it's C.R.i.M.E. Time!
Pass on
the Peace
What Is C.R.I.M.E.?
C.R.I.M.E. is an acronym for the words:
Compassion
Respect
Inspiration
Motivation, and
Empathy
With these words we teach children better ways to react to violence. C.R.I.M.E. is a youth led program that creates awareness about violence, actions that lead to violence, and positive ways to avoid them. With C.R.I.M.E., we plan to make communities better places. We as the C.R.I.M.E. group wrote a grant for our program so that we could spread our knowledge and tips to conquer violence and crime. We wanted to advance our organization even further to show adults as well as children that there are teens in society that want to help others become all that they have ever dreamed to be, while making our communities better places. Our hopes are to introduce our program to kids through presentations and to talk to adults about how to help kids avoid violence with our book. Overall, our plan is to continue to whack out crime!
Background of the Empowering Counseling Center
C.R.I.M.E. is a part of the Empowering Counseling Center (ECC), a larger effort to serve the youth and families of the Bronzeville community initiated by the School of Social Work at Loyola University. In 2005, Professor Katherine Tyson McCrea, with the support of Dean Jack Wall, joined a partnership with the Chicago Housing Authority, local schools, local social service agencies, and other Schools in Loyola University Chicago (School of Communication, Law School, and Business School). Dr. Bulanda joined the effort in 2006, serving as Program Director. There are three primary programs currently within the ECC: the clinical internship program, the Stand Up! Help Out! After School Matters program, and the C.R.I.M.E. violence prevention program.
Upon entering the community, we realized that there were few options for child and adolescent therapy services, so providing such services became a priority. Many schools and agencies in the area were seeking social workers to provide services, but did not have the resources to hire social workers or have clinical supervisors for interns. We then instituted an innovative internship model, whereby adjunct faculty at Loyola would supervise interns, who are placed in under-resourced schools and agencies. Since Fall 2006, 20 interns have provided social work services to a number of schools and agencies on the South Side of Chicago.
We were funded for our first After School Matters program in Summer 2006 and have, subsequently, received funding for every proposed program since. After School Matters (www.afterschoolmatters.org) has an apprenticeship model, whereby adult mentors train teen apprentices in their trade and the teens, in turn, received a stipend. Our program, Stand Up! Help Out!, is an apprenticeship in social work, whereby the teens are trained in the principles and practice of social work. Responsibilities for teens in the program include: mentoring and tutoring younger children, taking social action through peace marches and nonviolence forums, hosting community health fairs, and creating documentaries in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Coffman and students from the Loyola School of Communication. Documentary topics have included: violence prevention, environmental awareness, awareness of international human rights issues, and domestic violence. See www.StandUpHelpOut.org for more information.
Background of C.R.I.M.E.
C.R.I.M.E. is the result of a youth-led mini-grant funded by the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority (www.ivpa.org). To qualify for this award, the program must demonstrate that the youth are leaders in all aspects of the program from the grant-writing to implementation to evaluation.
When this funding opportunity was ava ilable, several teens in the Stand Up! Help Out! program enthusiastically volunteered their services and the brainstorming commenced. They began with trying to figure out a name for the group and they bounced a number of acronyms around until they decided on the word CRIME. They appreciated the irony of a violence prevention group called CRIME and soon filled out the words that would make the acronym: Compassion, Respect, Inspiration, Motivation, Empathy. Without any adult prompting, they saw that to prevent violence, they had to work to develop pro-social skills and values among youth at risk for being violent. From there, they fleshed out their hopes for the project: teach younger kids about bullying, anger management, conflict resolution, and self-esteem; make a DVD about those skills; and write a book for adults.
To date, the C.R.I.M.E. teens have accomplished everything they set out to do. Accomplishments include:
•Created presentations on the ABCS of Peace and made an accompanying workbook and DVD.
•Presented the ABCS of Peace to over two hundred school age youth at schools and after school programs in Chicago and surrounding suburbs.
•Assembled this book, which involved over 15 group writing workshops in addition to independent writing assignments.
C.R.I.M.E.'s Contribution to Violence Prevention
Certainly, youth violence has been gaining increased attention among researchers and policymakers who have been exploring causes and potential interventions for the problem. So, where does our C.R.I.M.E. fit among the violence prevention literature? Well, this approach and the mater ials derived from it were primarily developed by the youth that witness and/or experience violence on a daily basis; further, if you consider their life stories, they have many of the risk factors identified by the statistics (single-family homes, victims of violence, living in low-income neighborhoods). Despite all of the risk factors, they have found ways to transcend their circumstances. These teens are the experts on violence prevention because they have lived it and survive with amazing resiliency. Certainly, many researchers and theoreticians have provided invaluable insights and research in understanding youth violence, but I want to emphasize that the C.R.I.M.E. teens are also an authority if not, the authority, on this subject. Their authority should not be undermined by their age or lack of post-secondary education.
While their book may be written in laymans terms and have a limited bibliography, it is a relevant source on violence prevention. Indeed,they tackle ser rious issues that have been studied for years and explain them from their unique perspective. For instance, in our book, when Daria Siler writes about how the use of physical punishment is passed on from parent to child, she eloquently describes what family therapists call intergenerational messaging. Certainly, Ms. Siler has never read a family therapy book, but she has lived with the consequences of intergenerational messaging and reflects on those personal experiences in her chapter. It is crucial to have this lay perspective on violence as the teens are reaching out to the adults and teens who do not have access to the academic journals, but who need to think about and take action on these issues.
In September 2008, five teens were left alone in a room and asked to come up with a project that will help reduce violence in their community. C.R.I.M.E. was born. What started as a catchy, fun, ironic acronym actually represents a profound shift in understanding why violence occurs, how it can be prevented, and the nature of human beings. Rather than suggesting they teach the kids about the consequences of violence (i.e. Scared Straight) or teach adults how to discipline acting out kids (i.e. behavior modification), the teens decided they wanted to focus on developing the values and skills they felt all kids are capable of: compassion, respect, inspiration, motivation, and empathy. Instead of thinking of the kids in their community as being deviants that need to be squelched and controlled, they saw kids who are violent as missing out on these five core principles of C.R.I.M.E. While they may be missing these values, they saw the younger kids as having the potential to live and experience them. Adults can greatly benefit from such a strengths-based approach and understanding.
Where We Have Presented
ABCS of Peace Presentations in 2009:
-Chicago Youth Centers: Fellowship House
-Donoghue Elementary School
-Hephzibahs Association Day Care Program
-Forest Road Elementary School
-Ogden Elementary School
-Congress Park Elementary School
-GirlPower! - Donoghue Elementary School
-Cossitt Elementary School
Presentations in 2010:
-Seven classrooms _ Doolittle Elementary School
-Woodlawn High School
-Bronzeville Youth Summit
-Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work graduate class
