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Arne Duncan Pushes Employment To Counter Chicago’s Violence

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We sit down in Chicago with former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He’s trying to tackle Chicago’s violence with jobs.

In this file photo ,former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan talks with high school students Genario Ferrel, left, and Taylor McClain, middle, during a tour on the University of Louisville campus in Louisville, Ky. (Dylan Lovan/AP)
In this file photo ,former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan talks with high school students Genario Ferrel, left, and Taylor McClain, middle, during a tour on the University of Louisville campus in Louisville, Ky. (Dylan Lovan/AP)

Arne Duncan, managing partner at the Emerson Collective. Former U.S. Secretary of Education in the Obama Administration. Former CEO of Chicago Public Schools. (@arneduncan)

Curtis Toler, community change leader with the Emerson Collective. Leader in outreach at the National Center for Violence Interruption. Gang intervention specialist for the Peacemakers at St. Sabina Church. Former Chicago gang leader.

Carl Veney, 23-year old recent participant in the Emerson Collective’s pilot jobs training program, in the Pullman neighborhood, in Chicago’s far South Side

From Tom’s Reading List

Chicago Magazine: Can Arne Duncan Save Chicago? — "Arne Duncan spends a lot of time in Cook County Jail these days. He regularly meets with inmates, 40 to 50 at a time, listening—reallylistening—to their stories and asking what might have kept them out of trouble. It’s not a new practice. He’s always prided himself on having his ear to the ground. Whenever he visited Chicago while still in the cabinet, he would chat up people on the South Side during neighborhood pickup games and stop by the jail even then."

Chicago Tribune: Arne Duncan: Police can't stop Chicago's violence, business community must step up -- "A pilot program Emerson has launched in the Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side gives a glimpse of what its presence could look like. There, 28 young men ages 18 to 24, promised pay of $15 an hour, were recruited to join a two-week job readiness program run with the help of Cara, a job training provider, which taught life skills like conflict resolution and time management. Then the men were given six- to eight-week transitional jobs."

FiveThirtyEight: Teaching Youth To Think ‘Slow’ May Help Reduce Crime -- "Being in a bad school in a rough neighborhood and from a poor family is not the ideal environment for developing self-control, but programs that focus on behavior and cognition, like this one, might help. New research concludes that participation in the weekly BAM sessions lowered boys’ chances of being arrested for a crime, though it’s unclear if it improved school attendance, as a past study of the program had shown."

This program aired on November 11, 2016.

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