Community Coalition Updates

The Champaign County Community Coalition had an event in Champaign this week as part of its outreach to neighborhoods dealing with gun violence. I cover that below. The organization also recently gave a presentation to the Champaign City Council (video available here). There was a great overview of the Coalition's history, goals, and related municipal actions assembled by City staff ahead of the presentation available here. For example, in these excerpts from the background section, there's an explanation of the City of Champaign's role in the coalition:

The City partnered with governmental partners and organizations to create a Community Coalition. The Coalition is a collaborative initiative involving governmental partners, community organizations, and members working together to address and solve community problems of mutual concern...

Since 2016, the Executive Committee Members annually meet to discuss and identify the strategic priorities for the upcoming year. The draft of the priorities is then agreed to by the Coalition partners for implementation and coordination of activities. Once these activities are identified and agreed upon, the monthly Coalition meetings are a coordinated approach to highlight activities and promote on-going dialogue with community stakeholders. The City of Champaign is the lead organization for the coordination of the Coalition and is responsible for the overall administrative responsibilities and daily coordination of all Coalition partners and activities.

Full update report on the Champaign County Community Coalition here. Another recent update on their CU Fresh Start program addressing gun violence interruption is available on the Cheat Sheet here.

There was a lot of local coverage of one of their recent community outreach events in the Willis Park area. Video segment available here from WAND. Below is an overview from yesterday's News-Gazette coverage:

Willis Park residents urge Champaign officials to shed some light on neighborhood
Pitch-black streets were among the biggest issues discussed by dozens of Willis Park residents who packed a neighborhood-safety forum Monday hosted by the Champaign Community Coalition...

Other sources of blight that were brought up included gun violence, rampant vandalism, and vacant homes...

Residents also said investments like youth centers, child-care facilities and mental-health services could help alleviate a lot of the burden placed on parents, the idleness of some young adults in the area and what neighborhood leaders have identified as a trauma-ridden community.

Champaign Police Chief Anthony Cobb said more neighbors have to be cooperative with police as they investigate crimes in the area. Without that cooperation, he said, it’s much more difficult and time-consuming to do an investigation, find the culprits and make arrests.

Full article available here. The News-Gazette also had an article previewing the meeting with additional information here.