Support begins in crisis. It should not end there.
Solutions and Resources supports young people and families affected by violence and traumatic loss, connecting immediate presence with practical advocacy, family stabilization and continuing care across Chicago.
Youth & family support
Youth support. Family strength.
Supporting young people and their families affected by violence and traumatic loss is an established part of Solutions and Resources’ work in Chicago.
SnR connects crisis response, grief support, family stabilization, safety planning, referrals and follow-up. Caregiver involvement helps keep the young person’s needs at the center of support.
These are places where support can meet a person—not milestones they must complete. A funeral applies only after a death; justice-system processes and healing can move on different timelines.
01SceneSafety, orientation, and choice
First, the person. Then, the next step.
In the first minutes after violence, familiar surroundings can feel unfamiliar. Someone may be injured; relatives may be searching for answers; neighbors may have heard or witnessed the incident. Emergency responders handle immediate safety and medical needs. The human need for clear information, privacy, and a steady presence sits alongside that response.
What support can look like
Help a survivor or family identify the most immediate concern and the appropriate person to ask.
Offer emotional or spiritual accompaniment according to the person’s wishes, without pressing for a detailed retelling.
Discuss practical next steps and coordinate with appropriate responders when access and circumstances permit.
How this connects to healing
Healing does not have to wait until the scene is cleared. Respectful first contact can help someone begin to regain orientation and choice. The purpose is not to make the moment feel “okay,” but to help a person face the next decision with support.
Beyond the immediate household
The circle can include a witness at a bus stop, a child watching from a window, residents unable to enter their home, or employees sheltering inside a business. They may need their own check-in or referral—not access to the family’s private information.
A next step
Prioritize immediate safety and medical attention. For support beyond emergency response, contact SnR. A website selection does not dispatch a responder.
02HospitalConnection and ongoing support
Beside the waiting. Beyond discharge.
Hospital care can involve uncertainty, treatment decisions, changing information, and long periods of waiting. An injured person may be focused on recovery while relatives balance work, children, travel, and communication. An advocate’s role is to support the human experience around medical care—not replace the clinical team or promise an outcome.
What support can look like
Help people organize questions for the appropriate hospital contact, respecting consent and confidentiality.
Discuss immediate family needs and possible connections to hospital social work and community resources.
Help connect hospital conversations with the practical support a household may need afterward.
How this connects to healing
Lasting support matters here: the person is more than an injury, and discharge is not the end of the impact. Support aims to make the transition from treatment to everyday life less fragmented, with the survivor’s priorities still at the center.
Beyond the immediate household
Family caregivers, partners, siblings, and chosen family may also need support. Friends, neighbors, and employers can assist with agreed practical needs without expecting medical details. Hospital updates belong to the patient and their authorized contacts.
A next step
Ask the treating team about medical care and discharge plans. Contact SnR to discuss accompaniment, resource navigation, or support for the household.
03AftermathMaking the next day manageable
When the sirens stop, life does not pause.
The first days after an incident may bring funeral questions, changed routines, paperwork, transport needs, and difficulty concentrating. There may also be uncertainty about returning to a home, school, workplace, or block. Not every affected person is bereaved, and people do not have to share the same experience to need help.
What support can look like
Work with the person or family to identify and prioritize practical concerns rather than hand them an unfiltered list.
Discuss navigation of appropriate victim-assistance, counseling, community, or other services.
With permission, support communication with an employer, landlord, school, creditor, or other relevant institution.
How this connects to healing
Practical support creates room for recovery. A clear next step can reduce the number of problems a person must handle at once. It does not erase what happened; it helps prevent the aftermath from becoming a series of disconnected crises.
Beyond the immediate household
Neighbors and business staff may be returning to a place associated with the incident. A block contact can help share verified support information without circulating images, rumors, names, or details the family has not agreed to share.
A next step
Start with the concern making today hardest. You do not need to solve the entire aftermath before asking for help.
04FuneralRemembrance without pressure
A farewell with dignity. Care that continues.
For a family facing a death, memorial decisions can arrive before they have had time to absorb the loss. Traditions, beliefs, relationships, costs, and safety concerns may all matter. This part of the pathway applies only when someone has died; it is not a required step for every survivor.
What support can look like
Offer bereavement accompaniment and help people clarify the questions involved in vigils or final arrangements.
Discuss appropriate resources and referrals, without promising funding or a particular benefit.
Help keep the family’s preferences, privacy, and consent central to any public remembrance or community involvement.
How this connects to healing
A funeral or memorial can create space for remembrance, but it is not a deadline for grief and does not require “closure.” Care should remain available to discuss after the gathering ends, including anniversaries and difficult dates.
Beyond the immediate household
Classmates, neighbors, coworkers, and regular customers may also be grieving. Their wish to remember should not override the family’s wishes. Separate, consent-aware opportunities for community reflection may be more appropriate than making every need part of one event.
