Thousands of community members on Sunday will walk alongside families that have lost loved ones to homicide, letting them know they are not alone in their healing journey.
The 4.3-mile walk through the streets of Dorchester continues the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute’s annual tradition of bringing the community together on Mother’s Day, with this year’s event focusing on “cultivating cycles of peace.”
This will be the organization’s 27th edition of the Mother’s Day Walk for Peace, an event that started after Clementina “Tina” Chery founded the Peace Institute in memory of her son, Louis D. Brown, who was killed at age 15 in 1993.
“Oftentimes, when we think about homicide we just count the victim, and there is a whole community that is impacted,” said Shaulita Francis, the institute’s communication and marketing manager.
“There is a whole family that is left behind to deal with the emotional and practical impact. The walk is there as a way to just honor people’s experiences, honor their grief, honor the lives of their loved ones and stand in solidarity.”
Roughly 5,000 walkers are expected to turn out for the event which starts at Town Field Park at 8 a.m. The institute, as of Friday, has raised more than $365,000 of its targeted $600,000, with those funds earmarked to help the organization grow and sustain its services, advocacy and training.
Despite being forced to make adjustments, the annual Mother’s Day walk continued to be a success during the pandemic.
The event went virtual in 2020 and 2021 and reached more than 24,000 walkers across the country and world, Francis said. Last year, 5,000 participated in-person and 3,000 conducted their walks remotely, she said.
The institute centers its work around intervention and educating the community about the resources that are available to help them grieve and heal if they lose a family member to homicide.
Boston continues to grapple with violence, including 13 deadly shootings so far this year. Two of those killings occurred Sunday night, one in Mattapan and the other in Dorchester.
Earlier this year, Tyler Lawrence, a 13-year-old boy from Norwood, was fatally gunned down in Mattapan when he was visiting his grandparents.
“It is alarming,” Francis said. “For us, it is disheartening, and we are outraged. There are communities being destabilized by the impact.”
The institute offers a homicide response toolkit, a resource for providers to help families regain control after the murder of their loved one. It includes multiple survivors’ rights cards.
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox is working to ensure all units in his department have access to the cards so they can give them to families when making death notifications.
“As a city, we need a cohesive and consistent response so that no matter what happens, families are receiving that compassionate (care),” Francis said.