After previously organizing teen takeovers in downtown Chicago, one Englewood resident moved towards volunteer work. NBC Chicago’s Courtney Sisk reports.
If you think back to warm summer nights, you might also recall large so-called "teen takeovers" in downtown Chicago, straining police resources, angering downtown residents and, in some cases, leading to shootings.
For weeks city leaders scrambled to try and prevent them, suggesting curfews or ticketing parents. The teen gatherings eventually slowed down about midway into summer.
What happened? The Mayor's Office of Community Safety might have an explanation.
"Far too many times we try to tell people 'this is what you should do, this is how you should do it' instead of actually having conversations about what they want," Deputy Mayor Garien Gatewood told NBC Chicago. "We all have to do a better job of stepping back and listening."
Gatewood's team of violence interrupters and de-escalators set out to do just that. At a teen takeover one night, they tracked down the young man responsible for planning them.
"I was just thinking about doing some things to try and gather kids just to have fun," said now-22-year-old Darryl Hess.
Hess ran a social media account with tens of thousands of followers. He would post a place and time for young people across the city to meet up, and to his surprise, the first posts drew hundreds of thousands of likes and shares.
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In some instances the gatherings ended in vandalism or shootings where people got injured.
"I really feel sad about it," Hess said. "I never knew it was going to be that rambunctious. I hoped really for the best. It just got out of control."
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The Office of Community Safety approached Hess and made him a deal, offering a new path.
"They were like, 'We can get you to work with some people who could really mold you to be better,'" Hess said. "So I thought about it, and then when Monday came, I was just excited to start a brand-new chapter."
He left the takeovers behind and started on a new page toward the end of summer.
Now Hess works on events hosted by the Office of Community Safety team, volunteers for non-profits and interns at Ald. Lamont Robinson's office.
"He's great to work with," said Gatewood. “He's a prime example of if you give a person an opportunity, other things can happen and other things can change."
And on Friday Hess gave back to a community he once influenced. He helped teach students life-saving measures at a Stop the Bleed event at the Gary Comer Youth Center.
"Change starts now," Hess said. "I can't worry about what happened in the past; we can only do what we can do right now."
For any other young person in a similar situation as Hess was once in, he offers word of advice.
"Life is what you make it," he said. "It's more than being a part of your environment and a statistic out here. You can ultimately do anything you want."
As for his future, he hopes to one day lead a business of his own and continue working in the community.
