Volunteer Facilitator Community Anti-Violence Education

Note

Note - members of CAVE program are not compensated.

Due November 15, 2025 for Fall Semester 2026

C.A.V.E. started in 2010 when students of the Education Justice Project expressed a desire to contribute to putting an end to violence on the streets of Chicago. They were especially concerned about the impact of violence on Chicago youth. Committing themselves to work slowly and deliberately through literature on urban violence, human development, and various intervention models, they selected a curriculum, proposed a program, and recruited members.

Full implementation of C.A.V.E. began in fall 2014, reaching out to other incarcerated men at the Danville Correctional Center. This is our mission statement: “C.A.V.E. is a peer-driven anti-violence program that empowers incarcerated men through mentoring, education, and character-building to return to their communities as peacemakers.”

They seek your participation in their work. Outside members (i.e., those who are not incarcerated) will serve the program as facilitators alongside the EJP students.

C.A.V.E. has adopted a structured but open-ended counseling curriculum rooted in understanding trauma, with room for input from everyone. The program consists of regular meetings at the prison with both EJP students and men from the prison population who commit to completing a year of meetings, and to continuing contact with released EJP students once they are released. Everyone who works with C.A.V.E. will be expected to go through a training program and to contribute to shaping the training for future members.

C.A.V.E. has been meeting on Monday evenings and Friday mornings at the prison. This will not necessarily be the schedule permanently; that will depend on prison scheduling and the availability of C.A.V.E. members. The outside C.A.V.E. members also meet online every other week.

• Please complete the online application, which you can access by clicking the "Apply for this Job" button in the top right corner. We realize this language may be confusing. Working with CAVE program is a non-compensated position, not a part-time job. Unfortunately, our platform does not allow us to change the word "job."
• If possible, fill it out in a word processing program so that your answers can be as extensive and complete as possible. We want to know more about you.
• There are no special qualifications for being a member of C.A.V.E. We are looking generally for seriousness of purpose, sophistication about the social contexts that incarcerated people come from (particularly in Chicago), and commitment to anti-violence. Flexibility, humility, a high level of emotional intelligence, and the ability to work collaboratively will be helpful. Both men and women are welcome to apply.
  
  You must have a bachelor’s degree. Experience in violence prevention work, with programs for young adults, or therapeutic or counseling experience is not necessary, but beneficial.
• All applications are welcome. However, because EJP aims to create a supportive learning environment for our incarcerated students, we especially encourage applications from individuals whose backgrounds align with those of our students. This includes members of racial minority groups, first-generation degree holders, and individuals from low socioeconomic status backgrounds. Please note that the educational offices are on the second floor of the prison and that there is no elevator.
• We regret that, according to current Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) practice, if you are formerly incarcerated within Illinois or are actively visiting a friend or family who is incarcerated in IDOC, it is unlikely that IDOC will approve your clearance application.
• Completion of Department of Corrections clearance application is a lengthy process. It is required for all C.A.V.E. members.

After we receive your application, we will contact you to discuss your application. Those who end up working with the program will be required to attend a half-day training (online) and review and demonstrate knowledge of the C.A.V.E. handbook.

Questions? Please contact

Thank you again.
C.A.V.E. Facilitators