The City of Champaign is starting a new street outreach program with the help of a nonprofit private firm specializing in violence prevention.
The city approved a $450,000 one-year contract with Acclivus Inc., a national organization based in Chicago, last July. Acclivus will hire several community-based outreach workers who mediate conflicts and intervene within communities before violence even takes place.
Jorge Elvir, who oversees the city’s Community Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint, said the city planned to hire four outreach workers and two supervisors for this program.
“We’re in the process of hiring street outreach workers right now: people from the community who know the neighborhoods and can help de-escalate conflicts before they turn into shootings,” Elvir said in a December interview. “That’s our next proactive step: being in the neighborhoods, mediating conflicts, and preventing violence before it happens.”
This outreach program is part of the city’s blueprint, which was published and approved by City Council in February 2022. The blueprint outlines programs, activities and services organized by three goals set by the city:
- To prevent and reduce gun violence and promote community safety
- To enhance community engagement and support
- To ensure the most effective use of available and potential resources
Acclivus will provide community services such as real time violence interruption, mediation and conflict resolution between street groups. Staff coordinate with blueprint partners and program evaluators regularly, according to the agreement.
Meanwhile, gun violence in Champaign has decreased overall since peaking during the pandemic, according to newly-compiled police data covering the past five years.
During the pandemic, Champaign experienced a historically high number of shootings, specifically between the years 2019 and 2021.
In 2019, there were 100 confirmed shooting incidents. There were at least 34 people shot and two killed. The number of shootings in 2020 nearly doubled to 189, with at least 57 people shot and ten killed.
Shootings reached a peak in 2021, when the city recorded 259 shooting incidents, 77 shooting victims and 16 gun-related homicides.
The number of shootings began to fall in 2022 with 129 incidents, 54 people wounded and seven killed. In 2023, police recorded half of the incidents than the year before with 64 shooting incidents, 30 people struck and four killed.
But in 2024, that number rebounded slightly to 88 total incidents, 31 people struck and five killed.
Incidents decreased again in 2025, reaching a similar level compared with 2023 — but the number of homicide victims increased. Last year, there were 66 incidents, 21 people struck by gunfire and eight killed.
Blueprint no longer federally funded
The city’s blueprint originally presented an annual spending plan of about $3.19 million to reduce community gun violence. The blueprint said $2.74 million, about 85% of the budget, was put towards the plan’s first goal to prevent and reduce gun violence and promote public safety.
But Champaign’s approach to gun violence prevention has adjusted because federal funding through grants was only temporary, so funding now comes out of the city’s budget.
“The blueprint initially started with [American Rescue Plan Act] funds during COVID,” Elvir said. “Now it’s funded directly out of the city budget.”
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was a relief bill passed in March 2021 to help the economy recover from disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included emergency funding for state and local governments.
Because the program is no longer funded by federal dollars, Elvir said the blueprint has to be approved annually by the Champaign City Council as part of the city’s budgeting process.
“Every year we go up for funding just like every other department,” he said.
About $2.59 million in expenditures categorized as blueprint-related was listed in the 2025-26 fiscal year adopted budget through the city’s Equity and Engagement Department, which implements the blueprint. This includes $1.25 million in funding to various partners like First Followers, which received $442,794 for reentry services.
First Followers is Champaign’s largest blueprint-funded partner, providing mentoring, counseling, reentry services and workforce development for people returning to the community after incarceration.
“When people come back into the community without support, that increases the risk of reoffending. First Followers works to reduce that risk by helping people stabilize their lives,” Elvir said.
Elvir also said First Followers play a key role in providing trauma-informed support, either directly or by connecting people with counselors and therapists.
Elvir said the city’s approach has shifted toward contracting with individual clinicians and working through partner organizations, and that groups such as First Followers and Youth for Christ are now the main organizations providing counseling and other “trauma-informed services.”
As for the city’s long-term plans, Elvir said they are constantly evolving while being monitored by independent evaluators contracted in 2022 through the SU Institute of Health, Education, Evaluation, Assessment and Research (HEEAR). Elvir said the evaluators are not associated with the city.
The institute was founded in November 2021 and is owned by Anthony B. Sullers Jr., who is also a program evaluator for the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment at the University of Illinois. He serves as the lead program evaluator for Champaign’s blueprint, according to a city resolution last March that extended the institute’s contract.
The evaluation report for 2022-2024 released last year acknowledges eight blueprint evaluators from various organizations and 15 researchers associated with the SU Institute of HEEAR, among various other individuals in the community.
The evaluators hold focus groups, collect data and conduct interviews with the specific organizations working within the blueprint to make sure they meet their own goals. They then report to the City Council with their findings on what is working and make recommendations for how the blueprint could improve.
The evaluation was planned to have three phases: a pre-evaluation to develop protocols to assess the program, a mid-evaluation to collect and analyze data, and a post-evaluation to review outcomes and future plans with stakeholders. It then was broken down into a process evaluation focused on the city’s implementation and a program impact evaluation focused on blueprint partners and outcomes.
“We won’t have a full evaluation for five to ten years, because that’s how long it takes to really evaluate something like this,” Elvir said. “The evaluation is ongoing, but real impact takes time. You don’t see meaningful change overnight when you’re dealing with something as complex as community violence.”
City documents said the institute has received about $187,500 from three contracts with the city: $78,000 from an 18-month contract in 2022, $34,500 from a six-month contract in 2024 and $75,000 for a one-year contract ending on March 1, 2026.
“This isn’t a one-year or two-year project,” Elvir said. “The blueprint is now part of the city budget, and the goal is to keep building on it and improving it over time.”