Sen. Durbin visits Chicago-based groups confronting youth violence

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Photo by Lloyd DeGrane

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Sen. Dick Durbin (center) discusses a jobs program at Sinai Community Center with Becoming a Man counselors Anthony Di Vittorio (left) and Marshaun Bacon, and SSA alumna Evelyn Diaz (right), AM'98, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services. The department is a partner in operating the jobs program One Summer + Plus, which includes BAM training.

Photo by Lloyd DeGrane

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Sen. Dick Durbin watches as youth take part in a team-building activity that is part of the Becoming a Man program.

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Sen. Durbin talks with teens involved in a youth jobs program at an Aug. 8 event.

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University of Chicago Crime Lab Co-Director Harold Pollack discusses the work of the Crime Lab and Youth Guidance, which operates the Becoming a Man program. Pollack is the Helen Ross Professor at the School of Social Service Administration.

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Sen. Dick Durbin receives a BAM T-shirt from Anthony Di Vittorio (left) and Marshaun Bacon, counselors with the anti-violence program that has been favorably evaluated by the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

August 8, 2012

The University of Chicago Crime Lab and Becoming A Man, along with other locally based projects, “are programs that work” against youth violence, Sen. Dick Durbin said after a Wednesday, Aug. 8 presentation at the Sinai Community Institute.

“We have to solve this problem block by block,” he said of youth violence. Durbin was at the institute to learn about Chicago efforts to fight youth violence and to talk with representatives of the Crime Lab; Youth Guidance, which runs BAM; the Sinai Community Institute; and the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services.

After meeting with those leaders privately, Durbin met with a group of participants in the One Summer+Plus initiative, a jobs program intended to reduce crime. He learned about the counseling provided by BAM, a program the UChicago Crime Lab evaluated as successful, and along with Crime Lab Co-Director Harold Pollack, witnessed a team-building exercise that the BAM counselors and students conducted.