Pastor Chris Harris of Bronzeville’s Bright Star Church 735 E. 44th St on Chicago’s South Side, is taking a new approach to treating trauma and gun violence victims in Chicago. 

Harris announced plans on Sept. 18 to launch the Bronzeville Dream Center, a center that will focus on treating victims of post-traumatic stress disorder, by fall 2015. The University of Chicago Medicine, Northwestern Medicine and the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago have backed Harris’ proposal to treat victims of violence who suffer from PTSD, according to a Sept. 18 press release. 

Rodney Carter, assistant pastor of Bright Star Church, said The University of Chicago Medicine and Northwestern Medicine each donated $250,000 for the planning and implementation of the Bronzeville Dream Center. The United Way of Metropolitan Chicago will be the fiscal agents and manager. Carter also said that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has voiced support for the center.

“Far too often, people are not offered resources to deal with complex emotions and anxieties in the aftermath of violence,” Harris said in a press release. “Our communities need emotional restoration to break the cycles that caused the violence in the first place.”

Carter said there is little to no treatment for individuals who suffer from PTSD related to violence in Chicago, and after doing extensive research, he found that blacks are not receiving counseling because they either do not trust counselors, cannot afford counseling or fear the stereotypes associated with therapy. However, he found  that black communities trust their pastors.  

“Unfortunately, counseling has this negative stigma that only crazy people get counseling, which is just not the case,” Carter said. “What we do realize in the African-American community is that while they don’t trust counselors, they do trust their faith leaders.”

Carter said the Bronzeville Dream Center will have faith leaders from across the city providing therapy to those affected by violence. He said both hospitals and the NATAL-Israel Trauma Center for victims of  war, an Israel organization, which Harris said inspired  him will train Harris and other faith leaders in treating the disorder. He said both individual and group treatment options will be provided by diverse faith leaders throughout Chicago. However, Carter said the Bronzeville Dream Center will partner with other organizations to help assist with issues they are not normally trained to handle, such as substance abuse and childhood trauma.

Bridgette Poston, a licensed clinical social worker, said there might be issues concerning the numbers of people who are affected center’s ability to treat the by gun violence and domestic violence.

“My concern would be how many people can they actually serve in a year?” Poston said. “I can see it being filled up quickly, so that might be something to think about. How are they going to help with the masses of people that are being affected by this issue now?”

One South Side agency representative said the Bronzeville Dream Center is a necessity and is wanted in black communities. James Brown, founder and president of Insight Behavioral Health centers, an in-patient substance abuse treatment facility that treats a family as a unit as opposed to treating abusers individually. He  said PTSD is one of the reasons why people abuse substances.

“PTSD is real—that’s one of the major reasons that people use substances,” Brown said. “Whether it’s domestic violence, being a victim of violence or being a relative of [a victim], it causes the person to want to use drugs and alcohol, and in our community people weren’t getting treated for this years ago, so if that’s going to help in the community, then I think it’s needed.”

Poston said she is seeing an increase in clients who present symptoms of PTSD related to violence. She said the Dream Center  is  a necessity in Chicago.

“I think it’s a great idea because in my practice, what I’ve been noticing lately is a lot of people coming in because of trauma [and] violence,” Poston said. “It’s steadily increasing, and people are real distraught about violence and what’s going on [and] it really hit home for me because I hear about it in the news all the time, but it’s coming into my office now.”

With agencies like Insight Behavioral Health, which focuses on substance abuse, and private practices like Poston’s that treat various disorders, the Bronzeville Dream Center is the missing piece to the puzzle of regaining a practical mental health treatment  center in Chicago, Poston said.

“It’s starting out on a good foot because it’s a coalition of different groups and he’s got the backing of the University of Chicago [and] Northwestern Medicine, so he’s got the right players at the table,” Poston said.