Meet Patricia Hilliard, a Pillar of Peace in West Garfield Park

Women in Community Violence Intervention (CVI) are crucial to its success in making Chicago a safer city. They bring a unique perspective, purpose, and passion to the work of ending violence and building community. Every day, the women of street outreach make use of their credibility, connections, and life experiences to stop violence in its tracks. They deploy quick thinking and radical compassion in their efforts to create peace in their neighborhoods.

But women remain underrepresented in the field, even if they have the same expertise as their male colleagues. Patricia Hilliard is the only woman on the outreach team at the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago’s (INVC) office in West Garfield Park and has held that position for five years. Around the office and in the neighborhood, she’s known as “Patty Cakes,” “PC,” or “the Mayor of Pulaski.”

Hilliard has an intimate familiarity with the realities of violence in Chicago. “I was forced to grow up early,” she reflects as she opens up about her childhood in Garfield Park. Hilliard witnessed drugs and violence in her home, was in and out of foster care, and eventually became a support for her entire family. She admits, “I used to fight because I had so much anger… So much anger from all the things I went through as a child.”

Before long, she gained a reputation in her neighborhood and was known as the “Queen.” Speaking frankly, Hilliard says, “I used to do a lot of bad stuff.” Incarceration and sobriety motivated her to turn her life in another direction – toward violence prevention. She credits this in part to Marcus “Moon” Mitchell, an outreach worker from INVC she’d known since childhood, who saw the potential for change in her.

“He saw that I wasn’t going back to drugs, I wasn’t going to do wild stuff. I wanted to give back. And I wanted to also let other people see, ‘Hey, look at me. You know what I came from?’ [Now] people congratulate me and tell me how proud they are.”

“Now I’m on the other side. Instead of being troubled, I’m a part of the solution,” she explains.

Hilliard is a critical part of the INVC outreach team, a member of the Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) coalition, a group of organizations in the city of Chicago that provide CVI services. She responds to shootings in Garfield Park, negotiates peace between rival organizations, and connects community members to vital resources. She also visits Cook County Department of Corrections through a program called RESTORE, where incarcerated women are introduced to resources and motivational support.

Though the name “Queen” follows her, Hilliard has reinvented herself into a trusted pillar of the community and a wellspring of knowledge. Her credibility from the streets gives her a particular advantage in her work.

“It works for me,” she explains. “A lot of people respect me… I can go and talk to people when others can’t, and they’ll listen [to me]. I can stop things when others can’t. I can do peace treaties when somebody else can’t. I can go anywhere and not be afraid.”

Hilliard is also frank about the realities of street outreach. She recalls just four years ago walking to a participant’s home when she was caught in the crossfire of a shooting. After learning how to walk again, Hilliard was eager to get back in the field. Now, her daily station is seven feet from where she was shot. But the work of community engagement and violence prevention is just that important to her.

 She explains, “That’s why I’m not afraid to sit at where I got shot at. [Because] this is my neighborhood, this is where I grew up at. And I feel safe enough to sit there.”

On the job, there is no typical day. She’s ready to go when her phone rings at all hours. She even pauses the interview to take a phone call from a participant looking for work, guiding them to the various programs available through INVC.

But if there’s no shootings, she will check in with participants, hang out and converse with the community, and keep notes on any incidents in the recent days. And most importantly, she is stationed every day on Pulaski in West Garfield. “Everybody sees me every day. I don’t move from right there.”

“The most rewarding part,” she says, “is just knowing I was able to help somebody in the community, where I was able to talk somebody down from shooting. Just the fact that I have the trust in the neighborhood, that’s worth it to me.”

Read more stories of women in Community Violence Intervention (CVI) here.