CHICAGO _ In a small classroom at St. Agatha Catholic Church in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood, it was Tarik Cohen's turn to speak.
The Bears running back had sat quietly in a group conversation circle for more than an hour last Monday listening to leaders of a Chicago anti-violence program talk about how they strive to change lives in the city's most vulnerable communities.
Kyle, one of the program's participants whose last name is being withheld for safety reasons, told of being "a normal boy from Austin _ selling drugs, running up and down the street, playing with guns. Just bad stuff."
But a friend told him of READI Chicago _ short for the Rapid Employment and Development Initiative _ and in August he joined the program's job training and cognitive behavioral therapy, aimed at helping the group of mostly 18- to 32-year-old African-American men at high risk for gun violence to make better choices. In the months since, Kyle faced temptations to quit _ the lure of drug money, anger over a family member's death _ but has made the decision daily to attend with the hope of being a good father to his coming baby.
After Cohen contemplated the stories of Kyle and another participant, he told the pair how he would be nervous about joining a program in which he knew he would be working with rival gang members and said he thought it was great they were putting differences aside.
He then told them he was proud of them.
"They're amazed by me, but I'm amazed by what they do," Cohen said afterward. "I get up and do my job, and it's considered for the most part the good life. They have the hard part. ... I feel like they needed to know that (I'm proud of them). I don't want anybody to feel like I'm higher than them. I want them to know we're on the same level. Just as I'm successful, they can be successful."
Such connections were part of the Bears' purpose for making the visit last Monday.
