A new program that tries to help Chicago police and parents prevent teens from forming large and disorderly crowds downtown appears to be successful so far.
Parents for Chicago is a free text and email communication line that started a few weeks ago. Its goal is to prevent teens from forming large gatherings, like the one that took place downtown earlier this year when crowds filled the streets and chaotic scenes erupted.
Philanthropist Early Walker teamed up with other community leaders to create the messaging system. As summer in Chicago gets underway, he says the program is working.
“We went the full Memorial Day weekend without any 'teen trends' happening, and so we definitely feel like that was a win,” Walker said, adding that at least three large meetups, billed as "teen trends," were supposed to happen that weekend at North Avenue Beach, 31st Street Beach and near Cloud Gate, also known as "The Bean."
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“Those were possible locations that had been popping up on social media,” he said. "We work with CPD, so they were like hey, we are getting notifications of this – so we sent the alerts out."
Walker says 86,000 parents have signed up so far, and he expects the number to keep growing. He is also looking for business partners to help fund the program.
Parents can subscribe to alerts by texting "CHICAGOKIDS" to 21000. Parents can also give information by emailing ParentsForChicago@gmail.com.
