Healing Hurt People Chicago helps people heal emotionally and physically from injuries by community violence through assessment, psychoeducation, practical support, individual and group therapeutic work.
Healing from Trauma
Healing Hurt People Chicago (HHPC) is a hospital-based, youth advocacy program for violence recovery that provides crisis intervention, mental health care, medical advocacy, practical support, and a supportive community where people who have been violently injured can thrive.
Celebrating 10 Years of Service in Chicago
Our 3-Point Mission at HPPC to Help Those Injured by Community Violence
Thrive
We provide support that promotes recovery from traumatic injuries and help participants find their own pathways to healing while reducing the risk of re-injury, retaliation, and involvement in the carceral system.
Recover
We support participants emotionally, physically, and socially as they build a future. Our clinicians are anchors for participants as they pursue goals, create healthy relationships, and connect with services.
Integrate
We work to increase an understanding of trauma and its impact on the many systems that our participants navigate and promote equitable policies and practices as they are crucial to ending cycles of violence.
Stories of Healing
Healing Hurt People Chicago (HHPC) is a hospital-based violence intervention program that helps people with violent injuries recover from trauma through medical advocacy and trauma-informed care. HHPC helps to equip participants with tools to heal and move forward positively in their lives. Hear participants share their personal stories of trauma, and the healing they experienced working with HHPC staff.
HHPC is Working Towards a Just and
Trauma-Informed Chicago
The city of Chicago has millions of stories, a history of broad shoulders, and people of remarkable spirit. Our community is defined by a spirit of generosity, kinship, and resourcefulness, and HHPC participants have rich lives. These characteristics allow us to form deep relationships, even as we tend to deep wounds. We are here to support people as they tell their stories, heal from trauma, and continue to lead full lives.
We do this work because we believe that Chicago is a place where people will thrive if given the safety and space to do so.
Some of Chicago’s stories are about hardship, like the high number of shootings in the city each year. People often ask, “What’s the one thing you would change to stop gun violence in Chicago?” But this is not the right question. In public health, there is no single thing that keeps a body healthy. Social determinants—factors like poverty, limited educational and mental health resources, food deserts, lack of transportation—also influence physical and emotional health.
Similarly, gun violence is one symptom of an unhealthy city, but this can’t be traced to simple, individual problems. Systems like racist housing policies, inequitable education and healthcare systems, lack of investment in neighborhoods beyond the Loop and the North Side, and the impact of mass incarceration all contribute to the gun violence epidemic.
Because a constellation of harm created these challenges, it will take a constellation of justice, support, and community-building to bring about change.
IN THE NEWS
Healing Hurt People Chicago
Listen to Dr. Brad Stolbach and colleagues talk about caring for trauma and anxiety in families.
