Left to right: Sponsor and club member Scott Gendall - Dr. Jasmine Bankhead, Director of Development - Pastor Chris Harris, Founder and CEO and club president Jason Wicha.
Guest speaker was Chris Harris, Pastor of Bright Star Church, on the Southside in the neighborhood of Bronzesville.
Pastor Harris says his outlook on Chicago violence changed when visiting Tel Aviv, Israel. He said that the Tel Aviv’s community treated violence from terrorism as a metal health issue, mostly for the victims and the people who live near areas of terrorism.
Violence impacts individuals and communities in a complex and dynamic way, affecting nearly all aspects of life, from physical and mental health to housing, propensity for substance abuse, educational attainment and employment. As such, no singularly focused program can hope to break the cycle of violence once embedded. Well-intended programs centered solely on law enforcement, substance abuse, education, job creation or community development are limited in what they can accomplish in isolation.
They started the TURN Center ..The Urban Renewal Network