Community activists are working with the Chicago Police Department to place mentors and role models on hundreds of the city’s most dangerous blocks.
Pastor Corey Brooks of the New Beginnings Church is organizing Brothers on the Block.
His goal is to put 5,000 men on hundreds of the city’s most violent blocks every Friday night during the summer.
The volunteers will serve as mentors and role models to young people in the neighborhood.
Brooks say the Chicago Police Department is helping to identify the most at-risk areas, “Superintendent McCarthy has been very good at giving us information that we need. They provided us the 500 ‘impact zones’ and ‘impact spots’ throughout the city.”
Volunteers will undergo training by professionals who specialize in mentoring, building relationships and gang violence.
Brooks also is organizing another program called Sisters on the Streets to mentor girls in at-risk neighborhoods.
The first Brother on the Block event is scheduled for Friday, June 6, with women coming out the next day with their Sisters on the Streets effort.