In 1997, when Jacqueline Gamble was 13 years old, she was shot multiple times. As a gun violence survivor, the Roseland native has been voluntarily helping to resolve intra-community conflicts in her neighborhood.
“It’s a part of living in the environment. It’s part of knowing who is better to be hands-on than someone who has that experience [as a gun violence victim],” Gamble said.
In 2023, Gamble became a volunteer with Chicago CRED’s Peacekeepers Program, a violence intervention initiative that falls under the nonprofit’s Flatlining Violence Inspiring Violence (FLIP) strategy. Chicago CRED, founded in 2016 by former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, aims to prevent gun violence in Chicago through street outreach, therapy, life coaching and job training.
The organization launched its Peacekeepers Program in 2018; it’s unaffiliated with the youth nonprofit GoodKids MadCity’s summer peacekeeping pilot program, which launched in 2024. In 2018, CRED received a $1 million private investment into its Peacekeepers Program. Since then, CRED’s Peacekeepers Program has expanded to 1,200 peacekeepers and serves 40 Chicago and suburban communities and 200 hotspots identified through crime data and Chicago CRED outreach workers.
On Thursday, Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson applauded a new Northwestern University study that found the Peacekeepers Program led to a 41% reduction in victimizations within violence “hotspots” in 2023 to 2024 compared to the previous two-year period. Peacekeeper community areas saw a 31% decrease in shooting victimizations from 2023 to 2024 compared to the previous two-year period, according to the study. Additionally, the study also found that 68% of the conflict mediations conducted by Peacekeepers were “successfully resolved.”
“We are freeing our communities from the age-old patterns of crime and violence. That bold and innovative approach has produced truly remarkable results,” Pritzker said about the state-funded program. In 2023, according to the study, the Illinois Office of Firearm Violence Prevention — which is housed within the Illinois Department of Human Services — funded the program as it transitioned into a year-round initiative.
Pritzker’s proposed 2026 budget includes funding for the Peacekeepers Program and support for other community violence intervention programs statewide. In 2021, he signed the Reimagine Public Safety Act into law to address gun violence.
Violent crime is down in Chicago. In the first quarter of 2025, Chicago reportedly had the fewest murders since 2019. Robberies are also much lower. There were fewer robberies in the first three months of 2025 for the first time in decades.
At the Pullman Community Center, where the press conference to celebrate the program took place, Johnson also pointed to the city’s reduction in crime.
“While this is encouraging news, we know that any shooting or any death is one too many, as we still have a lot of work to be done,” Johnson said. “The Peacekeepers Program has proven to be an effective tool for reducing violence, and it shows what can happen when we actually listen to one another and work with the community.”
Chicago CRED’s Peacekeepers are typically on call and work daily between 2:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. However, during the summer months, their work can carry over into the midnight hours. They log their interactions similarly to a doctor summarizing an appointment with a patient after a visit, Gamble explained. Sometimes they’re working in their own communities, or they can be deployed to help in other areas; for example, sometimes they’re sent out to mediate and diffuse conflict during teen trends. They do all they can to resolve issues peacefully.
“We basically just mediate and negotiate; we disperse, we extinguish, whatever it takes to keep down gun violence between opposing [groups],” Gamble said.
Alongside the state-funded CRED program, the Johnson administration has released data. According to the 2024 Youth Impact Report released this week, 27,793 young people were employed through the city’s One Summer Chicago Program during summer 2024. The report also features job programs, such as GKMC’s peacekeeping program which employed 100 young people on the South Side.
“There is a clear correlation between the work of Peacekeepers and the declines in gun violence at hot spots and their surrounding communities,” said Andrew Papachristos, faculty director for Northwestern University’s Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science (CORNERS). He also gave remarks during Thursday’s press conference.
“The research suggests CVI [community violence intervention] in Chicago is making important strides in our public safety,” he added.
Duncan also attended and spoke at the press conference. Before serving as Education Secretary under the Obama administration, Duncan was the CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS). In 2022, he expressed interest in running for mayor, but changed his mind. Notably, in 2023, he backed his CPS predecessor Paul Vallas’ run for mayor.
“Chicago is six times more violent than New York. We are three to four times more violent than LA and it doesn’t have to be that way,” Duncan said. “I always say it’s not our children’s fault. It’s our fault as adults, educators, communities. We have to give our children their childhoods back on the South and West sides.”
Pritzker also took a jab at President Donald Trump, who dissolved the White House Office of Gun Violence after taking office in January.
Pritzker referenced a memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that proposed cutting all federal violence intervention funds, which would impact state-funded community violence intervention programs like the Peacekeepers Program. For months, Pritzker has been going toe to toe with Trump, and there’s speculation that Pritzker may throw his hat into the ring for president in 2028.
“I’m just going to say out loud what I know a lot of us are thinking in this room. Donald Trump is ‘OK’ if people in Chicago die. Why? Because he wants to cut life-saving programs,” Pritzker said. “People will die if we cut violence intervention programs. We must do all that we can to stop this from happening.”
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