal to you too."

Camille Allen spoke at Evanston's National Gun Violence Awareness event on Thursday, which was co-sponsored by Dear Evanston and Citizens' Greener Evanston. Here is the transcript of her speech. You can also watch her delivering her message in the video below. Compelling and moving. Camille graduated from ETHS this May with honors. Formerly the Student Representative to the District 202 Board of Education and President of Student Senate, Camille is invested in student government and youth driven initiatives. In addition to four years of singing with ETHS Dazzling Dames and Bazao, Camille enjoyed writing as a News Editor/Columnist for the Evanstonian. As a member of the Leadership Board of Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR), Camille is dedicated to anti-racist work and believes that subversive leadership and collective impact can combat gun violence in our community. Camille will attend Barnard College of Columbia University New York next year. "Hello! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Camille Allen. It’s truly an honor to speak here today and it’s hard to believe it was just a few short weeks ago the Class of 2016 at ETHS walked the stage and graduated. The ceremony, I’m sure, was like many others in past years. Parents swelling with pride, graduates fending off butterflies in their stomach and the arena bustling with relatives. "But this year, our ceremony was different. We still heard the National Anthem, Student Welcome and Commencement Address. But our program took on a more somber tone when Dr. Witherspoon invited Tiffany Rice, mother of Dajae Coleman and founder of the Dajae Coleman Foundation, onstage to recognize our fellow peer who wasn’t able to walk with us. Dajae Coleman, a bright student, a talented basketball player and a loving son and brother, senselessly lost his life to gun violence my freshman year. Dajae would have graduated with us, but that potential was stolen from him when someone fired a gun. "I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Dajae, but I have friends who did, so the day he died, it felt like I was losing him too. I felt this loss when students stopped in the hallway and reached out to hug each other through tears. I felt this loss when I witnessed streams of students leave school to gather at the site of his death, dedicating flowers, candles and love letters to his name. And I felt this loss when thousands in the arena bowed their heads in a moment of silence. "Dajae’s death made gun violence real to me. It’s one thing to see gruesome violence on TV, or listen to songs that glorify owning and sporting guns, but it’s another thing entirely to truly understand that murder, caused by gun violence, from a drive-by shooting or a case of mistaken identity or a domestic conflict turned into assault with a deadly weapon, always has effects that ripple far and wide. One death can break hearts. One death can tear apart relationships between even the closest of family and friends. One death can upturn and upheave an entire community. One death, the death of Dajae, someone I could have had the opportunity to call my friend, smile at in the hallways and cheer on at basketball games, taught me that gun violence is about more than the pull of a trigger. Gun violence is a painful symptom of a larger systemic issue in our communities and our nation. "Because it hasn’t just been one death. Data from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund finds that on an “average” day 91 Americans are killed with guns. On an “average day” seven children and teens are killed with guns. In an “average” month 51 women are shot to death by a current or former boyfriend or husband. Gun violence silences voices and destroys communities, but as many of us know, it kills the black, brown and female more than anyone else. "Black men are 10 times more likely than White men to be murdered with guns. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of the woman being murdered by five times. And that’s just the national data. The New York Magazine found that in Chicago, the neighbor we know and love, over 3,000 citizens were shot last year. One local site estimates four Chicagoans were shot and killed last week alone, and that 81.8% of this year’s homicide victims have been Black." "So where do we go from here? It’s clear that it won’t be easy, and I don’t have all the answers. But as a proud product of this community, an ETHS graduate who can recite the names of peers lost to gun violence, a daughter of a concerned mother who lovingly sought out Evanston to raise me, seeking safety, and the younger sister of a Black brother who has been forced to bow his head in fear, gun violence is personal to me. It should be personal to you too."

