In 2015 youth from Westside Academy II embarked on a campaign to make the corner stores in their neighborhood safer. Through engagement with their Alderman, police department, local neighborhood organizations, and school, they forced the loss of one store’s liquor license (a major crime stimulant) and created real, crime-reducing changes in three additional stores. In the process, they were trained in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design survey tools and transformed the abandoned site of a double homicide into a beautiful public art piece.

The youth received the mayor’s 2015 Youth Leadership Award (see left). I served as Lead Organizer for this campaign from conception to evaluation and facilitated all youth activities.