For immediate release
Chicago, IL - January 23, 2025
As crime and public safety are top of mind across Chicago’s communities, there are people who are working to prevent conflict before it happens and stop it from escalating when it does. Throughout 2025 beginning on February 17, WTTW will spend a year exploring violence interruption and prevention in Chicago in FIRSTHAND: PEACEKEEPERS, a series of documentaries, expert talks, investigative journalism, and community engagement focusing on extraordinary people who are making a difference. Through their firsthand accounts, we witness their struggles and triumphs as they mentor youth, build trust, and mediate conflicts.
Explore the initiative on February 17, 2025 at wttw.com/firsthand.
“At a moment when Americans across the country are concerned about public safety, Firsthand: Peacekeepers will highlight the power of community-driven efforts and solutions in our local community,” said Sandra Cordova Micek, President and CEO of WTTW. “With a 360-degree approach, through documentary storytelling, news reporting, and community engagement, WTTW will advance our purpose, mission, and values to serve the public with powerful, firsthand storytelling about a topic of critical importance to the future of our city.”
DOCUMENTARIES
The Firsthand: Peacekeepers documentaries introduce five individuals who are working to create peace in their Chicago neighborhoods. From a judge presiding over a restorative justice court in North Lawndale, to a community leader offering safe spaces for teens in Roseland, to community violence intervention workers in Roseland, East Garfield Park, and Humboldt Park, these peacekeepers draw on both ancient wisdom and modern research to heal their communities.
Damien Morris, a peacekeeper dedicated to making one neighborhood safer, finds himself driving from one crisis to the next as he stops at crime scenes, visits victims at the hospital, mediates disputes, brokers peace agreements, and leads peace circles. But when Garfield Park’s violence hits too close to home, Damien’s peacekeeping skills are put to the test.
Judge Patricia Spratt spends most of her week in a traditional courtroom in Maywood, where she rules on contentious financial disputes. But every Thursday she turns her attention to healing and reconciliation in North Lawndale, where she leads the neighborhood’s Restorative Justice Community Court. Her role is to transform young lives through restorative justice, with the goal of healing victims, the community, and the offenders themselves.
Diane Latiker, founder of the grassroots organization Kids Off the Block, has been keeping the peace in Roseland for the past 20 years by offering positive alternatives to gangs and drugs. She runs the initiative, which provides food, clothing, and activities, from the living room of her modest home. Diane hopes that by helping her neighbors survive and thrive, she will help them avoid becoming either a shooter or a victim. But that can be a difficult task in a place like Roseland, as she is reminded on a late summer Saturday, when one of her “kids” loses his mother to gun violence.
Adrian Rodriguez is working to bring peace to the same streets that his gang-involved family once claimed as territory. His parents were among the founders of Humboldt Park’s Spanish Cobras in the 1970s. Now he's using those same neighborhood connections to broker peace and build community. But a late-summer walk through the park reveals to Adrian that his neighborhood’s challenges run deeper than he had ever imagined.
Cedric Hawkins was given a second chance and he’s determined not to let it go to waste. After his life prison sentence was commuted, he returned to Chicago to push peace in the same neighborhoods where he once sold narcotics. Cedric is working for a nonprofit, where his job is to de-escalate conflicts, broker peace agreements among local gangs, and recruit others to help in these efforts. But Cedric gets a painful reminder of how much work is left to be done when one of his teenage participants is brutally shot and killed.
TALKS
Through the lens of personal experiences and hands-on professional expertise, five expert talks will offer historical context, personal stories, and new ideas for possible solutions to crime and violence in Chicago.
“How Youth Lead Peacekeeping”
Monserrat (Monse) Ayala, Youth Program Liaison/Organizer, Increase the Peace
“The Hidden Toll of Peacekeeping”
Kathryn Bocanegra, Assistant Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois Chicago
“Can Social Media End Gun Violence?”
Olivia Brown, Program Manager, Project Unloaded
“When We Become Visible”
Ernest Cato, Chief Public Safety Officer, Illinois Department of Corrections; Former Deputy Chief Commander, Chicago Police Department
“Interrupting Violence Through Mercy”
Riccardo (Cobe) Williams, Director of National Programs, Cure Violence Global; Co-Founder, One City Basketball League
PARTNERSHIPS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
In partnership with Chicago CRED, Breakthrough, and the Chicago Public Library, WTTW will present community screenings and conversations throughout the year focusing on violence interruption and prevention in Chicago and beyond. These events will invite residents, thought leaders, and policymakers to engage in dialogue and explore ways to effect positive change. The Firsthand: Peacekeepers community engagement effort will begin with a kickoff event at the WTTW studios on Monday, February 17 at 6:30 pm.
JOURNALISM
Throughout 2025, WTTW will publish text and visual reporting about the landscape of public safety policy in Chicago, how Chicago compares to other cities in its approach to violence prevention, the Chicago Public School system’s role in reducing crime, how social media is used to prevent violence, the effectiveness of non-traditional peacekeeping methods, and more. And on Monday, February 17 at 5:30 and 10:00 pm, WTTW’s flagship news program Chicago Tonight will present a special episode dedicated to the topic of violence, peacekeeping and public safety in Chicago.
DISCUSSION & RESOURCE GUIDE
WTTW will publish and distribute a discussion guide that will serve as a downloadable companion to the project, providing direction and prompts for meaningful discussion and engagement around the issue.
The Firsthand: Peacekeepers documentaries were directed by Teresa White, Latesha Dickerson, Teresa Crawford, Edgar Vargas, and Mario Tharpe; and executive produced by Dan Protess and Anne Gleason. Community engagement efforts are led by WTTW Vice President of Community Engagement and DEI Tim Russell. The Firsthand Talks were produced by Judith McCray with production advisor and TEDxChicago Co-Director and Speaker Coach Dustin Huibregtse and executive produced by Anne Gleason.
Lead support for Firsthand: Peacekeepers is provided by Ann and Rich Carr. Major support is provided by Knight Impact Partners. Additional support is provided by the Lohengrin Foundation, the Edwardson Family Foundation, and other generous sponsors.
WTTW is the PBS member station in Chicago, committed to creating and presenting unique media content across distinct television and digital channels – WTTW, WTTW Prime, WTTW Create, WTTW World, WTTW/PBS Kids 24/7, wttw.com, and the PBS app. Recognized for award-winning journalism and local productions – such as Chicago Stories, Chicago Tonight, Chicago by ‘L’, digital series Firsthand and Urban Nature; and national productions Prehistoric Road Trip and Nature Cat – WTTW presents the very best in public affairs, arts and culture, nature and science, history and documentary, and children’s public media content. Connect with WTTW on Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube.
