CIS Student Supports Manager LaToya Winton provides direct, 1:1 support to students at an elementary school in West Englewood, the neighborhood that she grew up in, and each day, she sees the pernicious effects that gun violence has on her students. Gun violence prevention isn’t in her job description, but so much of her work involves helping young people cope with and curb community violence.
In her essay, published in Chalkbeat Chicago, LaToya shares why supporting students in West Englewood is so important — and personal — for her, and she provides some key principles that grounds her work. “How do you teach students to avoid violence?” LaToya writes. “It starts with building trusting relationships with young people and steadily equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need to lead safer lives.”
