CHINO HILLS, Calif. — As our country continues to grapple with mass shootings, there's an organization working to help both victims and their families get the help they need.
VictimsFirst works to provide direct help for mass shooting families and the communities that experience them.
Sometimes it's through resources or counseling that they are best equipped to help, but they also ensure that 100% of all money donated to victims actually goes to them.
"We decided there was a better model," said co-founder Anita Busch. "And the better model is victim's fund: 100% in, 100% out, fulfill donor intent and actually help the people. That's a huge help that would go a long way to stop revictimizing families."
Busch knows this mission personally since her cousin was killed in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012, and another family member survived the Las Vegas concert shooting in 2017.
Since then Busch has led families of the deceased from previous mass shootings from Columbine, VA Tech, NIU, Aurora, Oak Creek Sikh Temple and Newtown to help create a new model for charitable giving.
VictimsFirst responds immediately to mass casualty crimes by engaging directly with families of the deceased and those wounded both physically and mentally, while also helping the community understand the needs of victims and survivors.
"Now that VictimsFirst has started up," said Busch, "we've become the go-to place to help communities organize without revictimizing victims, organize properly, and a place for victims to go to get any kind of financial need or resources that they could use, even years after a mass shooting."
You can find those resource at https://www.victimsfirst.org/
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