Chicago gangs: Real people. Real stories. A way forward. The new season of Motive explores violence on the streets of Chicago and the former gang members working to stop it.

Cecilia Mannion has dedicated her life to helping victims of gang violence in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.

Mannion, a former gang member herself, works for a nonprofit organization called Enlace. Her title is victim advocate. Basically, if you’re shot in Little Village, she shows up to try and help, to minimize the harm. She helps families navigate health care, funerals, counseling, she acts as a conduit between victims and cops, talks people out of retaliating, whatever is needed.



Mannion gets paid for 40 hours a week … she works basically around the clock.

She is part of a growing army of former gang members working to prevent shootings and help gun violence victims. These workers are getting a new surge of funding from the local, state and federal governments.



In this episode of Motive Season 5 we follow Mannion as she responds to a shooting and we get a sense of what motivates gang violence.

We also meet one of Mannion’s clients, a man we’re calling Joey. For reasons that become obvious in the episode we have changed Joey’s name and the names of his family members. Joey was hit 11 times in a summer shooting, just steps from his house. His elderly neighbor was killed in the same incident. The shooting has left Joey debilitated by pain and frozen by fear. He worries the shooters will return to finish him off, and that one of his children could be caught in the crossfire.

About the host

Patrick Smith is a criminal justice reporter at WBEZ. He has been reporting on Chicago violence, police and the people at the center of it all for nearly a decade.