Gun violence in the Holiday Park neighborhood in Champaign has decreased significantly in the last five years, according to data from the Champaign Police Department.

In 2020, residents of Holiday Park were concerned about the increasing number of shootings in and around their neighborhood. One resident told CU-CitizenAccess about a time his son asked if he was going to be shot while walking their dog.

Now, incidents occur less frequently in the neighborhood.

Hendrix was voted onto the Unit 4 School Board earlier this year, and he said some residents are concerned about the proximity of incidents to the nearby schools, including Kenwood Elementary School, Jefferson Middle School and Centennial High School.

“Children are traveling to schools in this area,” he said. “Children also play in this area after school hours. Children also exist in these communities where guns exist where they should not, but those are the realities that we are living in.”

A review of shots fired reports within the boundaries of the neighborhood each year decreased by roughly 80% from 2020 to 2025. 

Holiday Park is bounded north-to-south by John Street and Kirby Avenue and east-to-west by Kenwood and Duncan roads, according to city web page on neighborhood associations. It is also nearby the Ridgewood neighborhood.

Gun violence in Champaign has decreased overall, according to data from the Champaign Police Department. As of Oct. 13 this year, 56 shootings have been reported. That number indicates a downward trend since the sharp increase in gun violence in 2020 and 2021.

“Between 2020 and 2022, Champaign experienced historic levels of gun violence that aligned with a national trend,” said patrol Lt. Kaitlin Fisher, who oversees the southwest district of the city, which includes Holiday Park.

Hendrix also said he was grateful for efforts from community groups like First Followers, Driven to Reach Excellence & Academic Achievement for Males (DREAAM) and Goal Getters as well as city initiatives.

“The city has been doing more productive work than they have been in previous years when it comes to things like the blueprint plan and how they’re investing not just monetary means, but actually investing insight and educational resources into families and programming to ensure that we are combating gun violence,” he said.

$450,000 street outreach contract part of city’s next steps

The Champaign City Council adopted the Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint in 2022, and it details at-risk populations, costs and strategies for preventing gun violence.

The City of Champaign also approved a $450,000 contract with Chicago-based community health organization Acclivus in June as part of the next step for the blueprint. The organization held several meetings with community partners to better inform them of how they plan to operate in Champaign.

Champaign city councilmember Shauna Clayborn declined to comment and directed CU-CitizenAccess to Acclivus’s information sessions.

In a meeting at the Housing Authority of Champaign County on Oct. 30, Acclivus Chief Operating Officer Sheila Regan met with residents to share past data and introduce the nonprofit’s street outreach methods, which will be implemented in Champaign.

“If violence is a tool in your toolbox, nobody’s gonna ever take that tool 100% out of your toolbox,” Regan said. “But if you would use violence to solve 99 out of 100 of your problems, what we like to do is get it down to a smaller number.”

Jorge Elvir, community relations manager for Champaign’s equity and engagement department, said street outreach was something the city wanted to include in the blueprint from the beginning.

“We’re doing that preventative, proactive work prior to [shootings] so that we can reduce those numbers, right, so we can address those issues,” he said.

Acclivus also announced it is offering five full-time positions to residents to take part in the initiative. Applications are available on the organization’s website.