"It is time for us to show our anger, our angst, our pain, and our rage as it relates to our children's suffering in this age of violence." I'm deeply, deeply troubled regarding gun violence in America. I am also troubled by gun violence in Chicago. In addition, I am troubled by gun violence in Evanston. There have been four shootings in the last four days. All the victims are black males- one 16, two 17 and a young man aged 19. I'm troubled for so many reasons: 1. We were not made to shoot, maim, hurt or kill each other. 2. A subtle and even sly "begrudging" acceptance of these shootings, seems to be settling in our community. 3. Black males are already an endangered species in America. 4. If shootings occur on the streets of our neighborhoods (one occurred at 1 AM and the other at 4:40 PM) what is to become of our children who walk these streets and play in local playgrounds? 5. These angry, young black boys and men have created a culture and climate that is unsafe for us all. 6. In Evanston, I believe our Mayor and Police Chief are doing a great deal to stop the violence. However, it is time for every single part of the Black community to collectively step up and do our part. 7. It is time for us to show our anger, our angst, our pain, and our rage as it relates to our children's suffering in this age of violence. 8. We have to stop our children and our young men from killing each other. 9. Gun violence must not become the new normal. 10. We must not sit idly by and watch another one of our young people become a victim to violence. My 12 year-old son was playing basketball in a local park not far from where one of the shootings took place (at around the same time). There were other children also out playing. And our seniors were in their yards. And dog walkers were walking their dogs. People were riding their bikes. Others were on skateboards. Most were enjoying the moment "care free." That is why we live in Evanston. It is why we live anywhere in America. It is supposed to be care free. We must not allow unruly, uncaring and dangerous people diminish our quality of life. It is time to stop them. Because there is no alternative. Michael Nabors is Pastor of Second Baptist Church, Evanston and President of the Evanston NAACP.

"It is time for us to show our anger, our angst, our pain, and our rage as it relates to our children's suffering in this age of violence." I'm deeply, deeply troubled regarding gun violence in America. I am also troubled by gun violence in Chicago. In addition, I am troubled by gun violence in Evanston. There have been four shootings in the last four days. All the victims are black males- one 16, two 17 and a young man aged 19. I'm troubled for so many reasons: 1. We were not made to shoot, maim, hurt or kill each other. 2. A subtle and even sly "begrudging" acceptance of these shootings, seems to be settling in our community. 3. Black males are already an endangered species in America. 4. If shootings occur on the streets of our neighborhoods (one occurred at 1 a.m. and the other at 4:40 p.m.) what is to become of our children who walk these streets and play in local playgrounds? 5. These angry, young Black boys and men have created a culture and climate that is unsafe for us all. 6. In Evanston, I believe our Mayor and Police Chief are doing a great deal to stop the violence. However, it is time for every single part of the Black community to collectively step up and do our part. 7. It is time for us to show our anger, our angst, our pain, and our rage as it relates to our children's suffering in this age of violence. 8. We have to stop our children and our young men from killing each other. 9. Gun violence must not become the new normal. 10. We must not sit idly by and watch another one of our young people become a victim to violence. My 12 year-old son was playing basketball in a local park not far from where one of the shootings took place (at around the same time). There were other children also out playing. And our seniors were in their yards. And dog walkers were walking their dogs. People were riding their bikes. Others were on skateboards. Most were enjoying the moment "care free." That is why we live in Evanston. It is why we live anywhere in America. It is supposed to be care free. We must not allow unruly, uncaring and dangerous people diminish our quality of life. It is time to stop them. Because there is no alternative. Michael Nabors is Pastor of Second Baptist Church, Evanston and President of the Evanston NAACP.

