Boston Trauma Response Network Rebrands, Providers Push for $1 Million Annual City Commitment

BOSTON — May 10, 2024 — Boston's community trauma response network gets a new name and a funding push. The City Council Committee on Public Health, Homelessness, and Recovery, chaired by Councilor John FitzGerald, heard from Boston Public Health Commission Commissioner Dr. Bisola Ojukwu that the Neighborhood Trauma Teams Network has been renamed the Community Healing Response Network, supported by $2.65 million in city appropriations and $484,000 in Children's Hospital grant funding across nine neighborhood teams. Rachel Rodriguez, Co-Executive Director of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, told the panel the city currently covers only 8 percent of the cost of serving Boston homicide families and called for a three-year commitment of $1 million annually. Mona Lisa Smith of Mothers for Justice and Equality cited a Boston Globe analysis showing a 23-year life-expectancy gap between Back Bay and Roxbury residents, arguing the network's work is a matter of mortality. Public commenter Alexis Smith, mother of 17-year-old homicide victim Amin Lacey, read from her son's 2017 journal and told the committee that available support systems had failed her family repeatedly.