Young Chill trainers in Chicago
De-escalate young people from violent parts of Chicago. That’s impossible, right?
Wrong.
Chill is the youth program from C3 De-escalation, sponsored by the Southside Branch of the NAACP. Chill is based on common-sense principals:
- De-escalation doesn’t have to be rocket science. Chill is based on brain science, true, but anyone exposed to fighting already knows a lot about what goes wrong. We build on knowledge young people already have.
- Prevention is easier than cure. Chill targets pre-teens and teens, before they do something they can’t undo. To de-escalate gang shootings we work in winter, before the shootings that come with warm weather. For every fight, there’s a space before the fight. We target that window of opportunity.
- To reach youth, work through people they already listen to. For instance, pre-teens may not listen to teachers, but they soak up information from older brothers and sisters. So Chill develops young trainers from the neighborhood, who talk and relate like older brothers and sisters.
To learn more about Chill and how to take part, contact us. And thank you for wanting to make our cities safer for our young people.