"When I was growing up here, doctors, lawyers, postmen, everybody lived here. We had those role models right here. These men and women were very involved in the community. If they saw you doing something you weren't supposed to be doing, they’d say something. That’s gone away." Colette Allen is the Center Director of Family Focus, Evanston, which was founded 40 years ago by Berenice Weissbourd, whom Colette describes as the “guru” of the family support movement. Fifth ward Alderman Dolores Holmes was the center’s first director. Today there are seven Family Focus centers in the Chicago area. Evanston’s Family Focus programs are directed toward three areas: an early-childhood program for parents of kids 0-3; a youth development program providing after-school programing and summer camp for third- to eighth-graders (and this summer to K-2 students as well); and a Family Advocacy Center, a program of DCFS, that works with parents who are about to lose--or have lost--custody of their children for a variety of reasons, such as abuse, neglect, incarceration or drug abuse. The program helps parents get their children back through parent education, home visits, and court advocacy. Colette is a second-generation Evanstonian, and was born and raised here. She came to Family Focus after almost eight years in fundraising at the Museum of Science and Industry. She has lived in Atlanta, Nashville, San Diego and Washington D.C. But, she says, “I love Evanston and Chicago. I wouldn’t trade living here.” Nina Kavin spoke with Colette at Family Focus, located on Dewey Ave., right in the heart of the fifth ward. Here are some of her thoughts about youth violence in Evanston. Q: How did your family come to Evanston? A: My parents were born and raised here. My maternal grandparents were from South Carolina. My great-grandfather, Grandpa Crawford, was lynched in South Carolina. That’s why they left. My father’s side came here from Birmingham, Alabama. I don’t need to say more about that! Q: Why do you think youth violence has increased in Evanston in recent years, and how can we reduce it? A: I think violence is the result of loss of community. Unfortunately, there isn’t the same sense of community as there used to be, and that’s because every child in the fifth ward is bused or walks to a school outside of the community. I call them the “lost tribe.” For example, a few weekends ago, we did a STEM fest at Family Focus. The stipulation was that it was for fifth ward families only. As part of the fest we offered activities for middle school students that in the past have been done at the middle schools, and on a Saturday. How unfortunate for our kids. Since they are bused to these schools, it always meant parents from our neighborhoods would have to get them over there on a weekend. So what’s the chance of them participating? It’s the same for after-school programs: sure, kids can stay after school, but they have to wait for a bus to get back home. When I was a kid, I was over here all the time for different activities. I could walk everywhere. There was the Emerson St. Y, Foster Center (now Fleetwood). There were things going on right here all the time. So we had a sense of community and a pride in community. We’ve lost so many institutions over the years, including Foster School [the only school in the fifth ward during segregation, which was attended exclusively by black children], and so often the school is the center of the community. We lost the fight to open a new fifth-ward school a number of years ago. Of course, integration was a good and necessary thing, but it left us always having to go to the white neighborhoods for schools and services. It took away the tightness of our community. When I was growing up here, doctors, lawyers, postmen, everybody lived here. We had those role models right here. These men and women were very involved in the community. If they saw you doing something you weren't supposed to be doing, they’d say something. That’s gone away. After desegregation, a lot of people moved away. There are great things for kids now, FAAM and Jr. Wildkits, but not enough. I never had a lack of things to do when I was growing up. There are other reasons too. Take the achievement gap. It’s not just in Evanston: assumptions are made everywhere about children based on their color or that they’re bused in. When I see how many kids are labeled Special Ed. in this district, well, that’s just nonsense! Black kids are constantly told there’s something wrong with them. Added to that, they have no sense of community. So they find a group of people who say they’re okay and tell them that to be super okay you have to be against 'those guys over there.' I knew we were in trouble on January 29, when someone shot a gun right outside our baby nursery. That showed me how much some of our young men have lost respect and have no sense of community no sense of anything. They’re empty people. Because before—you would never do that. Never. Q: What do you think can be done to turn things around? A: I think employment is really important. I really praise Kevin Brown and what his team [Kevin is the Director of the City’s Youth and Young Adult division] is doing in terms of outreach and employment. We’ve got to give our young people alternatives and reignite that sense of community and pride. Q: How do you see Family Focus’ role in turning things around? A: I tried to get through the recent D65 report on achievement gap but I couldn’t. It was so depressing. Say what you want about Foster School, but every child who went to Foster school could read, write and do math, and do them well. So it’s not that our children can’t learn. I think we’ve had