A next step
Contact SnR to discuss bereavement or memorial support. Participation, prayer, public speaking, and sharing a story should remain choices.
05JusticeAgency through unfamiliar systems
Information. A voice. Someone beside you.
Investigations, court dates, notifications, and assistance applications can unfold long after the incident. People may want information, accompaniment, help identifying the correct office, or simply a clearer explanation of a process. The case’s progress and a person’s healing are not the same thing.
What support can look like
Discuss court-related accompaniment and help identify appropriate victim-service or agency contacts.
Help people organize questions and navigate available assistance or compensation information.
Support communication while respecting confidentiality, the person’s wishes, and the limits of an advocate’s role.
How this connects to healing
Advocacy aims to keep people from feeling lost between institutions. It supports participation and informed choices where possible; it cannot guarantee an arrest, a decision, financial eligibility, or a legal result. Healing does not have to wait for a case to end.
Beyond the immediate household
Witnesses, affected employees, and neighbors may have their own questions or fears. They should be directed to appropriate official contacts and support, not asked to post case details, identify someone online, or conduct a community investigation.
A next step
Use official case contacts for legal or investigative questions. SnR can discuss navigation and accompaniment; this site is not legal advice.
06StabilizationA steadier foundation
Rebuild the supports around everyday life.
Stability can mean something different for each household: a workable routine, support for children, connection to counseling, or help navigating work and housing concerns. Needs can change over time. A person may revisit earlier parts of this pathway while rebuilding practical support.
What support can look like
Revisit priorities with the person or household and discuss what is working, missing, or overwhelming.
Coordinate appropriate resources and referrals, with follow-through where available.
Support permission-based communication around school, work, housing, or family responsibilities.
How this connects to healing
Stabilization is not a demand to return to who someone was before. It is the work of creating a more dependable daily foundation, so there is room for rest, relationships, grief, and longer-term recovery. Progress may be uneven.
Beyond the immediate household
A neighborhood’s recovery also involves the places people depend on: schools, shops, faith communities, and public spaces. Employers can ask staff what support would help; block leaders can discuss voluntary check-ins and practical help without requesting private case histories.
A next step
Contact SnR to discuss a changing need or a difficult handoff. Business property, insurance, employment, and legal concerns may need separate specialist assistance.
07HealingConnection, remembrance, and choice
Life can grow around what cannot be undone.
Healing is not forgetting, a fixed sequence, or a date on a calendar. People may need grief support, trauma-focused professional care, trusted relationships, spiritual accompaniment, or ordinary moments that are not about the incident. What feels useful can change.
What support can look like
Discuss ongoing emotional or spiritual accompaniment according to individual preferences.
Connect people with appropriate counseling, family resources, peer support, or community opportunities.
Make room for remembrance, creative expression, and community connection without requiring anyone to tell their story publicly.
How this connects to healing
This is the purpose running through the whole continuum—not a reward at its end. Support should help people find choices and connections that fit their lives. Returning for help, feeling grief again, or declining an activity does not mean someone has failed.
Beyond the immediate household
Healing can include the whole block: children who witnessed violence, neighbors who carry the memory, coworkers, and business owners rebuilding a sense of connection. Community gatherings should be voluntary and accessible, and must not replace individual care when that is needed.
A next step
Explore the resource library or current organizer listings, contact SnR, or simply take a moment. There is no requirement to choose every part of the pathway.
Presence in the immediate aftermath of violence, emotional and spiritual support, family liaison, and coordination with the systems responding around a family.
Help identifying urgent needs and navigating resources, including transportation, food, work, housing-related concerns, and communication with employers, landlords, or creditors when appropriate.
Support understanding victim-assistance processes, compensation applications, court-related needs, and communication with appropriate agencies. Assistance is not a guarantee of eligibility, payment, or a legal result.
Guidance and accompaniment around body-identification procedures, vigils, funeral arrangements, memorial needs, and the decisions families confront after a violent death. SnR also provides emergency grief response and spiritual support to 911 call takers and dispatchers at Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC), particularly following the loss of a colleague.
Trauma-informed emotional and spiritual care, counseling triage and referrals, and connections to appropriate individual, child, family, or group support.
Workshops, speaking, and community education that help leaders understand the human aftermath of violence and strengthen how institutions communicate and respond.
Services depend on individual needs, appropriate referrals and available resources. Contact SnR to discuss what can be offered; clinical treatment, legal representation and direct financial assistance are not guaranteed.
Pastor Donovan Price, Founder and Executive Director.
Founder & Executive Director
Pastor Donovan Price.
Rev. Dr. Donovan E. Price Sr. founded Solutions & Resources in 2016. His work brings together street-level crisis response, victim advocacy, spiritual care, and the practical coordination families need after violence.
