Community leaders, crime survivors gather in Kingsessing to share stories, promote healing for victims

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Leaders from Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice joined community members at the Salt & Light Church in Kingsessing Saturday for their Right to Heal tour.

The event featured conversations with survivors of violence and their families, including Rev. Leroy West.

"I do all this because of my daughter. She was 19 years old. She was murdered in 2016. And from that, I — I couldn't just sit around. So I started the organization, Central Philadelphia Parents of Murdered Children ,” he said.

West says connecting with other victims is his form of therapy, and Aswad Thomas, the National Director of Crime Survivors, says that’s what the event was all about.

"Like many of our members, I'm also a victim as well. And what really started me on this healing journey was connecting with other survivors,” Thomas said.

The community event also served as a way for crime survivors to gain momentum for their Crime Survivors Speak March in D.C. and to get feedback on their policy platform.

Some of the issues they plan to bring to lawmakers include protecting immigrant survivors and building more trauma recovery centers.

Yolanda Jennings, the Philadelphia coordinator for Crime Survivors, says the city needs spaces like this.

"We have 52 trauma recovery centers across the country and I want to see us bring a trauma recovery center to Philadelphia that would provide wraparound services that people would be able to come to a one stop shop and get everything that they need, be it victim compensation, be it therapy,” Jennings said.

Thomas noted that there are many gun, domestic violence and sexual assault survivors across the country, including here in Philadelphia, but 96% of them do not access the state’s victim compensation assistance program and 90% do not access victim services.

According to Pennsylvania’s Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the program helps victims and their families navigate the aftermath of a crime. More details on services and how to file a claim can be found here .