Violence Prevention & Intervention
Supporting individuals working to break cycles of violence through reflection, expression, and future planning
Chicago CRED works with individuals at the highest risk of being involved in gun violence, providing long-term support through outreach, counseling, and career development. Participants are navigating complex life experiences while actively working to build more stable and positive futures for themselves and their communities.
Living Record partners with Chicago CRED to bring the Time Capsule experience into this broader work. Over ten weeks, participants engage in hands-on, arts-based projects that explore identity, relationships, and future goals. Within this structured space for reflection and creative expression, each participant creates a personal time capsule to be reopened in one year. Participants create artifacts that reflect who they have been, who they are now, and who they are working to become. Through projects focused on values, relationships, and personal history, they engage in a process of healing, community-building, and self-definition—exploring how they want to show up for themselves and contribute meaningfully to their communities.
Why It Mattered
The experience adds a creative and reflective dimension to CRED’s model, offering participants a way to process their experiences, express themselves, and define a path forward. Storytelling and art provide accessible entry points into conversations about identity, relationships, and goals. The one-year time capsule reinforces that work, creating a tangible connection between who participants are today and who they are working to become.
VOICE
Kevin Aoussou, Living Record Teaching Artist
I was, I am, I will be. I was a man by myself in my own world...who had a dream, but who doubted the things I could accomplish. Young minded, I wasn't thinking about the future. I am a man who appreciates life, who sets the trend, who stands for something, who is bettering himself....I will be a man who does what is honorable alongside you.
