With violent crime falling in Chicago, advocates seek to grow successful programs
A summer of stunning crime trends — in a positive direction — was the focus of a meeting Monday at Farragut Career Academy in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.
Leaders from various groups helping disrupt crime met to discuss what has been going on this summer, and how to grow programs that are clearly working.
Homicides in Chicago are down 57% so far in 2025 over the same period of time in 2024, and Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to spread the good word. But some working on the streets in non-police capacities to help tamp down crime cautioned that officials and advocates should not talk too much and jinx what's happening.
"We're in the middle of the game, and you're pitching a perfect game, and you don't want to talk about it, right?" said Aaron Rivas, the Little Village community director of Scaling Community Violence Intervention for a Safer Chicago, or SC2.
Rivas on Tuesday addressed a group of members of. Mayor Johnson and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle both touted the success of CVI at the event on Tuesday.
The Little Village community where they met has seen homicides plummet a stunning 72% from the same time last year.
"It's more people that are alive, less funerals that we have to deal with, less court advocacy that we have to, you know, be a part of," Rivas said.
Citywide, from Jan. 1 through July 13, homicides are down 32% compared with the same stretch last year. Fatal shootings are down 36%, and shootings as a whole are down 40%.
What is the secret sauce of 2025?
"Summer is always kind of an anxious time for us," said Rivas. "We don't want to say, 'Man, it's quiet out here,' because as soon as we turn a block, you know, things can change.
The goal of SC2 leadership is to cut the city's 2021 homicide rate in half to 400.
"Then our goal is to cut it in half again in the coming decade, from 400 to 200 homicides," said Susan Lee, executive director of SC2.
Former Chicago Public Schools chief executive officer and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan now leads , an anti-gun violence organization in the city. He said the last time there were fewer than 400 homicides in Chicago was in 1965.
"We can't incarnate ourselves out of this. We have to give people a chance to do something different," said Duncan. "Being able to do that collectively is why these numbers are starting to change."
For those on the ground, getting to the end of summer safely is job number one.
"Something can happen in an instant that can have a ripple effect," said Rivas.
CVI, or Community Violence Intervention, comes from the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The organization said using "credible messengers" and behavioral science-informed interventions helps deescalate stressful situations before they lead to violence.
The city and county are committing more dollars toward the programs.
