Refuge In Troubled Times Community Development Corporation, a Birmingham nonprofit, will host its fourth annual candlelight vigil to memorialize people who have died from violence and COVID-19 at 6 p.m. on Jan. 8 at Kelly Ingram Park.

The city ended 2023 with 135 homicides, a 6% decrease from 2022 when the city had 144 homicides, marking the deadliest year in recent history.

While the drop in homicides, families across the city are still grieving the loss of their loved ones. Brenda Paige Ward, founder of Refuge In Troubled Times, said her goal is to bring the community together and set a path for change.

“We need to come together in unity and do something about all of the deaths, and the murders, and the homicides and all of the things that are going on around our city. This is our city and we have to do something for our children,” Ward said.

Ward created the nonprofit in 2011, after the fatal shooting of her eldest grandson RaSheed Ali Ward, 19, on June 17, 2010. Keith Hilson, 24, was also killed in the shooting. No one has been arrested for their deaths.

She said she remembers how her mother reacted when her two sons, Ward’s brothers, were shot and killed. She realized she finally understood her mother’s pain when her grandson was shot.

“Now I know what my mother felt like when my two brothers died and how she moaned, and cried, and she held her stomach and she just cried and cried,” Ward said. “It was just a traumatic experience. I couldn’t cry, you know, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. It was just horrifying, what had happened. And I was trying to figure out who would do such a thing.”

She said she does not want anyone else to have to experience the grief she and her mother experienced.

The vigil is open to the public to provide support to community members.

The event will include a wreath laying to pay respects to the dead, prayers and a list of guest speakers including Commissioner Sheila Tyson, Sheriff Mark Petway, District Attorney Danny Carr, Chaplain Don Thomas and members of What About Us, a support group for mothers who have lost children to gun violence.

Grief counselors and members of the Birmingham Police Department will be available to those in need of support.

“This is a community problem. It is a problem for all of us. And we got to get concerned about what’s going on and not just pass it over and say ‘well it’s not at my door.’ It is at your door, if it’s in your neighborhood, at your neighbor’s house. It could have been your mom, your brother, your sister, your dad. It could have been you,” Ward said. “I want the whole community to be involved because we all are affected.”