honored Gigi Pritzker Pucker, Michael Pucker, and the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation with its annual Civic Achievement Award at its May 2018 Gala. The event, held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, was attended by 350 Cure Violence stakeholders and community members and raised over $750,000.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient and New York Times human rights, women’s rights, health, and global affairs columnist Nicholas Kristof delivered the keynote address at the award dinner and highlighted the Pritzker family’s contributions to curing violence.
The annual Civic Achievement Award honors a private individual or organization that has impacted the lives of many through substantive engagement, collaboration, or advocacy to reduce violence locally, nationally, or globally. The fundraising event supports Cure Violence’s overall mission of reducing violence using public health, epidemic control, and behavior change methods.
“Gigi Pritzker Pucker and Michael Pucker are leaders advocating for new approaches to reducing violence through their foundation, the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation. Inspired by Gigi’s mother, Cindy Pritzker, the foundation’s work to promote violence reduction is bearing fruit and improving the health and safety of our neighborhoods,” said Gary Slutkin, MD, CEO of Cure Violence. “Cure Violence was proud to honor Gigi and Michael on behalf of the men, women, and children in Chicago’s communities.”
Founded in 1995, Cure Violence is a nonprofit organization that uses a public health approach to stop the spread of violence in communities by detecting and interrupting conflicts, identifying and helping to support change among the highest-risk individuals, and changing social norms. Based at the UIC School of Public Health, Cure Violence is rated number 10 among the top 500 NGOs in the world by the NGO Advisor. Dr. Gary Slutkin, formerly of the World Health Organization, founded and directs Cure Violence based on the scientific findings that violence behaves like any contagious or epidemic disease – spreading from person to person as individuals adopt the behaviors they observe and experience.
The Cure Violence model has been proven to be effective and has resulted in substantially less violence for many communities. The organization is working to reduce street and youth violence in 20 cities in the United States and in 10 countries around the world. The Cure Violence approach is also being used to tackle other issues such as cartel, tribal, election, prison, school, and ideologically inspired violence. The organization is increasingly being asked to consult on mass shootings, domestic violence, and violence in active conflict zones.
In partnership with the philanthropic community, the State of Illinois, and many local community partners, Cure Violence has recently expanded into 13 Chicago communities and also operates in four major hospital trauma centers. Donations from the Civic Achievement Award Dinner will support Cure Violence’s mission of reducing violence in Chicago and globally.