#projectnia

[antoniaclifford-blog]

Signage for Project Nia exhibit, No Selves To Defend. (2014)

Now with its own tumblr!

[scy-chicago]

Thank you, Chicago

Written by Alyssa Petersel, Northwestern University Public Interest Fellow, Program Assistant When is the last time you took a moment to reflect on the past 10 months of your life? What have you learned? How have you changed? As my time wraps up with SCY, I find myself faced with the daunting task of summarizing my experience in a comprehensible and concise blog post for any and all to read. Upon beginning this one-year Public Interest Program through Northwestern University, I was graduating Northwestern University with dual BA degrees in psychology and international studies. You might ask, “what do you do with that?” That is a fabulous question. While I knew I was interested in violence prevention, I could not have predicted the wealth of passion, commitment, and inspiration this realm of work is brewing and eager to share. While these types of discussions usually end with thank yous, I am compelled to extend my thank yous at the beginning, for what I have learned and how I have grown would not have been possible without the continuous guidance and support of those around me. Throughout my time as a Program Assistant with SCY, I have learned about: • Restorative Justice (thank you Nancy Michaels, Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation, Embrace Restorative Practices, and Edwin Johnson) • School push out and disproportionate minority contact (thank you Project NIA, Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, and Chicago Freedom School) • Mental health needs and relevance in violence prevention (thank you Mental Health America Illinois and Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership) • Youth empowerment (thank you Mikva Challenge, Free Spirit Media, and The Peace Exchange) • Journalistic means to draw attention to issues and their solutions (thank you Jack Doppelt and Miles Harvey) • The power of a public health approach to prevention (thank you Cure Violence, CLOCC and Prevention Institute) • The impact of genuine mentorship (thank you Jody Kretzmann, Caryn Curry, and Youth Guidance - Becoming A Man) • The plague of homicide facing Chicago and how pivotal gun safety is in the solution (thank you Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence) • The importance of strong communities and safe surroundings (thank you Dr. Vessel, I Am Able) • The challenges surrounding the juvenile justice system and mechanisms to encourage positive change (thank you Juvenile Justice Initiative and Illinois Collaboration on Youth) • The positive effects healthy relationships, especially compared to harmful relationships, dating violence, or bullying (thank you Between Friends) My fellow SCY staff, Becky Levin, Director of SCY, and Kelli Day, Operations Manager at SCY, are role models, leaders and mentors who have spent the last 10 months entertaining my questions, passions, and first experience as a full-time paid employee for more than 3 months. I am proud to have been given the opportunity to be part of a team that works so diligently to strengthen this city. I specifically want to thank Karen Sheehan, a pediatrician with Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital (though she wears many hats), for her bottomless encouragement, support, and endless inspiration. While SCY is a relatively new collaborative, I look forward to the immensely positive impact to result from its ability to connect the various organizations above (and more) in order to achieve its mission to Strengthen Chicago’s Youth. To mirror SCY’s Focus on Five and to keep my insights concise, I would like to sign off with Five Lessons Learned from the past 10 months. 1. Unity. A united agenda and a united mission are significantly more impactful than a variety of segmented missions. As a united city, I believe we have the capacity to hack away at the plague of violence in Chicago. Divided, we will hardly make a dent. 2. Persistence. Prior to this experience, I underestimated the amount of time and determination it takes to truly create change. I admire the organizations and individuals striving for change in light of this understanding. 3. The Golden Rule. This one many of us learned when we were children. Contrary to lesson 2, while immense change takes time, resources, and tireless effort, change can be free, and can happen every day. Small acts of kindness go a long way. 4. Say yes. If a co-worker asks you for a favor, say yes. If a fellow organization is hosting a fundraiser and sends you an invitation, say yes. If you are given the opportunity to explore Pilsen, but you have never been there and new neighborhoods intimidate you, say yes. The more you “yes,” the more you learn, and the more you are able to do and be. 5. We all have something to learn, and we all have something to give. Earlier in my life, I imagined that at some point I would have it all figured out. I also, along the same lines, figured that the “adults” around me already had it all figured out. The truth, which has been begging to shatter my simplistic and idealistic thinking for some time, is that none of us have it figured out, and it is not guaranteed that we ever will. The beauty of this is that we can learn from every experience, every interaction, and every other person we ride the elevator with, and others can learn from us, too. As I embark on the next chapter of my life, I bid this community a “farewell for now,” because I know I will carry Chicago with me every step of the way, and the violence prevention forces in Chicago have not seen the last of me yet.

[antoniaclifford-blog]

A Youth-Friendly Reader about the Trayvon Martin case. Project NIA. (2013).

PDF available here.

[scy-chicago]

How can we reshape violent song lyrics’ effect on our youth?

