The Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Services shall study how to create a process to identify high violence communities, also known as R3 (Restore, Reinvest, and Renew) areas, and prioritize State dollars to go to these communities to fund programs as well as community and economic development projects that would address the underlying causes of crime and violence.
     Due to a variety of reasons, including in particular the State’s budget impasse, funds from multiple sources to establish such a comprehensive policy are subject to appropriation. Private philanthropic efforts will also be considered. Policies like R3 are needed in order to provide communities that have historically suffered from divestment, poverty, and incarceration with smart solutions that can solve the plague of structural violence that includes collective, interpersonal, and self-directed violence. Understanding structural violence helps explain the multiple and often intersecting forces that create and perpetuate these conditions on multiple levels. It is clear that violence is a public health problem that needs to be treated as such. Research has shown that when violence is treated in such a way that educates, fosters collaboration, and redirects the funding on a governmental level, its effects can be slowed or even halted, resulting in civility being brought to our communities in the State of Illinois. Research has shown that when violence is treated in such a way, then its effects can be slowed or even halted.