Survivors of gun violence and public safety advocates will gather Saturday and later this month to raise awareness of victim compensation programs that could reimburse families paying for funeral costs, counseling, lost wages and other expenses in the wake of tragedy.
Saturday’s event by Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Grandma’s House Community Resource Center at 2097 Joseph E. Boone Blvd.
Many people don’t realize the heavy financial and emotional burdens that violent crimes place on survivors and their families, said Aswad Thomas, national director of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice.
Only four percent of violent crime survivors are aware that state compensation programs exist to help cover expenses they incur, according to national polling by the Alliance for Safety and Justice.
When victims apply for funds, many are disqualified due to such requirements as reporting the alleged crime within three days of when it took place, research showed.
Victims of sexual assault, who come forward weeks or months later, can be denied under these deadlines, Thomas said.
They are often navigating trauma, grief, and financial hardship all at once, he added.
Hundreds of survivors of violent crimes, service providers, community leaders, and public officials are expected to attend the national conference, “Crime Survivors Speak: Healing and Safety,” from Aug. 21 to 23 at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center. During the event, attendees will address ways to improve funding services and support for victims of violence, as well as over-incarceration in the U.S.
In addition to funding and resources to help victims of violence, Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, and Alliance for Safety and Justice advocate for rehabilitation and prevention measures rather than extreme punishment of perpetrators.
Survivors of gun violence prefer investments in mental health treatment over incarceration by a margin of 6 to 1, Alliance for Safety and Justice research showed.
Thomas’s advocacy work began after his own life-altering experience in 2009. He was a recent graduate of Elms College in Massachusetts and a star basketball player at the time, and was preparing to play professionally in Europe. He was shot twice in the back during an attempted robbery in his Hartford, Conn., neighborhood.
The injuries ended his basketball career and left him facing months of physical and emotional recovery with little support, he said.
“I had flashbacks, nightmares and also the very traumatic experience of having to live in the community where [I was] shot…,” Thomas said, adding that he did not work for two years following the shooting.
He described “victimization debt” as a financial strain he experienced. For victims, it can include falling behind on regular bills due to being out of work, as well as new expenses like ambulance fees and other unexpected costs.
Instead of a basketball career, Thomas earned a master’s degree in social work, he said, to advocate for services for victims, as well as perpetrators.
He had learned that the perpetrators in his shooting were two teenagers from the same violent neighborhood where he grew up. The only difference, he said, was that basketball had opened a different path for him.
He supported a plea deal that resulted in a 6-to-10-year sentence for one of the shooters, instead of a possible 40-year penalty.
The other shooter, who was not arrested, had been a victim of a violent crime years earlier at the age of 14, Thomas discovered.
“I began to think about what [the attacker went] through that led to that shooting,” Thomas said of the convicted shooter. “How did he grow up? I wanted accountability, but I didn’t know if I wanted him as a 19-year-old to be facing 40 years in prison.”
