Violence and Trauma

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  Child's Memorial

  Mother: Crystal R
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  peace

  Mother: Shearine M
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  peace

  Mother: Shearine M
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  Drug Trash in Playground--"Wet"

  Mother: Ashley O

  "Even though that’s empty you can smell the embalming fluids.  It’s the worst smell in the world.  It smells like mint from far away, but when you get closer if you know what “wet” smells like you know it’s wet.  My kids are like two feet tall, and they’re right next to it, so they’re smelling that.  That’s disgusting."
   

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  Peace

  Mother: Erica S
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  Love Park

  Mother: Whitney H

  "We just need some love, that’s all. We just need  to get the love back in the city. This is supposed to be the City of Brotherly Love. This is not. This is the city of kill your brother- Killadelphia is what they call it now."
  

   

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  Dante's Memorial

  Mother: Whitney H

  "This is where Dante died, right here.  This is a couple feet from the elementary school.  He was shot ten times or more.  I am showing how this is one of the deaths in the neighborhood that we mourned a lot.  I was showing also how it’s not safe by the school."

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  Unfinished Construction

  Mother: Whitney H

  
  

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  Breaking the Cycle

  Mother: Whitney H

  This is me breaking the cycle with my daughter.  I don’t want my daughter to go through nothing I went through.

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  Peace At Work

  Mother: Whitney H

  "You have to make peace. I feel you have to make peace because if you don’t then you’ll be caught up out here with everything else that’s going on around you. You have to learn how to take yourself outta that and keep your own peace ‘cause if not you’re not gonna have any peace. In reality we don’t [have peace]. The only peace we may have is when we are asleep or when we are in our own homes. But then you still have bullets flying through the windows."

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  Blood on the Street

  Mother: Whitney H

  "This is Saturday morning at about 7:30.  I get to the 61 bus stop and I didn’t even pay attention that I was getting ready to step in it.  There’s puddles… puddles!  This person lost a lot of blood because it’s been almost ten hours and it’s still out in puddle.  Somebody’s kid could have fallen in that, touched it, anything.  I don’t think the cops were there, because I know they would have had yellow tape around it or something."

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  Reaching Out

  Mother: Whitney H

  "I’m just tired, I’m just all tired. I just wanna get my daughter away from here and get my family away from this because it’s like they don’t care about the low-income people. If you’re not making enough money as they’re making, they don’t bother it. And I don’t think it’s right, I don’t think it’s right to us."

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  Stress

  Mother: Tamika H
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  Peace

  Mother: Tamika H
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  Smile

  Mother: Melissa H

  It hinders me a lot to know that as a little girl I was raped and beaten. I never wanted a daughter, and I know I can’t make that judgment, but God gave me a daughter. And he probably gave her to me to make me stronger but it doesn’t. It makes me weaker because I’m so overprotective of her. It’s like I don’t let her do this, I don’t let her do that. And she gets mad like she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t understand. 

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  Needed pampering

  Mother: Angela S

  Her father is my first cousin…he raped his girlfriend’s oldest daughter. He’s in jail now, the only family she know is me. She'd never gotten her feet and nails done so I got her feet and nails done.

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  Too many children get killed

  Mother: Virginia G

  A kid got shot here right around the corner from a gun control billboard. They’re trying to send a message.  Nobody’s getting it.  You see?  I’m scared to take my kids out and be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I stay in the house.

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  Peace

  Mother: Angelica R

  His dad wanted memories of his first day of school. The school makes them do the peace sign. When they're walking in the school they all have to do the peace sign.

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  Funeral card for troy

  Mother: Tiffany R

  His cousin was trying to get some other boy and shot Troy (my baby’s father) thinking it was someone else.  The gunshots just kept on going.  He got shot nine times.  All he was saying was, “I’m gonna be alright.  I’m gonna be alright.”  And his eyes just closed.   I wanted to get an abortion after that because I was just thinking, “How am I going to do this?”

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  Memorial tattoo

  Mother: Tiffany R