Announced that his News Conference will be held at 12 30 p. M. Today. We will have that live for you on cspan. On wednesday, illinois sender dick durbin talk about efforts in his home city of chicago to curve gun violence. This is just under one hour. Thank you. This is my First City Club without paul green and i miss know we all do. Fantastic person and a great a littleand always had jab for every speaker with tough questions. Im k forward to it, and sure you in his tradition make sure i face the music afterwards too. Donna fentin there is one of my fa favs. To a d say would you go cubs game with me. She said, sure. Naturally, opening day at Wrigley Field shgs you never to expect. It was a snowstorm, and we ended box, and we were there she had williams and the picture taken. Darned if she wasnt waiting on box. Ody in the i said, donna, youre a guest. Work here ave to today. Shes a wonderful lady. Table,ld the folks at my with berettas permission, shes my other girlfriend. Donna, glad youre here. Discuss thisant to afternoon is serious and i hope each and every one of you will thoughts and re questions on anything that follows. It relates to the reality of the world that we live in. Do you remember the world you in . Some people do. And many are scratching their remember. To 63 people will remember because they went to an emergency room in chicago. Some will escape with a scar. Ome will face surgeries and brain damage and some will face paralysis. Last ght chicagoans weekend, it was their last weekend on earth. Deadliest weekend in since four weeks ago. 4,435 people have been shot in chicago. 454 have been killed. Thats down from last year. Chicagos deadliest year in 20 more than 4300 people ere sthot in that year and 789 killed, but its still horrifically high. Spared from this children. Ot even last year, more than 300 children in chicago were shot. 36 died. Year, 176 r this children have been shot and 27 have died. The past june were deadliest month in chicago for more than 15 years. Being killed on average every other day. 2000, gun violence in the city have taken the lives of children. In his frustration and anger morning, eddy johnson said, this weekend of killing of , quote, the culture chicago. He added, we cannot arrest our of this crise when the a minal justice is not deterrence. Many people are working from very conceivable angle to end it. Faith leaders, many faith epresentatives today, and ill go through the remarks. Health parents, public communities, public and law enforcement. Room. You in this sometimes it must feel like youre pushing a boulder up a you are saving lives. Thank you for what you do. Today, i want to talk about to this that i believe can help. First, we need to stop the flow illegal guns into our citys neighborhoods. Applause] last year, and the year the Chicago Police department recovered more illegal guns than their and erparts than New York Los Angeles combined. Guns out of the crime of chicago come from another state. About what our Founding Fathers meant about the econd amendment to the constitution butted but we this, they werent talking about 9yearolds armed with guns. Matic hand high are the types of powered fire arms. Justice Robert Jackson once said, the suicide ion is not a pack. Agree. We can respect the constitution. Here are a few of the things and salute the state legislatures today. Have to have ould icenses, follow safety measures, and i support the efforts in spring field and salute those who are here who do as well, to radio ir reasonable safety measures. No state in illinois can top the illegal flow of guns alone. Laws on should toughen illegal gun trafficking. Trafficking ed a bill. Also close the glaring gaps on fbi background it easy for ake s, victed felons, terrorist people with instability and others to get hand weapons. With you. Nest congress will not act. He National Gun Lobby has our congress and our president noted even the most slaughter of children in ongress will change that in washington. Mike flager has spoken to this him before, and you know by reputation. Friend. About a year andahalf ago, i got a message he left for me. Father wanted to tell me about a man 26 years old, a plaintiffs exhibit. This young man had an interesting history. The man had ago, father flager n for the gangs he was having in his neighborhood. The man came and asked, will you help me, i want out. This way. To live father flager helped him. He enrolled in a ged course. Later, he was driving down the street with his randmother when two gang mothers walked up and shot her head. She survived, but he didnt. Said the funeral mass and asked the mourners this question. Young brothers would like to give up this life. Ow many of you want to go to school and get a job. Altar. Came up to the the father said, i could find obs for about three or four of them. How about the rest. How about them. Until we can answer that question, we wont end the cycle. 39 of young black and brown men percent, between the ages of 20 and 24 are not in school. Ot remember that number, 39 percent. Wide, its 29 percent of oung africanamerican and latino men out of school. 8 . Men, then the researchers looked at where the homicides occurred in chicago. They found five neighborhoods. Englewood, back of the yards, and west crossing. 