generations of busing kids out of their community. Those kids are now parents who had bad experiences at school, and so they’re not engaged. They don’t feel comfortable going to the school, advocating for their children. I think Family Focus can help to close the achievement gap by providing strong enrichment programs to our young kids, support to parents from the very beginning, and also working with the schools. For example, I’ve suggested that D65 use our building for parent/teacher conferences and meetings, so that it’s convenient for our parents and they can feel comfortable attending, instead of having to go to the schools where their kids are bused. It’s okay for the other parents to come to Family Focus for a change. We also need to work with the schools to help parents learn to be better advocates for their children. It’s also important for the community and the police to have a better relationship. There’s a program that I really love that Police Chief Eddington introduced to us. It's a middle-school curriculum developed by the National Black Police Association. It explains kids’ rights and responsibilities. Three Evanston officers did the curriculum here with our kids for six weeks. The kids really benefited from it. At our STEM fest, I asked for a few police officers to attend, just for police presence. And it was great to see so many of our kids running up to the officers, knowing them, and feeling comfortable with them. Q: What’s the bottom line? A: There’s not enough being done for our young men. They need it the most. Too often they are the shooters and the victims. We need to be doing more for them. #FamilyFocus #KevinBrown #District65

"When I was growing up here, doctors, lawyers, postmen, everybody lived here. We had those role models right here. These men and women were very involved in the community. If they saw you doing something you weren't supposed to be doing, they’d say something. That’s gone away." Colette Allen is the Center Director of Family Focus, Evanston, which was founded 40 years ago by Berenice Weissbourd, whom Colette describes as the “guru” of the family support movement. Fifth ward Alderman Dolores Holmes was the center’s first director. Today there are seven Family Focus centers in the Chicago area. Evanston’s Family Focus programs are directed toward three areas: an early-childhood program for parents of kids 0-3; a youth development program providing after-school programing and summer camp for third- to eighth-graders (and this summer to K-2 students as well); and a Family Advocacy Center, a program of DCFS, that works with parents who are about to lose--or have lost--custody of their children for a variety of reasons, such as abuse, neglect, incarceration or drug abuse. The program helps parents get their children back through parent education, home visits, and court advocacy. Colette is a second-generation Evanstonian, and was born and raised here. She came to Family Focus after almost eight years in fundraising at the Museum of Science and Industry. She has lived in Atlanta, Nashville, San Diego and Washington D.C. But, she says, “I love Evanston and Chicago. I wouldn’t trade living here.” Nina Kavin spoke with Colette at Family Focus, located on Dewey Ave., right in the heart of the fifth ward. Here are some of her thoughts about youth violence in Evanston. Q: How did your family come to Evanston? A: My parents were born and raised here. My maternal grandparents were from South Carolina. My great-grandfather, Grandpa Crawford, was lynched in South Carolina. That’s why they left. My father’s side came here from Birmingham, Alabama. I don’t need to say more about that! Q: Why do you think youth violence has increased in Evanston in recent years? How can we reduce it? A: I think violence is the result of loss of community. Unfortunately, there isn’t the same sense of community as there used to be, and that’s because every child in the fifth ward is bused or walks to a school outside of the community. I call them the “lost tribe.” For example, a few weekends ago, we did a STEM fest at Family Focus. The stipulation was that it was for fifth ward families only. As part of the fest we offered activities for middle school students that in the past have been done at the middle schools, and on a Saturday. How unfortunate for our kids. Since they are bused to these schools, it always meant parents from our neighborhoods would have to get them over there on a weekend. So what’s the chance of them participating? It’s the same for after-school programs: sure, kids can stay after school, but they have to wait for a bus to get back home. When I was a kid, I was over here all the time for different activities. I could walk everywhere. There was the Emerson St. Y, Foster Center (now Fleetwood). There were things going on right here all the time. So we had a sense of community and a pride in community. We’ve lost so many institutions over the years, including Foster School [the only school in the fifth ward during segregation, which was attended exclusively by black children], and so often the school is the center of the community. We lost the fight to open a new fifth-ward school a number of years ago. Of course, integration was a good and necessary thing, but it left us always having to go to the white neighborhoods for schools and services. It took away the tightness of our community. When I was growing up here, doctors, lawyers, postmen, everybody lived here. We had those role models right here. These men and women were very involved in the community. If they saw you doing something you weren't supposed to be doing, they’d say something. That’s gone away. After desegregation, a