CeaseFire Campaign for Violence Prevention (Spring 2009)
CeaseFire Campaign for Violence Prevention (Spring 2009)
Abstract
Students worked with CeaseFire Chicago, an anti-violence organization, to develop a communications strategy to change the thinking about the social norms and behaviors that perpetuate the transmission of violence at the individual and community level.
Overview
Over a period of three months the project team interviewed CeaseFire staff, community residents, local stakeholders, and potential enabling partners in order to define the problem space and design a solution.
Homicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans aged 16-34. In the existing social environment violence is permissive and pervasive as a solution for the high risk to address conflicts or to get material needs met. The fear of violence causes low risk community residents to stay indoors and makes them afraid to speak up, resulting in the neglect of the social and physical environment of the neighborhood. How could CeaseFire Chicago close this communication gap to create a shared sense of community building and a dialogue for change?
Benefits
The project team designed a community involvement campaign comprised of four systems: The Good News Engine fosters and spreads good news, changing the community’s emotional environment. Universal Training extends CeaseFire’s reach to a broad range of community stakeholders by sharing techniques that enable them to play an active role in preventing conflicts from escalating. The Mobile Branch creates a visible presence and flexible place for social interaction between community members. Heal the Space works to reverse physical neglect of the neighborhood, supporting emotional investment through partnership with civic entities. Combined these systems build bridges between low and high risk community members to create healthy, safe neighborhoods.
