The phone rang, and it was Arne Duncan on the line. He was on his way to Roseland, he said, in hopes he might help prevent violent retribution for a killing the previous week.
The homicide happened outside the Youth Peace Center of Roseland, on Chicago's Far South Side. Stephon Mack, 24, the man who was killed, had come for the life coaching and job training provided by Duncan’s organization, Create Real Economic Destiny, better known as CRED. A security guard trying to protect him also was shot.
CRED identifies young men and women most likely to be involved in violent crime and seeks to change their lives before they shoot or get shot. There are roughly 25,000 such “acutely at-risk” young people in about 15 Chicago neighborhoods, CRED’s research shows.