lot of people moved away. There are great things for kids now, FAAM and Jr. Wildkits, but not enough. I never had a lack of things to do when I was growing up. There are other reasons too. Take the achievement gap. It’s not just in Evanston: assumptions are made everywhere about children based on their color or that they’re bused in. When I see how many kids are labeled Special Ed. in this district, well, that’s just nonsense! Black kids are constantly told there’s something wrong with them. Added to that, they have no sense of community. So they find a group of people who say they’re okay and tell them that to be super okay you have to be against 'those guys over there.' I knew we were in trouble on January 29, when someone shot a gun right outside our baby nursery. That showed me how much some of our young men have lost respect and have no sense of community no sense of anything. They’re empty people. Because before—you would never do that. Never. Q: What do you think can be done to turn things around? A: I think employment is really important. I really praise Kevin Brown and what his team [Kevin is the Director of the City’s Youth and Young Adult division] is doing in terms of outreach and employment. We’ve got to give our young people alternatives and reignite that sense of community and pride. Q: How do you see Family Focus’ role in turning things around? A: I tried to get through the recent D65 report on achievement gap but I couldn’t. It was so depressing. Say what you want about Foster School, but every child who went to Foster school could read, write and do math, and do them well. So it’s not that our children can’t learn. I think we’ve had generations of busing kids out of their community. Those kids are now parents who had bad experiences at school, and so they’re not engaged. They don’t feel comfortable going to the school, advocating for their children. I think Family Focus can help to close the achievement gap by providing strong enrichment programs to our young kids, support to parents from the very beginning, and also working with the schools. For example, I’ve suggested that D65 use our building for parent/teacher conferences and meetings, so that it’s convenient for our parents and they can feel comfortable attending, instead of having to go to the schools where their kids are bused. It’s okay for the other parents to come to Family Focus for a change. We also need to work with the schools to help parents learn to be better advocates for their children. It’s also important for the community and the police to have a better relationship. There’s a program that I really love that Police Chief Eddington introduced to us. It's a middle-school curriculum developed by the National Black Police Association. It explains kids’ rights and responsibilities. Three Evanston officers did the curriculum here with our kids for six weeks. The kids really benefited from it. At our STEM fest, I asked for a few police officers to attend, just for police presence. And it was great to see so many of our kids running up to the officers, knowing them, and feeling comfortable with them. Q: What’s the bottom line? A: There’s not enough being done for our young men. They need it the most. Too often they are the shooters and the victims. We need to be doing more for them. #FamilyFocus #KevinBrown #District65

"If we don’t push ourselves, we will fail in Evanston. So many of us think that because we live in a city that’s diverse, we are inclusive, but that's not the reality yet. We don’t do the hard work of engaging." I met Cicely Wilson Fleming two years ago when she returned to Evanston after 10 years away. We worked on a Curt's Cafe fundraiser together, and the first thing that struck me about the Evanston native was how her words tumbled one after the other, as though they were fighting to keep up with her thoughts. I discovered soon after that she follows her words with action almost as fast. Since we met, Cicely, a wife and mom of three kids, has volunteered at soup kitchens and other social service organizations, founded OPAL, started and finished her Masters in Public Administration at DePaul University, mounted her campaign for 9th ward alderman, knocked on hundreds of doors, and still attended her children's lacrosse games and cheerleading championships both in town and away. Driven by her love for her family, her commitment to social justice and her fierce Christian faith, Cicely seems to accomplish in a day what most of us do in a month. “I was fortunate to grow up in Evanston with lots of family around and it really provided me a secure and unique experience," she told me recently when I met her at Curt's Cafe South to catch up and find out what motivated her to run for office. "We moved back because I wanted my kids to have the kind of support and love I had, and I work hard in town because I think many people believe that Evanston can be a close community again and I want to make that happen.” Cicely traces her Evanston roots—and her commitment to public service—to a long line of active ancestors on her mom’s side. Her great- great- grandfather Samuel White, known as “Big Adam,” came to Evanston’s 5th ward from Abbeville, SC, around 1890, along with many others who made the journey from Abbeville to Evanston after the lynching of Anthony Crawford—many of whose descendants settled in Evanston as well. Cicely’s great-grandfather, Samuel White, Jr. and his wife Evelyn McCoy had seven children. “Sam was the first elected official in my family,” Cicely told me. “He became head of the Democratic Party when the 5th ward was Evanston’s only democratic ward.” Cicely’s great-aunt Edna became a two-term 5th-ward