Tuesday’s Children Announces the Launch of Survivors of Tragedy Outreach
Program (STOP), a National Coalition Offering Survivor-to-Survivor Peer Support
Founding a national group of survivors from New York, Newtown, Aurora, Thousand Oaks, Orlando,
and other impacted U.S. communities, the nonprofit which recently marked its 20th anniversary
launched a new initiative with survivors and organizations to provide peer support and to help prevent
mass-scale tragedies
Manhasset, New York – June 1, 2022 – The national non-profit Tuesday’s Children, which recently marked
its 20th anniversary and was formed in the aftermath of Tuesday, September 11th, founded and launched a new
coalition, Survivors of Tragedy Outreach Program (STOP), a network of survivors and organizations
throughout the U.S. and Canada that have come together for prevention and peer support to promote long-term
recovery and resilience to triage and address the multi-layered impacts of targeted violence and preventable
mass-scale tragedies.
“For over 20 years, our mission has been to provide long-term healing and resilience-building support to those
impacted by terrorism, military conflict, and mass violence. As part of our ongoing mission, we recently
launched STOP in July 2021, which consists of individual survivors and a dozen organizations across the U.S.
and Canada that support those who are impacted by mass violence, by providing regular resources and a creating
call to action, including peer support for families in Uvalde, TX, Buffalo, NY, and so many other places
recovering from mass-scale tragedies” said Sallie Lynch, Senior Program & Development Consultant of
Tuesday’s Children.
Communities represented in STOP include Virginia Tech, VA; Boston, MA; Thousand Oaks, CA; Newtown,
CT; Aurora, CO; Littleton, CO (Columbine High School); Orlando, FL; Pittsburgh, PA; Las Vegas, NV; Hawaii;
Military Gold Star families throughout the U.S.; New York, NY; and 9/11 families in both U.S. and Canada.
In addition to Tuesday’s Children, participating groups and organizations in STOP include 7/20 Foundation,
10.27 Healing Partnership, Canadian National Day of Service Foundation, Choose Love, Give an Hour, JFCS
Pittsburgh, Leave No Victim Behind, Open to Hope, Stars of Hope, The Rebels Project, The Trauma Impact
podcast, and VTV Care.
STOP jointly releases the following statement in response to recent acts of mass violence in Uvalde, TX,
Buffalo, NY and so many other cities:
Who We Are: The Survivors of Tragedy Outreach Program (STOP) is a coalition offering survivor-to-survivor
peer support and outreach from individuals directly impacted by and responding to terrorism, mass
violence and military conflict. We are an international network of survivors and nonprofits that have come
together for prevention and peer support to promote long-term recovery and resilience to triage and address
the multi-layered impacts of targeted violence and preventable mass-scale tragedies.
A Decades-Long Problem: This is not the first time we have seen our communities, our families, devastated
by mass violence and tragic loss of life, young and old. As survivors, we have experienced this firsthand, the
pain, the grief, the injury, the long-term ripple effects, the layers of emotion of losing a loved one and of
surviving a trauma many could never imagine, and which could have been prevented. So many of us directly
impacted by these tragedies, and others who feel our pain, have made tremendous efforts to move the needle
and enact change. Listen to the voices of those pleading and advocating for change. We have now witnessed
decades of inaction on the policy level. We have observed decades of continual acts of targeted violence and
inhumanity.
Call to Action: We are calling for prevention to ensure that more families don’t have to endure the pain of
this kind of trauma and loss. We are calling to our society to commit to long-term healing for families of
those impacted. If you are feeling helpless now, hopeless that things will never change, we want to tell you
there are so many ways you can make a difference.
- STOP and think. START thinking together.
- STOP the arguing. START taking responsibility.
- STOP the inhumanity. START addressing mental health issues in our society and providing timely
support to those in need. - STOP focusing on the fringes and pay attention to the elephant in the room. START systemic change to
correct the many factors causing this problem. - STOP senseless violence killing our families and causing long-term trauma and grief. START enacting
effective prevention measures on state and federal levels. - STOP feeling scared and being silent. START asking for help. If you suspect something, even in your
own family, reach out to someone you trust. - STOP feeling like we can’t solve this problem. START turning up the volume – talk about this problem
and keep getting louder.
And be mindful, that even if we can stop this tomorrow, our organizations will continue our work because
the recovery, the need for long-term healing, the pain does not stop. But together we can stop the violence.
Our survivor community is finite now, but the degrees of separation are diminishing. We are cardholders to
a club we never wished to belong to. This club has an inexcusably high price. If we don’t stop the violence
now, you may hold the card next.
Read the entire release here.
