Some of the most effective changemakers are those directly impacted by the issues that they take on. For Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight, it was the murder of her son, Khaaliq, in 2001—nearly 15 years to the day after she lost her daughter, at age 2, to a grave illness—that inspired her to create her own organization supporting mothers who've lost children to violence.

In the moment that she learned about her son's death, Dorothy felt that she'd lost her future. Like her, Khaaliq was a trained social worker—"a peacemaker," she calls him—who had found a vocation in helping young children. They were planning to start their own organization together.

After a time of deep mourning and grief, this tragedy set her on a new path. "I realized I couldn't let the grief destroy me," Dorothy says. No matter where she looked, she couldn't find any organizations in Philadelphia that supported parents whose children had been murdered, especially Black parents, whose children were often seen as a cause of their own harm. So she started her own. In 2003, Dorothy founded Mothers in Charge (MIC) in a small church in the city.

EJUSA began working with MIC in 2005, providing fundamental support—everything from balancing the books to framing violence prevention as a public health strategy—that helped MIC multiply its impact. Most recently, this support helped MIC secure more than $400,000 in new funding to provide mental health support for the families and children of murder victims.

Today, MIC has a total of 10 chapters across the country. Members find themselves in churches, schools, prisons, wherever the need for healing from the pain and trauma of violence is. "It's not just about mothers anymore," says Dorothy. "It's about children and families. We have to be comprehensive....We've opened people's eyes into a new way of thinking and feeling and being."