Rockford, Illinois, an hour and a half northwest of Chicago, faces issues common among other mid-size cities in the Midwest. Deindustrialization, stagnant wages, high rates of violent crime and low property values have stunted the city's ability to thrive - the population has decreased 4.1 percent since 2010 and over 22 percent of Rockford residents currently live in poverty. In 2018, the Rockford Police Department reported that about one third of reported violent crime was attributed to domestic violence incidents. Dan O’Shea, Chief of Police at Rockford Police Department, notes, “75% of our juvenile offenders in violent crimes have been either witness or a victim in a previous domestic violence report.”

Despite the bleak picture painted by statistics, young Rockfordians have proven the city to be fertile ground for creativity. We recommend this article by Rockford native Benjamin Levine in Paper Magazine. He writes, "Like many places hit hard by deindustrialization, Rockford, Illinois was a city teetering on the edge. Located close to Chicago's thriving cultural hub, the city had been a small industrial powerhouse in its heyday but by 2016 was consistently on the list of the FBI's most dangerous cities in America. While some coped with the crime rate, economic challenges and the difficult job market by turning to drugs and alcohol, other young Rockfordians filled the void with creativity and innovation. And so whether in response to economic desperation or from something in Rockford's DNA, in recent years the city's artistic blood got a new heartbeat."

To learn more about Rockford and community-based efforts to improve quality of life and working conditions in the city, visit http://transformrockford.org.