alderman and Evanston Township Supervisor and Edna’s son, Michael Summers, also served as alderman of the 5th ward. One of Big Adam’s sons, Clarence, changed his name from White to Whyte—presumably, Cicely believes, as a result of a family dispute. “His daughter, my cousin Rochelle Whyte Washington, also served as a 5th ward alderman,” she says. Her dad’s side of the family hails from Georgia. Her great-grandmother owned a restaurant called C&W. Her grandfather, Edwin “Skip” Wilson split his time between Georgia and Evanston until high school and was a postal carrier here for more than 30 years. “My grandfather died last year,” says Cicely, “But he was my hero. He was so kind and supported everything I did.” DE: Are you glad you came back to Evanston to raise your children? CF: Overall I am pleased. I have a large family here and it's nice to have my kids develop close relationships with them. But I'm disappointed with how much has not changed, particularly that the economic divide seems so much greater, and that many neighborhoods are still very segregated. DE: Where did you go to school? CF: My sister Kye and I went to King Lab from Kindergarten through eighth grade. My mom sent us there because it was an academically rigorous school with a heavy emphasis on African American culture. As a child, my mother was part of the school integration program and had to leave Foster School to go to Haven, which was a horrific experience for her, being called the N-word by classmates and teachers, for example. She decided my sister and I wouldn't participate in the school busing program. Stories of her experience had a great impact on me, which is why we chose to live in south Evanston now, so my kids can attend Chute, a neighborhood school. We talked about race at home a lot when I was growing up, and my mom forbade us from saying the pledge of allegiance. DE: How did that feel? CF: I felt a bit left out as a kid, but no one really made a big deal about it. I think that was the beauty of King Lab, it very accepting. Now I realize that my mother was very brave. That she was teaching me to stand for what I believe is no matter what other may have said. She taught me about courage and conviction. My kids say it now. But we talk about it. I support them making choices as long as they can defend their positions. I don’t want them to do something just because someone else is doing it. I want them to be brave, even if they’re the only ones. DE: And you lived in the 5th ward. What was it like growing up? CF: It was great. I had a huge family. My dad had 10 siblings. My mom had a small extended family. Every day I’d walked past houses that my cousins, my aunts and uncles, lived in. Big packs of us would walk around together. We weren’t as worried about violence back then, and I think society isn’t connected as much as it was back then. DE: Obviously violence has increased. CF: Yes, I think the violence we see now, the youth violence, is the outcome of years of neighborhood divestment in predominately black neighborhoods, educational failures, the continued achievement gap, and the lack of community support. I also can't discount the effect of easy gun access and society's numbness to violence in general. But in our community, we have lost so many youth because of poor education that leaves them unable to attain a livable wage, the rise of untreated mental health issues, and the neglect of the historically black community. By that I mean the divestment of institutions due to ‘integration’ that left the black community without their own resources while unwelcome at newly integrated institutions. Without education, community resources, and community support, we now see youth who are without hope and opportunity. DE: Have you or anyone in your family ever been directly affected by violence? CF: Just living in a community that has experienced violence has a direct impact on us all, like when I have to explain to my children that a young man has been killed by another young man. Although we aren't the victims, or related to the victims of the crime, that doesn't mean we're not affected. If we view violence that way, it will continue to be someone else’s problem. And another person's problem is not one you see yourself responsible for fixing. DE: So what should we do? CF: I don’t claim to be a pro on gun violence. I think some of our restorative justice programs in our schools at younger ages will help, but we have to get away from penalizing kids. For example, at the high school there were so many suspension of black boys a few years ago. We have to make sure our kids are educated, and treated with respect so that they have hope for themselves, so they can become productive people and get jobs. The fact is that everyone has to eat. So if we produce a student who is educated and employable or who has dropped out and has no hope they’ll eat because they’re working, or they’ll eat because they’re stealing. And these students who are undereducated are right here. When I volunteer at the homeless shelter, I’m serving my peers. Men in their 30s and 40s. They went through the school system and didn’t do well. And now they’re homeless or near-homeless adults. They’re still our responsibility. We have to do better with our continuum of care plan. I’m not saying that city government has to turn into social services, but we have to think about our city in terms of our citizens. So when we think about property tax increases and water increases, things we justify as financial needs, we have to think about them from everyone’s perspective. DE: You founded OPAL soon after you came back to Evanston. Tell me about that. CF: When I came back to Evanston, I