32 percent of the murders. Neighborhoods, the jobless rates among young black from 7190 n ranged percent. Does anyone doubt theres a onnection between lack of jobs and violence. The mayors one Summer Chicago Program brought together organizations, Community Groups and businesses to provide jobs. Ive seen them. Theyre transformative. People, of these young its the first time in their lives theyve had the work. Bility to many other organizations are bringing jobs to the neighborhoods. Efforts. Art of the thank you. President trump tweeted that he in the feds, send closed quote, if chicago doesnt fix the carnage. I say mr. President if you want touse the federal government endlet violence in chicago, we welcome your help. Help for job training and apprenticeship programs. Help us close outrageous tax jobs opes that ship oversaez. [applause] [applause]. The senator of ohio and i introducing a bill doing just that. A sponsor in the house. Bill to expand a tax credits for employers who atrisk youth. Another bill to apply directly federal funds to support summer and yearround youth programs. Im willing to meet with this president anytime and anywhere he wants to create jobs in the city. Last proposal i want to give you, i think, is critically important and is overlooked. If we are ever going to stop the shed, we must learn to recognize and heal the deep violent and it, matic wounds expose to especially it developing brains of children. To the cook went county Detention Center and dayt the better part of the waiting for teenagers on trial waiting for those who shot people. Those waiting for trial come and go. Theyre there for long periods of time. High schools, gyms, rograms, and counseling, and i sent them there, what do you find when you sit down with men. Argely men, young whats going on here. Senator. Erything, we find bipolar. We find depression. All. D it in 92 of those who are awaiting rial and come through this juvenile Detention Center, we find the same thing. They have either been victims of to ent trauma or exposed violent trauma. Hat is not a coincidence, my friends. That is reality. Poverty grown up in and chaos. When i visit classrooms in the and other places, they say have seen you here somebody killed or had a close riend or Family Member murdered, more than half shoot up a hand in the classroom. Of you have seen someone you know loved or murdered. Had, you will never forget it. How many of you worry every day bullet could come out of nowhere and end your life loved. Ne you now ask yourself, what if you years old and worried about both of those questions. Went over to the hindz va. It was transformative to see veterans walk through the door, on a friday r afternoon and many break down in tears in front of me. Battle e going through and battling the wounds they had them. Home with think about that for a minute. Our are former members of military who were carefully inducted. Fore hey were sent into combat with careful supervision and support. Yet they come home with for counseling for psychological wounds. That childrenieve growing up around violence oping on their own could utgrow these traumatic experiences. Proof has shown that xperienced and repeated trauma leaves emotional scars that can change afetime and can childs chemistry. In ould force a child to be fight or flight mode. Could lead to many issues, cycles effectuate the of poverty. We know children facing loss will have asthma, back. R flash they are likely to have trouble on learning in school. A 2012 study found that children vocabulary eading in the er a murder neighborhood performed dramatical dramatically worse than before. Single bullet can ripple through a family and the community shattering the fragile sense of security. Leaving in its place grief and heart break. Adults that experience heart will suffer dren from heart break, stroke, addiction,epression, lung disease, liver disease, and many other conditions. Hey live sicker and die younger. Its important to stress that to all children exposed trauma and violence will develop hese problems or will have these challenges. With proper care, many children healed. Armed or in too many children with scarred neighborhoods, their bio graphy becomes their biology. Of estimated that only 25 the children in america who need Mental Health care receive it. And brown children, those likely to experience this to ence, are less likely receive the help they need to prevent trauma related mental physical disabilities. To put it another way, when it gun violence in a cago, sign me up for thousand cops but sign me up for a thousand counselors. We need them both. Heres the good news. Many have shown this path forward. Shaketi am [sp], is she here. C colleen has an amazing staff. Times about many her worth. On the daunting task of educating a senator and has done pretty well. She and her team for the Center Resilience works all over the state. Will eaders and parents recognize and help. Over tonths ago, i went pillson with her, we went to a hispanic kids, and they have decided to pick kids, 4 they could help. 4 out of 1200. Tell me was there to the story. Hispanic lady. He had me the story, two little kids in the 1st and before,e and six months the husband had walked in the living room where they were all gun and took out a killed himself. Went esult, these kids through flashbacks, night ter r terrors terrors, and became withdrawn in class. Bhoeth ofrs suggested both of them be part of this program. The changes were profound. I met the kids afterwards. Didnt know the circumstances of why i was there them. Ing with perfectly normal kids who were oing through that life shattering experience. They said, senator, im getting counseling too. We understand folks are looking for help and need places to turn. Chicago has the ability to ecome a leader in childhood trauma. Under mayor emmanuel and julie working to ago is become the largest trauma informed city in america. Ive introduced a we have a lot of people who desperately need their help. I introduced a bill in the senate to help make it happen. It is called Trauma Informed Care for children and families act. My partners are Heidi Heitkamp of north dakota and al franken from minnesota and in the house, congressman danny davis. He knows the heart break of gun violence. Last year, his 15yearold grandson was killed by two teenagers arguing over shoes and clothes. I could not ask for a better partner in this effort. The need for Trauma Informed Care is staggering. A 2013 study conducted in chicago, found nearly