Social Media Inquiry into Lawless Ethos
(SMILElab)
About The SMILElab
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The SMILElab is an action research initiative focused on gang and violence prevention by leveraging the tacit knowledge and expertise, of the youth in our community, navigating social media. Gordies Foundation has served the Chicago's Englewood community for over 20 years and understand, first hand, the ways in which youth in our community navigate violence on and offline. Utilizing data science, machine learning, and clinical psychological approaches to research, we engage in qualitative and natural language processing methods to parse volumes of data to discover trends, themes, and correlations within social media data. Our approach will provide insight into the triggers of violence and strategies to intervene and prevent violence from escalating in cyber space and before it occurs in the streets of our black and brown communities.
Purpose of SMILE
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The objective of Gordies SMILE program is to conduct research that provides insight into the impetus of violence in the lives of youth in the black and brown communities; specifically, we will explore how experiences with neighborhood and gun violence influence social media behavioral choices, best practices to mitigate cyber bullying, and interrupt the physical acts of violence. Gordie's will develop research that will enhance and augment community-based organizations that are engaged in violence prevention efforts. Our focus is on the community we have served for over 20 years, the black and brown communities in Chicago and similarly situated black and brown communities across the country. We will explore their exposure to social media, community violence, coping mechanisms, decision-making and intervention research.
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Goals:
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Improve the mental health for black and brown youth in our communities
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Be a data and information hub for the violence prevention and intervention community
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Work with Colleges and University Psychology and Social work department
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Contribute new knowledge to the body of literature and research regarding the phenomenon of community violence and social media behaviors
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Identify best practices in the intervention and prevention of violence in our communities
