#scychicago

This week’s blog is written by Dion McGill, SCY Communications and Community Outreach Manager. 

1) Strengthening Chicago’s Youth Annual Survey

Have you taken the SCY Annual Survey?  

No??? 

Why not? 

Share your feedback through Strengthening Chicago's Youth’s (SCY) 2019 Annual Survey! 

This survey is intended to assess SCY’s strategies, activities, communication, and partner resources. Your feedback will give us a window into what we’re doing great, and what we can do better. 

Additionally, this survey will help us to determine priorities for violence prevention, policy and advocacy, and future strategies and activities.

Completion of the questionnaire is voluntary, you may skip any question, and there are no right or wrong answers. The survey is anonymous, which means we will not be collecting identifying information about you. When you have completed the survey, you will also have the option of entering a raffle for a chance to win one of five $50 Visa gift cards. I consider that a win/win! 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. 

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2) SCY Quarterly Meeting

This meeting will focus on the connection between justice reform and violence prevention. The topics explored will include addressing policies and systems that create racial disparities and providing better support and resources. A panel discussion and action-oriented breakout groups will examine how changes to the juvenile and criminal justice systems can result in less involvement for youth and help make communities safer.

Join SCY and partners across Chicago to explore the role you and your organization can play in addressing these issues, discuss asset-based solutions, and promote the health and healing of all Chicagoans.

SCY Quarterly meetings are also a great time to meet, network, and collaborate with like-minded individuals from across the city. You never know who will be in the room.  I do know that we have a fabulous panel planned, and I will be there.  Be sure to stop me and say hello.  

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3) Time Vaping Article

It goes without saying that vaping is a hot button topic right now. 

If you are a dedicated reader of our blog, you’ll recall the article I wrote previously on e-cigarettes, vaping, and Juul.  

Additionally, Dr. Maria Rahmandar of Lurie Children’s spoke at a press conference with Senator Dick Durbin, shining a special focus on the dangers of vaping, and speaking from firsthand experience at the increase of adolescents that Lurie Children’s has seen as a result.  

Now, an amazingly insightful and well written article was recently released by Time magazine.  

How Juul Hooked Kids and Ignited a Public Health Crisis

As our Executive Director Rebecca Levin wrote in her letter this week in the SCY Newsletter:

“As part of SCY's work on substance use prevention, the topic of vaping and electronic cigarettes is a growing concern. The Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery has recently provided information and advisories regarding vaping related illness. SCY hopes that by sharing these recommendations with partners we can help keep Illinois and Chicago youth healthy and informed.”

Suggested Listening: The Juul Paradox

What's better: promoting e-cigarettes to help smokers quit, or restricting vaping so teens don't pick up a new nicotine addiction? 

Listen to the podcast HERE.

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4) Spooky Ooky Kooky Contest

What is your favorite fall non-alcoholic drink?  

SCY’s project Preventing Alcohol Abuse in Chicago Teens, as a part of their I Got This! campaign have announced the Spooky Ooky Kooky Contest. 

Whip out that recipe, and you could have the chance to win a $25 gift certificate in our new fall mocktail contest.  

Winners will be chosen and taste-tested by Strengthening Chicago’s Youth staff.  

Entries can be posted now on either Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook using the hashtag #SpookyNotSpiked.  

Strengthening Chicago's Youth (SCY) Blog turned 6 today!

This week’s blog is written by Dion McGill, SCY Communications and Community Outreach Manager.

For you loyal readers, you’ll recall that a few weeks back, I wrote about the Joyce Foundation and a recent study they did, in which they reached out to experts and academic researchers in the fields of violence prevention, public health, and crime policy, to get their takes on the “best evidence-informed ideas about how the federal government can reduce gun violence.”  If you missed that post, go here to read it.  

However, if you’re familiar with the gun violence prevention landscape, then you certainly wasn’t surprised by that study.  In fact, The Joyce Foundation has been funding research on gun violence prevention for 25 years. 

To quote the Joyce Foundation’s About Us page:

The Joyce Foundation is a nonpartisan private foundation that invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.

We support policy research, development, and advocacy in five areas: Education & Economic Mobility, Environment, Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform, Democracy, and Culture. Joyce focuses its grant making in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and partners with funders to explore promising policy solutions in other states or at the federal level.

The Joyce Foundation has budgeted 2018 charitable distributions of $50 million on assets of approximately $1 billion.

The Joyce Foundation was established in 1948, and in 1993, launched their Gun Violence Program, which has gone on to be known as the Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform Program. Since 1993, the Joyce Foundation’s support for gun violence prevention research has been a “consistent through-line in their program’s grant making strategy,”  and represents about one-third of their total spending. 

Recently, the foundation released a report that highlights the impact of their $32 million investment in gun violence prevention research.  As the Joyce Foundation said in a recent news release,

During a time when few other private funders invested and federal funding was nearly non-existent, Joyce’s support has helped produce some of the most seminal research findings on gun violence prevention, building and sustaining the field.