Survivors' Burial and Resource Guide: A Step-By-Step Workbook for Regaining Control
When Chaplain Clementina M. Chery founded the Peace Institute in 1996, there was no coordinated response to homicide at that time. Her family left the hospital empty-handed without knowing what to do next. Chaplain Chery developed the Survivors' Burial and Resource Guide so families and the providers who serve them would have a tool to manage the crisis and chaos after a homicide happens.
The Burial Guide is currently used by three trauma-one hospitals in Boston: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Boston Medical Center. Peace Institute advocates use the Burial Guide with every family they serve.
The Burial Guide helps families and providers answer these questions: Who can possibly understand what we’re going through? How can we get through this? Where do we begin? What funeral home do we use, and how do we pay for it? How do we get our loved ones living in a different country to the funeral? What if our child had a criminal record? How do we handle interactions with the police, media and other groups?
The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute recently released the national edition of the Burial Guide which can be used by survivors and providers anywhere in the country. The Burial Guide is an important tool for any agency who serves survivors in the first week after their loved one is murdered.