nine out of 10 kids age 15 to 17 had been exposed to this kind of violence. One in three lost a close friend or Family Member. One in five witnessed a murder firsthand. Few received any Mental Health services at all. This bill will build on innovation here and other places, educate and trained a train adults who can help these young people, front line people, expand medicaid coverage of trauma informed counseling and services to more schools. Enable more kids to benefit from these curriculum. Provide proven Mental Health perhaps to help young people. Young people are 21 more times 21 times more likely to go to a School Clinic than another clinic for care. We want to make sure were there to help them. Our bill will enlist community leaders. Jay and joy luster, i met jay in the course of this project. Thousands of students in chicago are taking advantage of that now. Mentors from the ymca urban warriors programs. Coach wayne garden, he has been on front lines of battle 42 years, am i right, wayne on that . He moved into lawndale neighborhood, raised his family there and never left. Wayne, thank you for all you have done with mike and others in the community. One of my friends went to jerusalem and saw a program there dealing with trauma and violence decided to bring it back here. Let me give a shout out to pastor chris harris in Bright Star Church in brownsville. Chris, thank you so much. We need to have the best practices that come out of these experiences and the ones we learned from around the country to make this better. Making these changes will not break the bank. It will make better use of money were currently spending on violence in this city. Well look at every federal program that reaches kids from head start to home visits to health care to make sure it includes strategies for identifying trauma. You know what costs more than treating trauma . Ignoring it. It has been two decades since the First Research showed us the link. Think how much money we could have saved in health costs if we followed that lead . Centers for Disease Control spendses that america 124 billion a year on health care for for Adult Patients with a history of early trauma. How many lives, how many billions of dollars a year might we save by treating childhood trauma to avoid the problem before it becomes worse . It costs dramatic amount of money to incarcerate these young people. Wouldnt it be better to counsel them . Our bill is supported by 100 chicago organizations American Academy of pediatrics, National Education association, National Council of juvenile and family courts but the most powerful endorsements for Trauma Informed Care may come from two young men from inglewood. Deshawn hanna and dan blake are cousins. Deshawn is 20. Dantrel will turn 21 this month. Both men were shot in separate incidents months apart in 2015. Dantrel has a bullet in his leg. The cousins caught a break that changed their lives when he went back to the hospital for a followup. Let me thank you, tony, for the great work that you do every single day there. You deserve a lot of applause. [applause] any went back so when he went back to stroger, he went into a woman named arecia williams. With young people who are victims of violence. She convinced them to go back an and finish high school. Then she persuaded them to get involved with chicago fire. Amazing program that uses glass blowing and therapy to heal scars of violence and chart a new course for their lives. Before they met her, they never thought of going to college. Between them, they have been accepted at five colleges and theyre weighing their options. Theyre working as peer counselors at healing hurt people, helping other young men who have been shot and lost friends and Family Members to violence. Helping to teach doctors and other Health Professionals how to recognize and heal the psychic wound that violence inflicts. Somehow, even with all of these demands, they were able to join us today. Ladies and gentlemen, a hand for them. [applause] there is a lot of hurt in this city but theres a lot of hope, too. I hope you ask yourself, what can i do about this . What can i do to make chicago a National Leader healing childhood trauma . Statues of confederate leaders reflect painful racial wound from our history, many deep, Racial Disparities continue to wound us today. Voter suppression, lack of jobs, traumatized kids in communities. We have to come to together to heal our communities. There are things we can do. Defend voting rights, work for more jobs, be an advocate for change including Trauma Informed Care for children. Be a mentor for kids who need an adult to trust. If youre part of the Corporate Community and stepped up, thank you. If you havent, please consider it. There are some great employers in our city who are hiring and training young men and women from violence scarred neighborhoods. If you talk to them, they will tell you young kids are resilient and determined workers they have. Frankly, not enough businesses are getting involved yet. We need your help. In closing, let me leave you with words of hope from one of americas great poets maya angelou. Here is what she wrote. History despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived and if faced with courage need not be lived again. Thanks for inviting me. I will take some questions. [applause] thank you very much, senator durbin. And if anybody back there in the audience has questions, hold up your blue card, members of our staff will come by, pick them up, the senator will try to answer as many questions as we can. Thank you, i would like to recognize my congressman, congressman danny davis, who just joined us. [applause] this is like a triple header today. I have my u. S. Senator, my congressman and my alderman. Boy, unbelievable. [inaudible] remember, all politics are local. This is from mike bowers sitting over here, City Club Member. What do you thi