was surprised that there were still so many disparities. I thought things would have progressed more. So I got to work and I learned about people and talked to people who felt disconnected. I’ve spent the last couple of years getting people to be more connected. I founded OPAL last year with the goal of achieving equity in Evanston through voter-education efforts, increasing civic engagement, and developing community members to hold elected office. We decided to focus on the political arena because it's through our governing bodies that decisions are made. Without leaders who understand and value all Evanston residents, we're concerned that we will continue to lose valuable community members. DE: Do you think Opal can contribute to reducing violence in Evanston? CF: Yes. OPAL can help by framing it not as a black or youth problem, but as an issue in which our entire community can see their role. Through issues like keeping the educational system accountable for closing the achievement gap and dismantling policies that contribute to racial inequities, we are working to ensure that today’s students have better outcomes and opportunities. OPAL is also working to identify local leaders who will make decisions that are best for all Evanston residents. Decisions that affect Evanston's affordability and quality of life are vital because they help our community retain its racial and socio-economic diversity. We also support leaders who value equity to help ensure that residents receive resources they need. DE: What made you decide to run for city council and what do you want to accomplish? CF: As a city council member, I plan to serve my ward. But I understand my ward is within the greater city that measures just 7.8 miles. So if there's something proposed for a ward that's bad for the city as a whole, I think I need to say so. I need to bring that conversation, and I think I’ve shown people I can do that, and that I’m not afraid to do that. I think that because I’ve lived in Evanston at different stages of my life and under varying personal economic conditions, I have a particular perspective. If you’ve always lived on the lakefront and you have a car, and a traditional job, you don’t know what it’s like for the people who have limitations—they don’t have time, they don’t have a ride, they don’t have the mental capacity—I have to represent those people. I have to get answers, advocate, and call for change. I've heard from people who live in my ward that they feel south Evanston is used as a buffer to Chicago. That people don’t see it as a real community. So I really would like to engage the city and ask how can we ensure that city services are accessible here. I think you can’t bring that conversation to city council if you haven’t experienced life as a poor person. Right now our health department has services at the Civic Center and at Erie Family Health Center on Dempster, but what do we have south of Main? The Civic Center is not on a main bus line, and it closes at 5 p.m. It’s just not accessible if you're battling other issues in your life. There’s a substantial amount of poverty as you get closer to Howard Street. There are lots of refugee students at Chute. How can we get some services for those people? It’s the same thing with the library. How can we expand it? We talk about achievement gap, and the need to encourage early literacy. But our closest library is on Chicago and Main and it’s a tiny library and no parking. And at school. My husband talks about this all the time at my kids school. There’ll be a program at school at 2 p.m., but there are lots of parents who can’t make that. And then we penalize those people. We think, well, they don’t care about their kids schooling because they're not there. I’d really like to do a better job of engaging our constituents in the ward. As an example, people are frustrated about the decision to bring Smiley Brothers to Oakton. It’s been explained in a very financial sense that it will bring money to the city and get that property back from the tax rolls. But there are parents of children at Dawes who are very worried about how this will increase traffic on Oakton, concern about a liquor establishment on a park and so close to a school. The greater concern is that people felt they weren’t even informed of the process. There was no community engagement. Not everyone is going to love every decision that's made, but if people feel they were consulted they can be more reaonsable. I want to make sure I'm getting information back to the voters in the ward. DE: What do you want for Evanston's future? CF: I like to believe everyone is doing the best they can, making the best decisions they can. But I feel that you are limited if you work only from your own life experience and the people around you. People talk about being empathic and I think that's important, but you have to really engage with people whose lives are different than yours. And you have to know what you don’t know. If we don’t push ourselves, we will fail in Evanston. So many of us think that because we live in a city that’s diverse, we are inclusive, but that's not the reality yet. We don’t do the hard work of engaging. I really value history. I think we never addressed historical wrongs that were done in our city. I think we need to have a day of reconciliation. It won’t change everything, but we can verbalize the hurt on both sides. Apologize. Tell the truth and change the conversation. It needs to be done in a genuine way by the mayor, who sets the tone for the city. To say, I’m sorry this happened, and this is our first step to bringing our city together. I would love to have that happen. DE: Thanks, Cicely.