“You can feel the tide changing around here,” said Michael Brunson, an Institute for Nonviolence Chicago (INVC) outreach worker at the READI Chicago Austin/West Garfield Park community site. “The new guys we’re bringing into the program have already watched their friends go through READI and seen it work for them. They’re a lot less skeptical than when we launched this initiative—they’ve seen that other places offer support, but we offer a future.”
For Michael, who has worked as an INVC outreach worker since READI launched in 2017, that means identifying participant needs and connecting them with supports. It also means infusing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and a focus on changing thinking patterns in all interactions with participants. This, Michael said, is how READI and INVC are doing outreach differently.
“You can’t just tell someone, ‘you need to stop doing that’—they’re not going to listen, and they probably already know that,” Michael said. “But if you work with them to change their way of thinking, that will stick with them long-term and help them change their actions.”
Michael knows this firsthand, having so many shared experiences with our participants. For more than 50 years, he has lived in West Garfield Park, where he said gun violence is unavoidable. He also spent more than a decade incarcerated.
“It was difficult when I came home from incarceration, but my family made it a lot easier—they’re so important in keeping you focused and eliminating obstacles,” Michael said. “It’s so important for us to be that support for our participants who may not have family to rely on. We’re here to help them realize their dream and build the foundation to get there.”
Michael is not new to mentoring and working with community members, having become a fixture of West Garfield Park and Austin, but he said he has never found work as rewarding as that with READI Chicago.
“We offer them a different way of life, and seeing them embrace that and change their lives around really brings tears to my eyes,” Michael said. “It’s a wonderful feeling to have them run up and greet you and share how happy and proud they are of themselves. You get to really see firsthand the work you’re doing when you have guys who are now on a different path coming back to tell you that it worked.”
