#DearEvanston Seeks Ideas on Violence Prevention

EVANSTON, IL - A social media campaign has taken form with an aim to come up with solutions to the uptick in violent crime seen recently in Evanston.

“dear evanston” - or #dearevanston - kicked off last week encouraging all forms of expression like written narratives, artwork, music, photography, videos, poetry, sermons and opinion pieces to be used as ways to convey ideas on how to prevent violence in the local community.

“The two-month campaign seeks to engage everyone in the Evanston community—people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientations and genders; teachers, elected officials, law enforcement, religious and social service leaders—in creative and powerful conversations about the causes of violence, ways in which violence affects us all, and what part each of of us can play to help end it,” said Nina Kavin of Curt’s Cafe, one of the project’s co-directors.

As of 4:15 p.m. on Feb. 10, the ‘dear evanston’ community had 477 members. The project has also reached out for ideas on its website, Twitter account and Instagram page.

Those who follow the movement are urged to “Post YOUR stories about how violence has personally affected you (if it has) and your ideas about how we can all work together to reduce violence in our city.”

The project is one of several from the participants of Leadership Evanston XXIV. It’s an idea that was generated through the LE group project process.

In April, “dear evanston” will select a variety of posts and contributions from the campaign and produce a video from them, which will be shown at the Evanston Art Center during the Piven Theater Workshop’s production of Dead Man Walking (April 16 to May 15), and its yearlong exploration of “the Quality of Mercy.” The video will then travel to Evanston schools and organizations as a way to create a dialogue in the community.