Violence Prevention Organizations Team Up to Train on Best Practices …

For the past few years, the Southland RISE collaborative has awarded funding to community-based violence prevention programs to help them continue their work.

This summer, the collaborative went a step further and brought together hospital trauma center staff and violence prevention street outreach workers in a shared training workshop. The goal was an exchange of ideas and resources focused on curbing violence on Chicago’s South Side.

Marlon Ryals, an Austin community street outreach supervisor with Together Chicago, said the workshop allowed him to make some connections that will help prevent violent altercations from resulting in more violence at trauma hospitals.

“With trauma hospitals, … there is risk of retaliation, people following the ambulance to the hospital,” Ryals said. “Just by creating the relationship and being able to let them know — we have an office in Grand Crossing — we have times when someone’s coming in hot, I’m able to jump in the group text…