This year’s candlelight vigil honoring victims and surviving family members of homicide will be held on April 7, 2025 at the Public Safety Academy.
News release from the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana:
Victim Assistance, FWPD to Honor Crime Victims and Surviving Family at 2025 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Candlelight Vigil
Fort Wayne, Indiana (March 27, 2025) – Victim Assistance, with the Fort Wayne Police Department, honors victims and survivors of homicide during 2025 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week from April 6-12. Each year Victim Assistance hosts a candlelight vigil honoring victims and surviving family members of homicide. This year’s vigil will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 7 at the Public Safety Academy, 7602 Patriot Crossing.
This year’s NCVRW theme – Connecting
Healing – recognizes that shared humanity drives vital connections to services, rights, and healing. KINSHIP is where victim advocacy begins. This annual observance challenges us to build a world where every connection built through KINSHIP – between survivors, advocates, and communities – holds the potential to heal. It asks us to ensure that resources are available to all survivors and that we show up for one another with empathy and intention.
“We connect with surviving family members in the midst of one of the most traumatic times of their lives in order to alleviate as much stress as possible. We are there to lift them up, provide comfort, be a liaison, be their voice, whatever they need in that moment and throughout the healing process,” said Kristy Lindeman, Director of Victim Assistance, Fort Wayne Police Department.
The Candlelight Vigil is one way to bring honor to all crime victims by promoting a greater understanding of crime victims’ needs and the critical importance of working together to help all victims of crime rebuild their lives. Crime victim services include information regarding their rights, their involvement in and support throughout the justice process as more than a witness; and rights to information about compensation programs and supportive services that can help them cope with the aftermath of crime.
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