Current Issue

School closings

As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.

mental health

December 10, 2012

Driven largely by an increase in calls from schools, the number of calls to the state’s mental health crisis hotline for children has soared by 37 percent over the past five years to nearly 42,000 calls in 2011—about 115 calls per day.

October 04, 2012
July 09, 2012

Thank you for your issue of Catalyst In Depth on trauma due to exposure to violence and the ripples of impact it creates. For every child whose life is cut short in a shooting incident, the collateral damage extends to witnesses, family members, friends, neighbors, teachers, principals and school personnel, from the lunchroom to the boiler room.

June 18, 2012
June 18, 2012
June 18, 2012
June 18, 2012
June 18, 2012
June 18, 2012

After recovering from a devastating illness, Veronica Coney hoped to make a fresh start with her four children in a home she rented in Chicago Lawn.

Then she and her children overheard a murder in the alley. A few weeks later, her children saw a dead body on the street as they were driving to school.  In another incident, one child saw someone holding a gun outside school. The family often heard the sound of gunfire in the neighborhood.