New “Circle of Love” Group Brings Support To Victims Families
On Saturday several organizations joined together at the East Chicago Police Department to announce a new support group called “Circle of Love.”
This recently formed group will benefit numerous families who unfortunately have been impacted by a homicide across Northwest Indiana. The main focus of the group is to provide assistance to families who have little direction on where to turn for resources, counseling, and support as soon as the crime occurs. Niki Fitusis, victim specialist for Circle of Love, said “The goal is for us to be here for the families from the beginning to the end.”
Circle of Love will have specialists ready to assist the families needs. This will range from mental health to legal help during a trial to help get your family through the loss during a life changing event.
A full gym of family members was in attendance Saturday who have lost a child or children to violence. “This help is much needed during the most trying points of one’s life. From the minute you need to identify a loved one at the coroners office to the forgiveness needed to overcome the emotion of losing everything, a child.”
Sylvia Galvan, director of Circle of Love, was compelled to create this support group after suffering the loss of her son, Thaddeus, in 2016 due to violence. Sylvia’s other son, Matthew, was also taken to early from her when he lost his 10 year battle with childhood Cancer in 2020. Sylvia and Matt always talked about making their dreams a reality with building this support group.
“Justice can never replace the loss of a family member but what can ease the pain of loss is love & support of a community,” Congressman Frank Mrvan said. “This support group brings things to the next level and bringing people together,” Mrvan added.
“This type of support group is much needed in Lake County for victims families. As law enforcement our goal is to to enforce the law or get the bad guy and while doing that we unintentionally forget the victims needs,” East Chicago Police Deputy Chief Jose Rivera said.
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter echoed Deputy Chief’s statements. “We are dealing with the convictions and evidence of the crimes, we are not specialists for helping people with their loss. Organizations like this are so necessary. Having Niki involved in Circle of Life is a great individual to have and that’s from a personal standpoint,” Carter said. “Having someone there to represent you while going through the system is so beneficial.”
“We need to have control over our young people, we need to redraft our young people. Let’s take care of our kids,” Carter said. “We don’t need a 13-year-old out at two in the morning with a handgun or get killed or kill someone. It’s a parent problem and we need to correct this in hopes this will reduce the violence,” Carter said.
