Marlon Chamberlain pulls his car onto Drexel Boulevard, where he spots a work crew diligently picking up trash.
“There are my guys,” he says, with a pride that borders on paternal. “Every day, someone will say something that tells me that this program is working.”
Just a few blocks away, Raymond Andrus is meeting with a young man, just out of Dixon Correctional Center. “That was me 15 years ago. “He’s smart, ambitious…and I can save him a whole lot of mess, if he’s willing.”
Across town, Daryl Pierce – aka “Blue” – is in Austin, exchanging some easy banter with another individual who was formerly incarcerated, still wavering about going straight. At one time, Pierce so dominated the West Side drug trade that he had 28 employees.
“In my warped mind, I just thought of myself as Binny’s, giving people what they want….but, man, it’s a percentage game – and it always catches up with you.”
Chamberlain, Andrus and Pierce are uniquely positioned to combat one of Chicago’s most intractable problems: Gun violence. As outreach workers for READI Chicago, they are on the front lines of a daily battle for the soul of our city.
This innovative program was launched last fall with the goal of signing up 500 individuals who are most vulnerable to gun violence and offering them something better – paid transitional jobs, therapy and wrap-around supportive services for up to two years.
Outreach workers are deployed across four communities – North Lawndale, Austin, West Garfield Park and Greater Englewood – which make up 10 percent of the city’s population, but almost a third of its homicides.
On many days, convincing a man to change his life trajectory is an uphill climb. It can take weeks – even months – of relationship-building to finally get a green light.
When talking with a potential candidate, “I never use the word ‘program,’ ” Chamberlain explained. “I call it a ‘lifestyle.’ I’m not here to tell you to stop doing anything… I’m giving you an opportunity, with people who are willing to help you in whatever you want to do, whether that’s getting job skills or opening your own business.”
All three men have been involved in other anti-violence efforts –but each believe that READI Chicago’s approach is unique.
For starters, most of the outreach workers are born and raised in the neighborhoods they serve. They all have similar life experiences – gangs, drugs, poverty, school failure, involvement in the criminal justice system – which gives them both compassion for and credibility with participants.
“There’s nothing you can tell me that I haven’t heard before,” said Pierce, who has lost three cousins to homicide. “These younger guys…they all see the money and the fancy car, but there aren’t many who come out of this life successfully. For every one person driving that fancy car, nine others are in jail or dead. “If I could do it all over again, I’d take that entry-level job at McDonald’s.”
Second, there’s the precision targeting, provided by data from the University of Chicago Crime and Poverty Labs, which helps the staff really focus their energy and resources where it will have the most impact.
Finally, this intervention is about the power of unwavering support. It’s about more carrot and less stick – or what Chamberlain calls “just loving on people.”
He cited a recent example of a homeless client, who arrived at the work site intoxicated. Rather than suspend him from the program, “we got him something to eat, some new clothes and he can come back tomorrow like nothing happened.”
Of course, there are critics clamoring for punitive measures, but the client’s consequences were limited to the loss of a day’s pay. “How does it help to cut someone off?” asked Chamberlain. “That same guy could pick up a gun, rob someone and get seven or eight years [in prison.] Meanwhile, he’s not getting the help he needs, so when he comes out, we’re just repeating the same cycle all over again.”
In the end, they said, the clients all want the same thing: They want to know if they can trust you, if you care about them and if you can make them better men.
“But really, it’s up to each individual to do the hard work,” said Pierce, who is now pursuing a master’s degree in social work. “Because if you don’t want to invest in yourself, who should?”
