5 days ago
Metropolitan Peace Initiative crisis response team helps teens manage conflict during 'trend season'
When the weather gets warm and teens gather at Chicago's beaches and downtown, it's known as "trend season," and while you might have seen the videos of these large gatherings, what you don't see are the adults woven in trying to make a difference.
"We're building relations with the businesses so when the teens already get down here, we already have that established with the businesses," said Rodney Phillips, a crisis responder with Metropolitan Peace Initiative. "They already know what we're doing, why we're here."
Phillips, who is also associate director of the crisis response program, is in the streets and on the ground during teen trend. While he's certainly not a teen anymore, he listens to them and tries to understand them.
"It's frustrating when some of the teens are criticized, and it's frustrating when you see people, what they just see on the news, but when you're the boots on the ground and you're in the thick of it, it's a lot of layers to it," he said.
The crisis responders unpack each of those layers with conversation.
"Now we have a personal relationship with some of the trenders," Phillips explained. "So when you have a personal relationship, they open up a little more, and they may tell you what's going on in their personal lives; where they may say, I don't have nowhere to stay, or I'm trying to et back into school, or I have a substance abuse problem."
For 18 weeks members of the crisis response team train in classrooms before they go out into the field and star talking to teens during trends.
"A lot of times, like, 'Nice shoes, kid!' you know, who doesn't want to be complimented? And I think that's a good ice breaker," said Sharona Giles, director of the crisis prevention and response unit.
Giles offered some insight into how their team of 25 adults makes connections in a crowd of hundreds of teens.
"Body language is huge," she said. "I think that's the biggest kind of indicator, but also who's surrounded? Like, if you see somebody, and he has all the girls around him, he's probably charismatic, he's probably got some skills. He's probably someone we want to pay attention to, because he has all of these other kids around him."
They build relationships and sometimes break up tense situations.
"It could get scary," Philips said. "It's dark. It's 500 kids. You're breaking up, simultaneously, fights; like small brush fires, and, because of that, dangerous things can happen."
After two years, they believe their work has prevented violence.
"The endgame is to connect them to resources that's going to help their personal development, so we can get them the resources that they need," said Phillips.
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