OVWA needed a trauma-informed guide addressing the full trajectory of homicide loss without clinical coldness or distant expertise.

I was commissioned to write a comprehensive guide that capitalized on my lived authority, to speak survivor to survivor. The guide outlined vital information for the aftermath of homicide: notification, crime scene cleanup, memorial services, the judicial system, and critically, how to navigate grief and trauma. Combining personal experience, research and the expertise of OVWA, I created a resource that offered practical guidance while bearing witness to the impossible weight co-victims carry - helping them feel seen and their journey understood.

The guide, to be distributed statewide, demonstrates that the most powerful grief support is written not from expertise alone, but from the authority of having survived.