Gretchen Johnson is the executive director of the Center for Grieving Children. Julie Butcher Pezzino is the executive director of the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine.

Our kids mean everything to us. Whether our own children, grandchildren, extended family, students, friends — they are our hearts walking around outside our bodies. They are our future, and will carry forward the lessons we teach and the legacies we create. We’d do anything to protect them.

Wouldn’t we?

Yet now we face the unimaginable task of explaining to our children how a parent could be killed on our own peaceful streets. That another young child is now without a caregiver. That it could happen to anyone. How can we reassure our kids that they are safe?

At the Center for Grieving Children and the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, we serve kids at different points along their journey: helping them to rebuild after profound loss, and to discover joy and possibility through play. Together, we have seen firsthand how childhood trauma changes lives. We understand that not every tragedy can be prevented, but we can ask our leaders to join us in protecting our most vulnerable.

We urge all of our elected leaders to stand up to unnecessary violence, to demand transparency in policy and accountability for enforcement, and to provide the resources our community needs to help our children process this trauma.

In Maine, 1 in 10 children will experience the death of a parent or sibling before the age of 18. This doesn’t include other important people in their lives: grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, friends — and it doesn’t include the compounded trauma of death by violence. We know that kids who experience or witness violence, and/or the death of someone close to them, are at heightened risk for lifelong behavioral, emotional, cognitive and physical health complications.

Early trauma can disrupt normal brain development and the body’s stress response, leading to persistent mental health issues, academic difficulties, substance abuse and a greater likelihood of repeating the cycle of violence as adults.

For children in families who have sought safety here, leaving behind country, culture and
community, their trauma is worsened by the fear and isolation of sheltering in place. Afraid to leave their homes, worried about the safety of their loved ones, this forced quarantine has prevented them from accessing needed resources and support.

As nonprofit service organizations, we seek to counteract these adverse experiences with positive experiences, with community-building spaces, and with opportunities to feel connected. But we can only serve those children we can reach, and children can’t feel a sense of belonging when they don’t feel safe.

We have expanded grief support for caregivers, trained community partners in trauma-informed care and developed a model of care for children who have borne witness to violence in their communities and in the news.

We continue to create inclusive, welcoming spaces for all children to explore and play. We provide the guidance, materials and tools for them to imagine, learn and heal together. We are collaborating with other nonprofits to create new sources of support and to extend our reach into the community in its time of need.

But this isn’t enough. Crisis response isn’t enough. And organizations like ours — along with Maine’s parents and caregivers — can’t carry this responsibility alone. We call on our elected officials to prioritize the safety and security of all our children, and to defend them from this preventable trauma. We call on you to stand up and speak out for our children like our future depends on it. Because it does.

Our kids are not alright. And they are counting on all of us to protect them.