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 SURVIVORS OF HOMICIDE
VICTIMS AWARENESS
November 20th to December 20th

SURVIVORS OF HOMICIDE VICTIMS AWARENESS MONTH
November 20th to December 20th
In collaboration with SHOC-Survivors of Homicide Organized for Change.
This yearly observance of  Survivors of Homicide Victims Awareness Month provides a platform where, as a nation, we can learn how to better assist families who have been brutally impacted by violence and to support  the efforts of survivors to inform our violence prevention, peacemaking and social justice movement.  We need this awareness month because our institutions and our society are uncomfortable dealing with survivors of homicide victims.  We don’t know what to say to them and often we don’t know what to do for them. 

The Compassionate Friends

Worldwide Candle Lighting

The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting®, held annually the second Sunday in December, this year December 14, unites family and friends around the globe as they light candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, creating a virtual wave of light, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memories of children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.

Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift from TCF to the bereavement community, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.

The Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a small Internet observance but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance.

The 2007 Worldwide Candle Lighting saw information on services received from 24 countries outside the United States. Joining TCF last year were chapters of several bereavement organizations including MISS, Twinless Twins, MADD, Parents of Murdered Children, and BPUSA and services were held in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

A  Remembrance Book is available during the event at TCF's USA national website. In that short one day span, thousands of messages are received and posted each year from every U.S. state and Washington D.C., every territory, as well as dozens of other countries. Some are in foreign languages.

Here in the United States, publicity about the event is widespread, being featured over the years in Dear Abby, Parade Magazine, Ann Landers column, Guideposts magazine, Annie’s Mailbox, and literally hundreds of U.S. newspapers, dozens of television stations, and numerous websites and personal blogs.

Please help spread the word about this tremendous event and invite anyone who is unable to attend a service to light a candle at 7 p.m. for one hour wherever they may be.

  All allied bereavement organizations, churches, funeral homes, hospices and formal and informal bereavement groups are invited to join in the remembrance.  

NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR MURDER VICTIMS

SEPTEMBER 25, 2007