What is the effect of violent lyrics on youth? In recent years, research studies have increasingly demonstrated that frequent exposure to violent media has a violent effect on youth. For example, a psychological study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that college students who heard a violent song, replicated across songs and song types, felt more hostile than those who heard a similar but nonviolent song. Similarly, the Annual Review of Public Health published an article determining that media violence poses a threat to public health inasmuch as it leads to an increase in real-world violence and aggression. More specifically, a public interest study on Music and Aggression revealed a correlation between sexual-aggressive song lyrics and aggression-related thoughts, emotions, and behavior toward the same and the opposite sex. The Psychological Science in the Public Interest Journal confirms that research on violent television and films, video games, and music reveals unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts. Why does this happen? According to research like the studies mentioned above, violent media in the short-term primes aggressive scripts and thought processes that already exist in our minds. This increases psychological arousal and triggers an automatic human tendency to imitate observed behaviors. Therefore, in the short-term, our brains are reminded of primal instincts and we are inclined to mimic the behavior we are listening to or watching on TV. In the long-term, through a variety of learning processes, we acquire lasting and automatically accessible aggression-supporting beliefs about social behavior, which desensitizes us, or reduces our normal negative emotional response to violence, and encourages us to be more accepting if not more encouraging of violent behavior. Does music affect everyone the same way? Donald Roberts, Peter Christenson, and Douglas Gentile bring up a valuable point in their article on the effects of violent music on children and adolescents when they say that listeners respond to the music in terms of various social, psychological and physical conditions that influence how they use music, how they interpret messages, and whether, when, and how they act on what they have learned. This approach can also fit within a risk factor approach, in which children who are already at risk for suicide or violence may increase their risk by heavy use of music extoling those themes. However, for children without pre-existing risk factors, or for those who have a number of protective factors, music with themes of suicide or violence is likely to have little short-term effect. A study on the social uses of music reflects that youth utilize music as a means of understanding themselves and their social context. Two of the key developmental tasks in middle childhood, when popular music starts to become a strong interest of youth, are (1) to learn how to be accepted by peers and to build meaningful friendships and (2) to consolidate the self-concept. Popular music serves these goals very well. In adolescence, two key developmental tasks are (1) to learn to build intimate relationships, both same-sex and cross-sex, and (2) to develop a personal identity, in terms of, “how am I different from others?” Popular music continues to serve these goals very well, by becoming part of the social backdrop for exploring feelings of intimacy and by defining in-groups and out-groups along lines of musical preferences. In 1990, Rouner exposed that youth resort to music as a means of guidance. When asked to rank music against several other possible sources of moral and social guidance, including parents, teachers, friends, church leaders, and coworkers, 16 percent of high school students ranked music among the top three sources of moral guidance, and 24 percent placed music in the top three for information on social interaction. This illustrates that lyrics are often a source of moral, social, and personal guidance for youth, and depending on what sort of guidance they are receiving elsewhere, their dependence on and interpretation of violent music may be different. What can we do? The negative effects of violent lyrics on our youth can be approached from a number of angles. Regarding the content of the songs, some groups are already very active in protesting to limit youth’s engagement with violent lyrics. For example, the Chicago Sun-Times highlights Kwabena Rasuli, founder of The Clear the Airwaves Project, as a change-maker fighting for radio stations to limit child access to vulgar music. Beyond limiting youth access to the music, we can better understand the way youth interpret the music, or encourage deeper analysis. Groups like Project NIA’s Circles and Ciphers gather youth and encourage using popular music as inspiration for writing and rapping creative self-written music. This avenue opens the door to vulnerability in ways that can be healing and encouraging rather than aggressive and negative. Similarly, Jessica Disu, a Peace Builder within The Peace Exchange, hosted Transforming Pain into Power November 23, a panel themed on reducing violence in Chicago sandwiched by performances by groups like Lyric Mentoring and FM Supreme (Jessica Disu herself), which exemplified a community’s capacity to honor inspiring youth by opening up the floor to their words and experiences. Thirdly, we can provide stronger protective factors for youth who are already at risk of violent tendencies that are amplified by violent music. For example, movements in Chicago Public Schools to incorporate Restorative Practices, including peer juries and peace circles, are strong steps in the right direction. Groups like Alternatives, Inc. provide guidance in restorative justice, youth empowerment, and career and employment services. Additionally, heightened mental health services and mentors are crucial. Groups like C4, or Community Counseling Centers of Chicago, help heighten resilience and understanding of self and others among youth. If we want the influence of violent lyrics to change, we need to take charge of providing the guidance youth receive from music in stronger, more positive ways. We can start by listening to the youth in order to become more aware of their circumstances and why they might be yearning for violent music to soothe them. Once we better understand our youth, we are more able to realize and to address the voids in their lives that violent music has a tendency of amplifying rather than healing.