A non-profit’s ambitious, $1 billion plan to send thousands of inner-city students and their parents to college or trade school is, ultimately about stopping the unrelenting gang violence plaguing Chicago, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson said Friday.

After leaving her pressure-cooker job last year, Jackson signed on at CEO of Hope Chicago, the non-profit founded by Pete Kadens and Ted Koenig to fully fund post-secondary education for two generations of needy kids.