Families move between hospitals, public agencies, courts, homes, and the responsibilities of daily life. SnR’s work is to help keep those connections from breaking when people are already carrying more than they should have to carry alone.
“When the police tape goes up, Solutions and Resources is there.”
Dr. Tiffani Farrow, Director of Trauma-Informed Care & Family Wellness.
Solutions and Resources
Dr. Tiffani A. Farrow
Ed.D., NCSP
Director of Trauma-Informed Care & Family Wellness
Tiffani A. Farrow, Ed.D., NCSP, is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist licensed to practice in Illinois and Michigan and a state-endorsed Learning Behavior Specialist I (LBS1). With more than 22 years of experience serving children, adolescents, young adults, families, and educational systems, Dr. Farrow provides comprehensive psychological and educational services grounded in trauma-informed, culturally responsive, evidence-based, and equity-centered practice.
Dr. Farrow's clinical practice includes comprehensive psychoeducational assessment, consultation and collaborative problem solving, mental and behavioral health services and interventions, and the development of individualized supports addressing learning, behavior, social-emotional functioning, and psychological well-being. Through a trauma-informed lens, she considers how adverse experiences, environmental stressors, relationships, culture, and systems may influence a learner's functioning, behavior, engagement, and access to learning. Her approach emphasizes psychological safety, resilience, strengths-based practice, and responsive supports that recognize the whole child within the context of family, school, and community.
Read more about Dr. Farrow
Dr. Farrow works collaboratively with students, families, educators, administrators, clinicians, multidisciplinary teams, and community providers to identify needs, interpret assessment data, develop and monitor targeted interventions, and strengthen systems of support. Her consultation and collaborative problem-solving approach is designed to connect assessment findings to meaningful interventions and to promote coordinated, practical, and sustainable supports across settings.
Her professional experience extends across diverse educational, clinical, and community-based settings. Dr. Farrow works and collaborates with early childhood programs and preschools; public, private, and charter schools; school district offices and educational agencies; colleges and universities; mental health centers, hospitals, and community agencies; and private practice settings. Across these environments, she applies a trauma-informed and collaborative approach to assessment, consultation, intervention planning, mental and behavioral health services, prevention, and continuity of care.
Consistent with the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Practice Model, Dr. Farrow's work places particular emphasis on consultation and collaboration, mental and behavioral health services and interventions, and family-school-community collaboration. Her practice recognizes that learning and behavior cannot be understood in isolation from emotional well-being, relationships, lived experiences, family and community context, culture, and environmental factors. She integrates these considerations into assessment, intervention, prevention, consultation, and responsive services to promote positive academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and mental health outcomes.
Dr. Farrow completed her professional training at National Louis University and Loyola University Chicago. Her areas of professional and clinical interest include trauma-informed practice, cognitive behavioral approaches, dialectical behavioral approaches, behavioral and social-emotional intervention, research- and evidence-based literacy interventions, consultation, family-school-community collaboration, and systems-level support. She has expanded her service delivery beyond traditional assessment to include consultation, counseling, advocacy, mentoring, professional development, workshops, training, and community-based educational and mental health support.
Dr. Farrow is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), Division 16; the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP); and the Illinois School Psychologists Association (ISPA).
Director of Fiscal Compliance and Strategic HR Operations
Alicia Michelle Straughter, Ph.D. (M.A. in Organizational Development and B.A. in Communications), is a distinguished leadership strategist, HR executive, and nonprofit management consultant with over 25 years of experience in strategic HR, nonprofit and business management, and transformational leadership. She spent 20 years working alongside leadership expert and motivational speaker Stedman Graham in a senior leadership role, where she played a key part in developing youth leadership programs focused on identity-based leadership, celebrity events, nonprofit management, and personal development.
As the founder and CEO of AMS Consulting Services Inc., a minority-owned HR firm, she has successfully led initiatives in leadership development, government contract management, and organizational transformation. She has managed budgets exceeding $15 million, spearheaded impactful programs for women and youth empowerment, and coached industry leaders to develop authentic, purpose-driven leadership strategies.
Read more about Dr. Straughter
Her experience extends into higher education, where she has served as an adjunct professor in the school of business, teaching and mentoring emerging leaders and designing programs that bridge academic theory with real-world leadership application.
She is also the chief creator of the Women Who Empower Chronicle, a platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of women leaders through storytelling, leadership insights, and empowerment resources.
Beyond consulting, she hosts the Soul of a Leader podcast, where she engages in transformative leadership conversations. She is also an accomplished author who co-authored Soul of a Leader Echoes from Episodes from the Soul of a Leader Podcast Guests. She is the author of Strategies and Practices of Women Who Lead and is developing a 7-day devotional for women in leadership. With a passion for mentorship, diversity advocacy, and leadership excellence, Dr. Alicia Michelle Straughter continues to push boundaries, shaping the next generation of leaders and fostering inclusive, purpose-driven workplaces.
Presence.
