MEET PEACE PORTRAITS HONOREE STEVEN PERKINS
Story: Sue Cardenas-Soto | Video: 5 by 12 Films | Photography: Kelcey McKinney | Creative Producer: Camille Travis
Peace Portraits, presented by the Illinois Peace Project, is a visual series dedicated to spotlighting the extraordinary individuals working every day to build safer, stronger, and more peaceful communities. These individuals embody the spirit of Peace Portraits, as they work tirelessly to inspire change and empower others.
Steven Perkins, Director of Field Instruction at Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI), can't call any one neighborhood home.
In fact, he grew up in 10 out of the 28 communities served by Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), a coalition of Community Violence Intervention (CVI) organizations convened by MPI. But wherever he went, Perkins says he witnessed devastating levels of violence and poverty, prompting him to begin seeking out ways to change his circumstances.
For young people in those communities, like Roseland, Fuller Park, and other areas, he says there were three choices: Be a part of “the life” of street organizations (spoiler alert: Mom was not having it), face being an outcast for refusing, or become an athlete. As a young person, Perkins was heavily recruited by those street organizations, but sports became his escape from a far riskier future.
It also allowed him a certain amount of authority in the neighborhood, which came full circle when he started his journey as a street outreach worker, interacting with the very people who tried to recruit him.
“Athletics was my escape, and I became so good at it that a lot of the guys in the hood looked up to me… So they didn't really mess with me,” Perkins says. “Fast forward, when I started to do the work, I never thought that I would be able to come back and have an impact on all of the guys who tried to recruit me. Now they look at me in a completely different way.”
His work in CVI began at Ambassadors for Christ, a nondenominational church that served as the foundation for Target Area Development Corporation in Englewood. Starting just on a whim, he joined a passionate but novice team of street outreach workers from the church community.
“That was my first introduction to CVI,” Perkins shares. “It was really a passion and a desire to help people in the community that drove us to the work. We didn’t have the training, we didn’t have the skillset. All we had was the capacity to care about people in the neighborhood. And they knew us because we were active in the community.”
Perkins found his niche, however, when he discovered a knack for engaging with incarcerated people and those reentering society after prison.
“I knew right away this is what I wanted to do. I felt I was purposed for it,” Perkins explains. “When I was introduced to the reentry world and saw the barriers people were experiencing, I knew it was more than just a job or profession. It was more of a calling.”
“The work around reentry is so very important because a lot of the men and women coming from prison are stigmatized — they're looked upon as cast out of society, ostracized. The ability to reintegrate them and show them that they still have value after they've paid their debt to society is critical.”
As time rolled on, Perkins also became a foundational part of MPI’s Metropolitan Peace Academy (MPA), a multi-disciplinary training facility designed to professionalize CVI. As Director of Violence Prevention at Target Area, Perkins was a part of a select group of CVI leaders who advised on the development of the curriculum.
It was during this time that a new spark was ignited.
"I absolutely fell in love with the Academy," Perkins recalls. "When I would go there, I would come alive just to see the learning that was happening."
“I absolutely fell in love with the Academy,” Perkins recalls. “When I would go there, I would come alive just to see the learning that was happening.”
Now, as an essential player at MPI, Perkins continues to influence training at the MPA. His work these days is more at a macro level, as he spends time organizing, planning, and building systems for the MPA’s premiere professional development courses.
Still, he finds true joy being directly in the classroom with emerging CVI leaders.
“One of the most important things I still get to do as Director of Field Instruction is train and facilitate at the Academy. Seeing the minds develop, seeing those ‘Aha’ moments — I love that,” he says.
Faith also continues to be a powerful avenue for Perkins to deliver the message of peace to his community. Perkins is an ordained pastor and, along with his wife, he founded the New Direction Grace Church in 2018. Perkins has ministered many funeral services for outreach workers who lost their lives in the field. His ministry is centered around empowering the marginalized and oppressed, and he utilizes all the resources at his disposal to do so.
The key to creating peace in Chicago’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, according to Perkins, is based on providing alternatives and resources to at-risk youth. Perkins imagines a Chicago without food deserts, housing inequalities, segregation, and low-quality education.
Peace is a privilege and luxury young people are not always afforded, he says, but one he’s determined to deliver.
“Peace to me is the ability to exist, to have the capacity to operate and navigate the world without pressure — with choice,” he says. “I [think that’s] my purpose — to give people choice, to provide alternative routes, to alleviate some of the pressure that people in the community are going through.”
As for Perkins and his contributions, he sees his efforts as a continuation of the foundation that was laid before him.
“I’m honored to be standing on the shoulders of so many people in this city and state that do this work, and to be remembered as a symbol of peace.”
The Illinois Peace Project is an initiative supported by partner organizations with a shared vision for reducing gun violence in Illinois.
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