Chicago City Wire

The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation has been honored with the Cure Violence Civic Achievement Award at a fundraising event held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago that raised more than $750,000.

Gigi Pritzker Pucker and Michael Pritzker were also honored at the event.

The keynote address was delivered by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and The New York Times' human rights, women’s rights, health and global affairs columnist Nicholas Kristof, who highlighted the family’s unwavering commitment to eradicating violence.

The annual Civic Achievement Award honors a private individual or organization that has impacted the lives of many through substantive engagement, collaboration or advocacy to reduce violence locally, nationally or globally.

The annual gathering supports Cure Violence’s overall mission of curbing violence through channels such as public health, epidemic control and behavior change methods.

“Gigi Pritzker Pucker and Michael Pucker are leaders advocating for new approaches to reducing violence through their foundation, the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation,” Gary Slutkin, CEO of Cure Violence, said in a press release. “Inspired by Gigi’s mother, Cindy Pritzker, the foundation’s work to promote violence reduction is bearing fruit and improving the health and safety of our neighborhoods. Cure Violence was proud to honor Gigi and Michael on behalf of the men, women and children in Chicago’s communities.”

Cure Violence was founded more than two decades ago as a nonprofit organization centered on using a public health approach to slowing the spread of violence in communities by detecting and interrupting conflicts, identifying and helping to support change among the highest-risk individuals and changing social norms.

The program is based on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago as part of its School of Public Health. 

So far, the organization’s practices have been implemented as a way of reducing violence among youth in 20 different cities in 10 countries around the world. The Cure Violence approach is also being used to tackle other issues such as cartel, tribal, election, prison, school and ideologically inspired violence.

In partnership with the philanthropic community, the State of Illinois and countless local community organizations, Cure Violence has now expanded into 13 Chicago communities and operates in four major hospital trauma centers.