During a career in violence prevention that started in the dark days of the 1980s, Frank Perez has seen a lot, but nothing like what he saw at the Garfield Park fieldhouse this week: a gym packed with workers from more than a dozen non-profit anti-violence organizations, talking about nine-figure spending plans.
As summer — and a seasonal surge in violence — draws closer, members of a coalition of anti-violence groups gathered to point to positive signs after two straight years of soaring violent crime in Chicago.
