An Illinois non-profit helps ease trauma inflicted by gun violence. Now it may close due to lack of funding

An innovative program providing crisis support for gun-violence survivors has closed, and the organization that ran it is now at risk

Yvonne Miller was beside herself with grief when her 23-year-old son, Christopher B Kelly, died from gun violence in August 2020. She connected with the Trauma & Resilience Initiative, a Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, mental health non-profit, and executive director Karen Crawford Simms soon showed up at her door to help her process her trauma.

Every week, Simms encouraged Miller to cherish the memories of her son and offered her a space to cry. At Simms’s suggestion, Miller kept a diary in which she documented the ebb and flow of denial and anger.