CHICAGO — CeaseFire and One Northside are leading a march Friday against the violence gripping Rogers Park.
The march starts at 6 p.m. at the parking lot of Popeye's, 1959 W. Howard St., and will continue down Morse Avenue and end under the CTA "L" station.
CeaseFire seeks to prevent violence through interventions and mediation, while One Northside is a community group that seeks to "eliminate injustice through bold and innovative community organizing."
Chris Patterson, CeaseFire program manager and One Northside violence prevention organizer, said CeaseFire would then give participants an update on the work it does to fight violence in the community.
"We feel, or I feel, that overall the community may not have an idea of what CeaseFire does, and so we wanted to give the community a look into what CeaseFire is doing by talking about the number of mediations we're doing," Patterson said.
Mediations are "situations that did not turn into violence" because CeaseFire was able to de-escalate the situation, Patterson said. He said the post-march discussion would "give people an insight" into the group's purpose.
The organization will also encourage residents to meet to talk and play games from 7-9 p.m. June 3 near Clarendon Park and at the same time June 4 at Touhy and Sheridan avenues. A CeaseFire Open House will be held 6-7:30 p.m. June 17 at the organization's Northside Office, 4648 N. Racine Ave.
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