AG Maura Healey, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Dr. Kevin Tabb, Reverend Dr. Ray Hammond, and local community and faith leaders joined survivors of homicide victims at the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute’s 25th-anniversary press conference where Peace Institute leadership announced a new national campaign to support individuals affected by homicide.
DORCHESTER, MA – When a life is cut short by homicide, there is a ripple effect that touches, and often shatters, countless lives. Following the tragic death of youth activist Louis D. Brown by a stray bullet in 1993, his friends and family started the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute and embarked on a 25-year crusade to provide comfort, assistance, and mental health services to people affected by homicide trauma in the City of Boston. Today, the institute announced a new strategic plan to take its message of healing, teaching, and learning to communities affected by homicide around the country.
Speaking to a large crowd of reporters, community activists, volunteers and the survivors of homicide victims Thursday morning, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute CEO and President Chaplain Clementina M. Chéry recalled the achievements the Institute, which is named for her son, has made and highlighted its vision for the future. “In the past 25 years, [we have] laid the groundwork for a powerful movement to affect real change among communities affected by trauma and violence, and I have seen the benefits firsthand,” said Chaplain Chéry. “But for this kind of change to take hold for the long term and to build the capacity of the next generation, it takes the continued investment of time and resources. It is not simply a ‘one and done’ venture.”
In her remarks, Attorney General Maura Healey reflected on the important work the Institute does for the survivors of homicide victims saying, “For the past 25 years, the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute has provided incredible support to communities and survivors. Our work is far from finished; we will continue to partner together to ensure that families are treated with dignity and respect and to find solutions to stop violence in our neighborhoods.”
“For 25 years, the Peace Institute has been a powerful force for good, and an agent for change,” saidBoston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “Thank you to Tina and her entire organization for the positive work they continue to do in Boston, helping us to reach higher and reach out to individuals in our community suffering from trauma who need support.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins praised the work of the Institute saying, “As the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in Suffolk County, our team works daily with families, friends and community members impacted by homicide,” Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said. “We are lucky to have the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute as partners in this work. Tina and her team are a model for how to work collaboratively to combat homicide and all of its associated harms. I am excited that the rest of the nation is finally getting to witness and hopefully model the great work of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute.”
The Institute supports the survivors of homicide victims across Massachusetts, including Shannon Tangherlini from Brockton who lost her son Matthew Tangherlini to gun violence. “The Peace Institute’s mission is to spread the knowledge, love, and support to families that have been affected by homicide. This not only affects the families of the victims but also the families of the incarcerated loved ones. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and compassion, it doesn’t matter where you live or what color your skin is.”
Fellow survivor Hector Acevedo poignantly told the crowd about the trauma experienced in marginalized communities, “Before we are labeled murderers drug dealers or gangbangers or victims or any type of negative title or statistic we all start off as an innocent child trying to navigate through poverty – low-income project housing – being a part of a family barely making ends meet or growing up with a single parent.”
About The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute is a center of healing, teaching, and learning for families and communities impacted by murder, grief, trauma, and loss. The vision of the Peace Institute is to create and sustain communities where all people are valued and all families can live in peace. In its 25 years, the Peace Institute has shifted the way in which the Boston community responds to homicide and the families impacted by it. Through its renowned Mother’s Day Walk for Peace, providers-survivors network meetings, and other long-term healing programs, the Peace Institute has affected how Boston’s municipal and social leadership, law enforcement, the medical community, community members, and allies understand and treat the survivors of homicide victims. The Peace Institute’s hopeful message and unique methods of caring for trauma-impacted individuals called Survivors have spread throughout New England, the United States and even the Caribbean with its “Best Practices” curriculum – an empathy-based training used to equip individuals with the emotional, social and financial tools to support the survivors of homicide victims.
For more information about the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute and its work to support those affected by homicide trauma, please visit: http://www.ldbpeaceinstitute.org/.
