It's starting to feel like summer at last. The sun is out. School is nearing an end. Flip flops and shorts are making their annual comeback.

At ALSO, we know that summer's approach means something else, too, something with serious implications for our work and our community. The summer months bring a spike in violence. More families afraid to spend time together outdoors, more shots fired, more people injured, and more lives lost.

ALSO has the expertise to help combat the summer spike in Humboldt Park, but we need your help. Current funding supports 3 part-time Safe Streets outreach workers, each compensated for 20 hours a week. Each worker carries a caseload of 10 clients for three months. But the streets don't operate on business hours and when our staff get calls from their clients, they go whether or not they're paid to.    

20 hours a week already isn't enough. It certainly isn't enough to cover the spike in violence we begin to see in May.

Violence starts to spike in May. Give today to support street violence prevention and intervention. Your $20 or more means at least an hour's worth of conflict mediation or mentoring for people living in-risk.

With your help, we can make the summer safer in Humboldt Park.

Thank you in advance for your contribution.