The Power of Healing

Kathryn Bocanegra has witnessed the toll community-based violence interventions extract from peacekeepers.

The assistant professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work has spent her career developing programs to mediate violent conflicts to keep neighborhoods safe, not only in Chicago but other cities throughout the United States. In a new WTTW feature titled “FIRSTHAND: Peacekeepers” that began in February and airs throughout the year, Bocanegra was one of five experts who provided their expertise to a Chicago PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) audience as the station is exploring violence interruption and prevention by focusing on extraordinary people making a difference.

“Let me tell you about outreach workers, also called Community Violence Interventionists – they are some of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met,” Bocanegra said during her TED Talk, “The Hidden Toll of Peacekeeping” at the WTTW studios. “They are what we like to call “homegrown peacemakers,” leading outreach-based grassroots efforts to prevent and intervene in violence in neighborhoods with the highest crime rates.”

Chicago has a reputation of being a dangerous city. While the violent crime rate is higher than the national average, homicides, shooting incidents and the number of shooting victims were reduced in 2024, all marking the lowest levels since 2019, according to the Chicago Police Department. Overall, homicides were down 8%, shooting incidents decreased by 7% and there was a 4% decline in the number of shooting victims. December 2024 marked the fifth consecutive month of a decline in overall robberies.

Beginning her career managing a child and adolescent community mental health clinic on Chicago’s southwest side, Bocanegra, PhD, primarily worked with youth involved in the criminal justice system. A 17-year-old boy who was recently shot was referred to her by another counselor, who hoped Bocanegra could communicate with him better than she. Even though the boy was suffering both physically (the bullet damaged his large intestine so severely he was forced to use a colostomy bag) and mentally, he rarely spoke during their first five sessions. Then Bocanegra had an idea how she might break through the silence barrier. She asked the young man if a community outreach worker could join them during their next appointment.

“What unfolded next reshaped everything I thought I understood about healing,” Bocanegra said. “In under two minutes the outreach worker shared glimpses of his own story – growing up in a violent home, losing friends, navigating life on the streets, and enduring time in prison. That brief, authentic connection unlocked something in that boy.

“Over the next two hours, tears streamed down his face as he poured out a lifetime of pain and trauma. This was the first time I saw a spark in the boy’s eyes.”

The impact was felt not only by the boy, but also Bocanegra. True peacekeeping, she said, must have healing at its center, and the most powerful recovery comes from individuals who have been wounded themselves.

Healers need healing

Throughout her career, Bocanegra has discovered what others have missed: healers themselves need healing. “What if healing, not hurt, became the lens through which they engage in their work?” she surmised.

“Let me share with you how I came to this realization,” she told the audience. “I left community mental health work to oversee community violence intervention programs in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. In my role I supervised a team of more than 100 peacekeepers working to prevent and intervene in violence in schools, on the streets, and through coalition-based work. Coming from mental health into violence intervention work, I quickly realized the toll of peacekeeping work on the peacekeepers themselves.

“Here is what I saw: Peacekeepers attend dozens of funerals each year, often of their own program participants, even of their own family members or coworkers. They are regularly, if not daily, exposed to gun violence and homicide scenes. They place their own personal safety at risk as they seek to intervene in these situations to disrupt cycles of violence. And in the course of their work, they are forced to relive their own past traumas of violence and incarceration.”

The science of trauma reveals that just one significant adverse experience, such as exposure to violence or the loss of a loved one, can have a profound and lasting effect on a person’s mental, emotional, and physical health, Bocanegra said. Heightened stress responses, substance misuse, social isolation, and chronic health issues are just some of the impacts felt. If peacekeepers endure a lifetime of such experiences, their health could be affected.

Through community-engaged research, Bocanegra is developing solutions supporting frontline peacekeepers. She has found that organizations must prioritize outreach workers’ wellness for them to be successful by providing mental health resources, peer support spaces, and fostering cultures that value rest and recovery.

“Investing in these strategies sends a powerful message to our peacekeepers: your worth extends beyond your past and your work. You are valued for the extraordinary person you are today and the leader you are becoming,” she said.

Bocanegra’s early research at the JACSW focused on providing wellness programs for outreach workers designed specifically by them. Results of her work identified a critical gap: the initiatives often went unused. Many community violence intervention teams resisted the idea of wellness, viewing it as unrealistic or irrelevant, Bocanegra said. Many of the workers, however, suffered from burnout.

“My research revealed many street outreach workers embody the ‘tireless’ hero archetype – individuals driven by a deep sense of responsibility to serve their communities and atone for their past,” Bocanegra said. “While admirable, this relentless commitment often comes at a steep cost -- their own health. What is needed is a fresh approach, one that values healing as much as service.”

Community violence intervention must be reimagined as a movement rooted in healing, requiring how the work is funded, and how individuals are trained and supported, Bocanegra said.

“My message to the outreach community is this: your well-being is the foundation of your community’s strength. Healing is always within reach, but it begins with taking that first step,” she said. “While you should never have to endure the trauma you’ve faced, the greater loss is leaving that pain unresolved. When you don’t heal, you leave untapped potential, both yours and your community’s, on the table.”

To view Bocanegra’s discussion in its entirety, click here.