Violence prevention center opens up in former Englewood elementary school

May Elementary School closed its doors in 2016 during widespread Chicago Public School shutdowns, but that didn’t stop it from being an active community center. The building, now the Center of Englewood, serves as a food pantry, a child development center, a medical center and, on Wednesday, launched the Gandhi King Center for Nonviolence to celebrate Black History Month.

The new center, housed alongside the other community services in the former school, was named in honor of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. because of their anti-violence efforts, said organizers of the nonviolence center.

The center received $50,000 from Discount Tire and Medstar Laboratory to help get started and to provide a mobile food pantry to serve Englewood.

Fifteen agencies, including Shepherd’s Hope, Bethel Mennonite Community Church, The Link and Option Center, Medstar Laboratory and The American Association of Multi Ethnic Physicians, worked together for two years to get the center up on its feet. Wednesday’s launch included a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a chance for speakers from across the agencies to address what they envision the center could do to make Englewood and surrounding communities safer and to create nonviolent approach to resolving conflicts.

“We will do day-to-day mediation and crisis intervention,” said Vijay Prabhakar, chairman of the American Association of Multi Ethnic Physicians. “In addition to that, we plan to have meditation classes, yoga classes and wellness screenings.”

Prabhakar said their guest of honor, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, was invited for her support of gun violence reduction programs and her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic where he nicknamed her “the Iron Lady of America.”

“Who should launch this project?” asked Prabhakar, reminiscing on the days when plans were being made for that very day. “Should we invite the governor or the mayor, right? We all decided we should have somebody who really believes and (walks the walk) of the principles of Gandhi and King, and that’s none other than the Iron Lady of America.”

Preckwinkle said nearly half of Cook County’s $8 billion budget goes toward health care, and that Cook County hospitals have some of the most well-regarded emergency room trauma centers in the country.

“We train young people in the Navy for combat in our emergency room. The Navy sends young people to our emergency room to be trained so they will know what it’s like to treat combat wounds,” she said. “Now, we’re pleased that we’re able to help our military in this way. But it’s a tragedy that we have a hospital that’s equivalent to a military hospital where you’re treating gunshot wounds.”

Preckwinkle’s spokesman Nicholas Mathiowdis said that although Cook County did not directly provide funds for this nonviolence center, the county does want to support and uplift gun violence prevention programs.

“The county has re-imagined the way we look at gun violence, instead of looking at it as a crime and law issue, we are looking at it as a public health crisis,” said Mathiowdis.

Cook County received $1 billion from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act, and has laid out plans for spending it on health and wellness, economic development and criminal justice.