Beyond the Headlines: Who Supports the People Holding Communities Together After Gun Violence?

When a community experiences gun violence, attention naturally turns to the person who was injured or killed and to the loved ones left behind. Those individuals deserve every resource and every opportunity to heal.

But there is another question we don’t ask nearly enough: Who supports the people everyone else depends on?

Recovery takes far more than emergency responders. Parents comfort grieving children. Grandparents step in to raise grandchildren. Faith leaders walk alongside families through unimaginable loss. Teachers, healthcare workers, violence prevention advocates, and community leaders become the people others turn to when life has been shattered.

Over time, they carry not only the pain of those they serve but also the emotional weight of supporting an entire community. Gun violence creates both primary trauma for those directly affected and secondary trauma that ripples through neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, congregations, and organizations. Without support, even the strongest caregivers can become overwhelmed.

Building Capacity for Healing

These realities were at the center of a recent conversation between GPS Co-Founder and CEO Liz Friedman and Juanita Batchelor, Founder, President, and CEO of the Darrell Lee Jenkins Jr. Resource Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Batchelor founded the organization after her son, Darrell Lee Jenkins Jr., was shot and killed in 2014. While navigating her own grief, she discovered how few resources existed for families experiencing homicide loss. Rather than accepting that reality, she created the kind of support she wished had been there for her.

Today, the Darrell Lee Jenkins Jr. Resource Center provides support groups for survivors of gun violence, specialized circles for mothers and families, youth programming, community events, and practical support for families navigating grief and trauma.

As Batchelor shared:

“I still wanted to have a place where families can come. Families who are like mine, who look like me, who lost their son in the street.”

Her story reflects a powerful truth: Those with lived experience often become the people their communities rely on most.

During their conversation, Friedman emphasized that healing grows through connection and shared experience. But the conversation also expanded beyond the families directly affected by violence. As she put it: “Trauma is held by the entire community.”

That idea sits at the heart of GPS’s work. Supporting communities impacted by gun violence means supporting not only survivors, but also the people who care for them every day.

Expanding Community Support Through MASStrong

The Darrell Lee Jenkins Jr. Resource Center is now on the pathway to becoming a MASStrong Implementation Partner, joining organizations across Massachusetts that are building sustainable, trauma-informed peer support within their communities.

Through MASStrong, organizations receive GPS facilitator training, implementation support, and funding opportunities to establish ongoing support groups tailored to the populations they serve. The goal is to strengthen local capacity so trusted community organizations can continue providing spaces where people feel heard, understood, and less alone.

During the conversation, Batchelor immediately began imagining what that could look like, not only for her own organization, but across Springfield. She envisioned clergy, nonprofit leaders, educators, healthcare professionals, and other trusted community members learning to facilitate support groups and bring healing into the places where people already seek help.

That vision is exactly what MASStrong was designed to support.

When more people are equipped to create safe, trauma-informed spaces for connection, communities become stronger, not only in the aftermath of tragedy, but in the everyday work of healing together.

Bring MASStrong to Your Workplace

GPS’s MASStrong program offers free GPS trainings, support groups, curriculums, and toolkits for Massachusetts medical, behavioral health, and community care workers and organizations. Eligible organizations can also apply for GPS partnership support and grants up to $10,000.