Victims vigil planned for next week

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
April 4, 2003
Ginger Grissom Stevens says the whole community is affected when one person is the victim of crime.
As associate director of Wesley House Community Center, she has organized a community-wide vigil and tribute to be held at Wesley House during the noon hour on Wednesday.
Stevens and her mother, Nell Grissom, executive director of Wesley House, watched Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith sign proclamations on Wednesday recognizing April as Child Abuse Awareness Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Wesley House is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It is an agency of United Way of East Mississippi that operates more than 30 community programs in Meridian, including professional counseling and support for victims of violent crime in Lauderdale and surrounding counties.
Wesley House offers an educational center, a Christian relief agency, a health clinic, a sexual assault crisis center and a children's advocacy center.
The center's victims programs are funded in part by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the Violence Against Women Act and the Mississippi Department of Health.
The mayor praised the work done at Wesley House.
Stevens said prayer and victim testimonials will be part of the program on Wednesday.
She said she attempted to organize similar programs on a smaller scale in the past, but that there was little community participation.
April is also National Victims Rights Month and next week is Victims Rights Week.
Stevens said she is asking churches to open their doors from 5 p.m.-6 p.m. on Wednesday so that people can pray for the community, as well as the victims of crime and those involved in working with crime victims, such as ministers, health care workers, and law enforcement agents.