The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

Chicago Board of Education in March.A meeting was scheduled with Judge H., presiding judge of the juvenile court, and hisadministrative probation and court-services staff to discuss how the juvenile court could be morefully involved in the Project. Also, discussions were initiated with two local organizations – LaVillita Community Church and Latino Youth – to jointly operate the Little Village Project(particularly the youth-outreach component) and enhance social services, in collaboration withpolice law-enforcement and probation supervision.A citizen’s group in the northern section of the 10 th District, concerned with the gangviolence problem of African-American youth, held discussions with the Project Coordinator andthe Deputy Police Superintendent about extending the Project to that area. The local aldermanand congressman of that community expressed their support for expansion of the Project into thearea.CrisisOn February 11, 1997, a letter from the CPD Director of Research and Developmentfaxed to the Project Coordinator signaled the beginning of a major Project crisis. Its basis mayhave developed earlier with a minor Project administrative change. The Coordinator expandedsupervisory responsibilities of the youth-work Supervisor to include collection of time cardsfrom youth-work staff. This had been the exclusive responsibility of the Coordinator until heassumed responsibility for another Project. Unbeknownst to the Coordinator, the youth-workSupervisor, a graduate of a criminal-justice program at a local university, began to allocate morehours of work to certain part-time workers than was appropriate. This was done without the17.9