The Peoria nonprofit Artists ReEnvisioning Tomorrow Inc., or Art Inc., is extending its programs, and its reach, into issues like gun violence prevention and workforce development.
Art Inc. co-founder Jonathon Romain said he wasn’t initially interested in pursuing a grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Office of Firearm Violence Prevention. But, as he and other staff considered the overlap between Art Inc.’s youth empowerment programs, the communities they already work in, and gun violence, Romain began to see how the pieces fit together.
“A lot of the kids we already serve, their family and their friends, are already dealing with this kind of trauma. So it wouldn’t be a far cry from a lot of the things that we’re doing inadvertently already,” said Romain. “A lot of our students, they have family members who have become victims of gun violence, some of them are perpetrators of gun violence and so we’re already dealing with that group of people anyway.”
The S.O.L.V.E. program, an acronym for Support, Outreach, Listen, Value, Empower, utilizes a “credible messenger” model. Romain said five staff members enlisted by the organization will function as messengers who have intimate knowledge of the people and community surrounding Art Inc.’s Northeast Jefferson Avenue location. The role of the messengers is to get ahead of retaliatory gun violence through community intervention and de-escalation tactics.
Romain acknowledges it’s a very similar model to the program Cure Violence, which the Peoria County Health Department attempted to launch in the city over a period of years before it eventually folded due to issues with implementation.
“Even though, theoretically, that’s not what Art Inc. started out doing and was designed to do, we organically fit nicely in that box,” said Romain.
In addition to the street outreach portion of S.O.L.V.E., the program’s team will also be working directly one-on-one with high-risk individuals, those known to have connections to shooters or have gun violence occurring around them. For these clients, the program is meant to function as a form of mentorship, and help connect them with resources like mental health care and job placement.
Romain said the S.O.L.V.E. staff underwent a 40-hour training required by the state for the program and the grant was originally awarded to the organization in March. Now, the organization is ready to begin identifying clients and getting out in the community.
“We have a memorandum of understanding with the Peoria Police Department. We have a memorandum of understanding with [Peoria Public Schools.] So, we already have community partners that, as a result of the work that we’re already doing, we work with and they were happy to extend the memorandum of understanding to this capacity that we’re moving into as well,” said Romain.
While the organization expands into a new area with direct efforts for firearm violence prevention, other grants are supporting programs familiar to Art Inc.
A grant awarded by the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Illinois Youth Investment Program helped launch “Pathways to College or Careers,” which the organization is using to provide specifically young adults ages 16 to 24 with employment training, mentorship, and on-the-job experience.
Romain said it bears a lot of similarities to a pre-existing program called Youth Leadership Teachers.
“We were taking those young people, giving them a job and preparing them as they move beyond high school,” he said.
Whether it was trade school, college, or the workforce, Romain said the programs aim to pull in young people, mentor them for three months and keep them on a path to school or work.
“Life is just a maze. It’s not that it’s a hard maze or an easy maze, it’s just a maze,” said Romain. “For many people, they have someone in their lives, or several people in their lives, that take them by the hand and walk them through the maze effortlessly.”
In some communities, Romain said, young people are being challenged with a lack of guidance and having trouble “finding their way through the maze.”
“That’s really what we’re trying to do,” he said. “Trying to show them the things that’s going to make their life easier, the things that will make them a more productive member of society and how to do it, what to do.”
There’s a lot of overlap in these programs and it all speaks to a core message Romain said Art Inc. aims to impart, culminating in a book released by the organization called “Change That Narrative.”
Romain said the organization is celebrating one year of the book’s release, and an estimated $50,000 in book sales, by bringing together the artists and community that made the book possible.
He said the celebration starts Friday evening at the Romain Arts and Culture Center with an exhibition, cultural event and spoken word performances geared towards adults. The organization is then hosting a “family fun day” in the center’s parking lot on Saturday.
“We just keep pressing forward and trying to do as much as we can to make the community we live in a better place,” said Romain. “And we’re just so happy that we have so many people that are supportive of what we’re doing.”
