Partnership with Three Rivers Park District Seeks Healing Through Nature for People Impacted by Gun Violence

On an unseasonably warm fall day, it’s a perfect time to get outside for a bike ride, maybe spend some time by the water, or even try something new.

That’s exactly what many families did on a recent visit to Fish Lake Regional Park in Maple Grove. Yet one thing many of these families had in common is that they’ve been directly impacted by gun violence.

“There’s so many people here in the community who’ve come out who have lost their brothers, sisters, sons, fathers, mothers,” said Jahliah Holloman, a violence interrupter with the organization, Restoration Inc. “And we just try to find peaceful things to do.”

For the past year, the Three Rivers Park District has worked with an organization called Innovative SOULutions on a program that brings people suffering from the trauma of gun violence into the parks.

The event on Oct. 30 drew close to 75 people.

A family learns archery at Fish Lake Regional Park in Maple Grove during the Innovative SOULutions event.

“We partnered up with them hoping to have an outdoor avenue for them to come out to heal and to kind of be away from that trauma and that violence that a lot of families experience where they’re living,”

The inner city doesn’t always have the same kind of recreational opportunities as a regional park, so the organizers wanted to use this opportunity to help them explore all the possibilities the parks have to offer.

“Canoeing and fishing and things that you don’t get to do in the city,” said Coach Muhammad, a violence interrupter. “Just a chance to get away, you know, from the inner-city.”

Recovering from trauma takes time, but the hope is that an event like this, at least for a brief time, can help with the healing process.

“It’s moments like these that we cherish when we can come together in the community and kind of celebrate life rather than mourning a life being lost,” Holloman said.

Related: Three Rivers Launches Jr. Naturalist Activity Book

Maple Grove