Chicago Organizations Work to Address Suicide Rates Among Black Young People

Rafiah Maxie-Cole, a licensed social worker, greets residents across different neighborhoods as she hands out gunlocks and mental health resources. (Medill)

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among children and young adults in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies have previously shown suicide rates increasing faster among Black youth than any other racial groups in Chicago.

In an effort to combat these trends, two community-led organizations in Chicago — No Kids Die in the Chi and Soul Survivors of Chicago — are working to intervene early and provide young people with culturally grounded support.

At the House of Hope Foundation in Humboldt Park, 40 to 50 kids come through the doors each day. Children as young as 10 years old gather after school to eat, play video games and receive support from mentors. That support ranges from a curriculum on anti-trauma and anti-violence guidance to receiving household essentials and getting haircuts, all aimed at providing a safe haven amid community violence and poverty. The space is run by No Kids Die in the Chi, a youth-centered platform started by Shawn Childs.

Childs said his own experiences as a young man — repeated incarceration, struggles with drug use and sustaining multiple gunshot wounds — shaped the way he connects with youth today.

“When I was kid, I thought about suicide a lot,” Childs said. “I know what got me over it. So, that’s my role to kids, I know what helped me.”

More context: 

On the city’s South Side, Rafiah Maxie-Cole, a licensed social worker, greets residents across different neighborhoods as she hands out gunlocks and mental health resources. She founded Soul Survivors of Chicago after her 19-year-old son, Jamal, died by suicide in 2020. 

“It was the worst day of my life,” she said. “I wanted to take what everybody said, to get this pain, and turn it into something that’s productive, that’s about purpose, that’s about spreading a message; because my son died and he didn’t have to die.”

Soul Survivors of Chicago is also known for one of its key initiatives, the “Walk in Purpose” project: a program that donates lightly used or new shoes from lost loved ones to those impacted by mental health, trauma or other loss. 

Suicide deaths in Chicago have noticeably risen since 2018, according to Jonathan Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago. 

However, the main distinction he makes is that with Black youth, “the percentage who are attempting is much higher compared to other folks.” Black students who attempted reportedly showed a rate of 11.8% in 2020, according to the CDC.

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City Lawyers Fought — And Won — Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed by Man Shot Twice by Police, But Taxpayers Still Paid $1.37M

Chicago police officers respond to Ariel Roman, who is seated on the ground moments after he was shot inside the Grand Red Line station on Feb. 28, 2020. (Civilian Office of Police Accountability)

Lawyers for the city of Chicago convinced a federal jury in December that a police officer did not violate the civil rights of the unarmed man she shot twice during rush hour inside one of the busiest CTA Red Line train stations in February 2020.

But that victory, which came after a court fight that stretched for nearly six years, still cost Chicago taxpayers $1.37 million, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Both former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Mayor Brandon Johnson approved a request from the city’s top lawyer to hire private attorneys to defend Officer Melvina Bogard, and her partner, Officer Bernard Butler, records show.

In fact, the city hired four private law firms to defend the city and the two officers, even after Bogard faced criminal charges of aggravated battery and official misconduct for shooting Ariel Roman in the Grand Red Line station just after 4 p.m. on Feb. 28, 2020.

In addition, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency charged with investigating police misconduct, determined the shooting violated department policy and was unjustified. The agency better known as COPA urged that Bogard and Butler be fired, and former Supt. David Brown agreed.

A Cook County judge acquitted Bogard of those charges in November 2022. While Bogard resigned before she could be disciplined for shooting Roman, the Chicago Police Board voted 5-4 in August 2023 to suspend Butler for one year rather than fire him.

The city must provide or pay for lawyers to defend police officers accused of misconduct under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, approved by the Chicago City Council.

A Community Celebrates the CTA Red Line Extension Decades in the Making

A rendering of the CTA Red Line extension project. (Courtesy of the CTA)

Plans to extend the CTA Red Line to the Far South Side of Chicago are finally on track. The Red Line extension project broke ground last month, after decades of planning and months of federal funding uncertainty.

