Precious Lives

Stories about kids, guns and how to stop the violence. Precious Lives, created by 371 Productions, is a 2-year, 100-part weekly radio series about gun violence and young people in the Milwaukee area. The series applies a public health lens to each story to help listeners understand the full scope of the problem: who are the victims and the shooters; how are the weapons obtained; and what can we change about the environment that contributes to violence in Milwaukee?

#077 Precious Lives: Applying Natural Disaster Training To Support Families After A Homicide

WUWM 89.7 FM

Published July 5, 2016 at 12:55 PM CDT

Salvation Army police chaplaincy program coordinator Pastor Alexis Twito comforts Destiny Boone, the mother of 9-year-old Za'layia Jenkins. Za'layia was shot and killed in May 2016.

Say a tornado hits Milwaukee today. What would people need? Temporary shelter, house repairs, family counseling, financial planning support.

Well, when there’s a drive-by shooting and a little girl dies, her family needs a lot of the same things. Although shootings aren’t natural, emergency disaster relief strategies completely apply.

This is one way Milwaukee chaplains with the Salvation Army have been trained to deal with trauma.