Marshall Hatch Jr.

In 2021, 800 people lost their lives to gun violence in Chicago. And while Chicago is the nation’s third-largest city, it has more homicides than the two largest, New York City and Los Angeles, combined. 

“Gun violence is the moral issue of our time,” says Marshall Hatch Jr., who co-founded the MAAFA Redemption Project in 2017 to create a safe space for young men and women impacted by gun violence to heal and grow. A faith-based residential institute housed at New Mount Missionary Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago, where Hatch’s father is pastor, the program makes deep investments in young Black and brown men and women. MAAFA provides workforce training and a host of wraparound social services, instilling in participants a sense of dignity and hope, and giving them purpose in leadership against gun violence. By targeting the root causes of interpersonal violence and highlighting the structural violence imposed on Black and brown communities, MAAFA graduates are creating change in the West Garfield Park area—and drafting a template for how other communities can do the same.