Kids Off the Block’s Diane Latiker featured on Great Big Story

Diane Latiker thinks a 12-year-old kid should be worried about his grades—not about getting shot on his walk home from school. What’s mundane in other parts of town can be deadly in Roseland, Diane’s South Side Chicago neighborhood. The city’s epidemic of gang and gun violence—most of its victims young, Black and male—makes national news and campaign talking points. But Diane Latiker isn’t here for talk. She’s interested in listening.

In the spirit of the original defender, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Great Big Story is proud to celebrate the fearless, the headstrong and the undeterred with our series, “Defenders.”