Mayor Kenny has declared that gun violence is a cause of Philadelphia’s “mental health crisis" There are multiple people who are a second-hand victim to gun violence. The death of a loved one can really affect your life. It is a lot to handle and most people struggle to stay strong. Just imagine losing a very close family member or friend. It's a tough thought to bear isn't it? This is something that affects all of America every day. According to Gifford law center 100 Americans are killed with guns every day, and on average 100,000 are wounded or injured by guns. This violence has permanent or long-lasting effects on its victims. 

We interviewed Cherie Ryans to see the perspective of a loved one who lost someone to learn more about how it changed their life and how it changed their mindset and what measures they think should be taken to help those in need. After asking a question about her son's death and the effects on her, she shares, “it made me feel empty, sad, a sense of loss, loneliness.” She proposes that places should have more grief support groups so that we can work together through our grief. We also talked to a therapist by the name of Jodi Silverman who says, “Its really important that people engage with people who have had similar experiences”. These two peoples opinions relate to each other because they both show that community can help through loss. 

After talking to both of these experts we concluded that the city of Philadelphia should have more support groups like mothers in charge.  Mother’s in charge is a support group for mothers who had the loss of their child due to gun violence. This organization helps with Victims Compensation Assistance,Healing/Grief Support,  Anger Management, Court Accompagnement and, Victim Advocacy. Mother’s in charge also works with members in their communities with public education for kids who may have lost a loved one, and mentoring young girls who are at risk of being in danger. The city also needs clinics like EMIR . EMIR is a place where these victims can seek the support they need to get through the process of healing. They reach out to communities in the city to provide the solutions. Sometimes children can't understand exactly what is happening. EMIR partners with the Philadelphia Police Department to go to school to educate the children about violence. EMIR also offer a program to “ease the financial burden. We believe that clinics can help someone through the stage of grief. Support is a very important thing to help one get over this. The city of Philadelphia should try more of an approach to our gun violence problem by not only trying to fix it as a whole but as helping the ones who already faced it.