Chicago Ideas Week (CIW) partnered with musician and activist Mike de la Rocha this year to find solutions to our country’s violence and illegal gun problem. De la Rocha, 36, is leading a four-month tour called Living Rooms Across America that stops in six major cities, including Chicago, to have intimate discussions with youth and their families about violence and illegal gun use.

“I thought [CIW] would be the perfect way to connect on different platforms, to really go beyond the issue of gun violence and convene the right people on the ground,” said de la Rocha, a Los Angeles native.

Living Rooms Across America takes a page from the United Farm Workers’ “house parties” from the ‘60s and ‘70s – a social workforce movement sparked by informing people about the conditions of farmworkers. Today, community leaders like advocates, attorneys, sheriffs, directors, artists and musicians are offering their homes for the Living Rooms event and its 30 to 35 attendees.

De la Rocha said there is no better place to have deep, meaningful conversation than in the comfort one’s home – and as a singer-songwriter, he sprinkles some music into the mix with his blend of acoustic folk rock.

“Music is something on a cultural level that has pushed people to think differently during heightened times of change,” de la Rocha said.

He and his camera crew of two arrive in each city a day or two before the event to interview everyone from elected officials to business leaders to victims and get a sense of the impact violence has had in each area.

De la Rocha has already visited Los Angeles, Jackson, Miss. and New York. Before wrapping up the tour in Chicago on Oct. 14, he’ll also make a stop in Detroit. De la Rocha said the tour has connected community leaders in Los Angeles and Jackson with elected officials – and they are now working together on legislation to end illegal gun use and the violence that comes with it.

Some of those connections included Hollywood producer Scott Budnick, of The Hangover and Old School fame. After the meeting at Budnick’s Los Angeles home, state Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-San Fernando Valley, met with the community speakers to get their input on federal violence prevention legislation. With that input Cardenas introduced a billin July that he says will save taxpayers money and keep more youth out of the criminal justice system.

One issue de la Rocha said people have raised is how to adequately fund community-based intervention programs. In Chicago alone, Chicago Public Schools has cutits anti-violence programming by $9 million

“Intervention agencies have the relationship with those that are both the victims and the perpetrators of crime,” he said. “They have the pull from the community and the leverage to move [perpetrators] and redirect their lives.”

A 10-year-old from Jackson, Miss., participated with de la Rocha.

He said many people tell him it’s not the outcome after a shooting that needs to be looked at, but why someone gets to such a point of hopelessness that they resort to violence in the first place.

But no matter how empowered and inspired a community is to eradicate violence, de la Rocha said it cannot be done alone.

Big movers and shakers, politicians and world leaders need to support those efforts, which is why the tour will make an effort to share each city’s ideas with White House officials at CIW’s tour-wrapping event Oct. 14. He said he chose Chicago because of its problem with violence and because there are innovative approaches are already being implemented, such as the City of Chicago Youth Violence Prevention Program.  

De la Rocha said he hopes the conversations will lead to new legislation to prevent violence and a national infrastructure that allows organizations and nonprofits to get proper funding.

“Every conversation brings out something different,” de La Rocha said. “It’s really amazing to see what transpires in the homes of complete strangers across the country.”

CIW, The California Endowment and The California Wellness Foundation are proud sponsors of Living Rooms Across America.