The project would add 5.5 miles of tracks and four new stations between the current end point at 95th Street and the future end point at 130th Street.

When it’s completed, the project will connect Roseland and Altgeld Gardens to the city’s existing network of 224 miles of train tracks. And the expanded train access is expected to cut travel time to the Loop, airports and neighborhoods on all sides of the city.

For Katanya Raby, vice president of planning at the Far South Community Development Corporation and chair of the CTA Citizens Advisory Board, the groundbreaking ceremony in April had the feeling of a family reunion for everyone involved in bringing the project to fruition. 

“The energy, everyone in the community coming out, so much of our community leadership, … everyone in that space overjoyed by having this momentous occasion being celebrated,” Raby said.

Some backstory: 

Chicagoans have talked about extending the Red Line for decades. The effort gained steam in 2004, when a ballot referendum showed strong community support for the project. Two years later, the CTA began planning for the extension.

TaNesheha Marshall, the CTA’s vice president of the Red Line extension project, said federal funding granted in January 2025 was the missing piece of the project.

Then in October of that same year, the Trump administration froze the funding, claiming the CTA’s goals around granting contracts to women- and minority-owned businesses were discriminatory. However, a judge unfroze the funding in March 2026, and the groundbreaking went forward.

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Back in the Day:  May 11, 1894 - Pullman Strike Begins 

From WTTW’s Chicago Works: “The Pullman Palace Car Company, led by George Pullman, wanted to have a hand in every aspect of employees’ lives. The 4,000-acre company town of Pullman had housing for workers, a school, church, a library, a theater, and a hotel. But life there was strict, with restrictions on what tenants could do to their rental homes, dress codes, and a ban on alcohol for everyone except hotel guests. George Pullman was, in effect, the boss, the landlord, and the mayor. So when he cut wages by nearly a quarter at the railroad car manufacturer following the economic downtown of 1893, but did not lower rent, workers’ resentment boiled over.

On May 11, 1894, workers went on strike. A month later, the newly formed American Railway Union, led by prominent socialist Eugene Debs, decided to boycott Pullman cars, refusing to handle, inspect, switch, or haul Pullman cars or equipment. The movement halted trains in 27 states, bringing rail traffic in the Midwest and West to a halt for a month. But the strike did not achieve the workers’ goals. Violent clashes between strikers and authorities broke out, as some officials were given shoot-to-kill orders for any striker who destroyed property. Federal troops came to Chicago, and by the end of July, enthusiasm for the strike lost momentum. Though workers did not achieve their goal, the reputation of George Pullman took a hit. Pullman was so widely disliked that a legend emerged that he was buried under concrete and steel to prevent disgruntled employees from defacing his grave.” 

For further reading, check out Key Moments in Chicago Labor History.

This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings

Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government. 

City Council's Committee on Public Safety 

On Tuesday at 10:15 a.m., the City Council's Committee on Public Safety will hold a regular meeting, which includes a subject matter hearing on the "delays of the Chicago Police Department's procurement of a new records management system and appropriation for procuring a new acoustic gunshot technology system." For more information, click here. 

City Council's Committee on Budget and Government Operations

On Wednesday at 10 a.m., the City Council's Committee on Budget and Government Operations will hold a regular meeting, which includes a proposed "redevelopment agreement" with the South Side Community Art Center to provide funds for a property renovation. For more information and other items on the agenda, click here. 

City Council's Committee on Housing and Real Estate

On Wednesday at 12:30 p.m., the City Council's Committee on Housing and Real Estate will hold a regular meeting, which includes a discussion on the "annual report on homelessness and affordable housing." For more information and other items on the agenda, click here. 

Who is your favorite musical artist from Chicago? Tell us why. 

Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. 

• Author Dr. Gary Slutkin talks about his new book "The End of Violence: Eliminating the World's Most Dangerous Epidemic."

5:30 PM | 10:00 PM

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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry