
READI CHICAGO IS AN INNOVATIVE RESPONSE TO GUN VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO.
READI Chicago provides employment in paid transitional jobs, cognitive behavioral therapy, and support services to help our participants create a viable path and opportunities for a different future, and to help reduce violence in the city’s most impacted neighborhoods.
The Nonviolence Chicago READI outreach team is responsible for finding and engaging participants based on administrative data, referrals from corrections institutions, and their own deep knowledge of the community.
In the Austin neighborhood, the Nonviolence Chicago outreach team provides a level of case management and helps connect participants with support services, including housing and legal services once they have agreed to join READI Chicago and have begun transitional employment and cognitive behavioral therapy.
With an understanding that the individuals Nonviolence Chicago is trying to reach are difficult to engage and have not typically sought out services, READI outreach workers have up to one year to build relationships and enroll participants in the program.
READI GOALS
Decrease shootings and homicides among those at highest risk of gun violence
Create new opportunities for these same individuals to change their life trajectory and decrease their involvement with the criminal justice system
Help build an infrastructure at the community level to promote long-term safety and opportunity in Chicago’s most impoverished communities