Some events you attend and forget by the following week. This wasn’t one of those.
On Saturday, June 6th, as the sun began to settle over the Civic Center Pond at 1000 Webster Street in Fairfield, something quietly powerful happened. Hundreds of community members, neighbors, elected officials, faith leaders, therapists, advocates, and residents came together at the water’s edge with lawn chairs and blankets and a shared willingness to do something that doesn’t always come easily in the aftermath of tragedy. They sat with it. Together.
I co-hosted the Community Healing Circle with Broken by Violence and Tri-City NAACP. It was built around a single theme that said everything that needed to be said in just seven words.
Why This Moment Mattered for Fairfield
Fairfield has been carrying a lot. Recent violence has left residents grieving, shaken, and in many cases quietly struggling with trauma that doesn’t disappear just because life keeps moving: the families directly affected, the students who witnessed things no young person should ever have to see, and the neighbors who felt something shift in their sense of safety and belonging.
Grief like that needs somewhere to go, and too often in our communities it doesn’t have one. People absorb it privately. They push through. And the weight accumulates in ways that affect families, relationships, and the health of a community for years.
The Community Healing Circle was a direct response to that reality. It wasn’t a press conference or a policy announcement. It was a genuine, intentional space for people to come together, be seen in their pain, and begin healing surrounded by community rather than alone.
I’ve spent my career building organizations like Solano Impact Care and Hazel’s Tranquility Place specifically to meet people in their hardest moments, and that’s the spirit this evening was built on.
How the Evening Opened
As everyone settled in around the pond, I opened the gathering by thanking the organizers and acknowledging the elected officials and community leaders who showed up, to set the tone for everything that followed.
Nikila, who served as the evening’s anchor throughout, gave opening remarks, and Pastor Brown’s introduction grounded the gathering in faith and community.
Then came something unexpected for many in attendance. Rochelle Henderson, a therapist, led the group through scream therapy, a practice that gave people a physical way to release what they’d been holding inside. It sounds unusual on paper. In person, surrounded by neighbors under an open sky, it was exactly the kind of unconventional, deeply human moment the evening called for. Sometimes the body needs to do what the mind can’t yet process.
Honoring Those Impacted by Violence
One of the most important moments came when Ebony led a formal acknowledgment of the victims, their families, the students, and the community members impacted by the recent violence in Fairfield. She spoke honestly about what it means to witness violence and carry that trauma, giving language to experiences many in the crowd had been struggling to put into words.
She also shared information about a Facing the Trauma event at Liberty Church, so everyone who came left knowing the support doesn’t stop when the evening ends. Healing isn’t a single night. It’s an ongoing process, and people left knowing where to find the next step.
Community Voices: Elected Officials and Advocates Speaking as Neighbors
The gathering then moved into a season of bridging and connecting, where community speakers and elected officials shared reflections in what felt less like a formal program and more like a gathering of people who love the same place and the same people. The speakers represented the full breadth of Fairfield’s civic and community leadership:
- Lori Wilson, Assemblymember for AD 11
- Helen Tilley, Chair of the Fairfield Suisun Unified School District
- Wanda Williams, Solano County Supervisor for District 3
- Dana Dean, Trustee of the Solano County Board of Education
- Elease Cheek, Vice President of the Solano County Board of Education
- Larry Bluford Jr. from R.E.A.L.
- Anthony E. McDonald Sr. from Leaders of Men
- Gail Byrdsong, a 30-year citizen advocate whose decades of showing up for this community speak for themselves
What stood out wasn’t any single speech. It was the collective presence: so many people, across so many roles and organizations, choosing to be there in person at the pond on a Saturday evening for a community that needed them.
Healing Through Words and Sounds
Andre Humphrey with Inner City Bliss brought the evening’s theme to life through a healing practice built around words and sounds. He met people exactly where they were, without asking them to perform wellness or move past their grief prematurely. He simply offered tools, language, and sound, the kind of creative practice that reaches places conventional support sometimes can’t touch.
For that stretch of time, the Civic Center Pond became a sanctuary, quiet in the way a space full of people can be when everyone is genuinely present together.
Looking Forward
Nikila closed the evening with next steps and a reminder that healing isn’t something that happens once and then ends.
The Community Healing Circle was a beginning: a signal from our community and its leaders that no one has to navigate grief and trauma in isolation. There are organizations, advocates, faith leaders, elected officials, and neighbors ready to walk alongside anyone who is struggling.
I co-hosted this event because this is the work I’ve given my adult life to: building organizations designed to catch people when they fall. I believe governing isn’t just about policy votes. It’s about showing up for the full human reality of the community we serve.
My co-hosts, Broken by Violence and Tri-City NAACP, brought the same spirit. They’re organizations with deep roots in Fairfield, doing the unglamorous, sustained work of being present for people in their hardest moments.
The Organizations Behind the Work
The Community Healing Circle was supported by a wide network of community-based organizations, elected officials, faith leaders, and residents united around healing, peace, and community resilience. If you want to stay connected to ongoing support and healing work in Fairfield and across Solano County, here are the organizations doing the work:
- Solano Impact Care at solanoimpactcare.org provides personalized care and meaningful connection for individuals navigating challenges in Solano County
- Hazel’s Tranquility Place at hazelstranquility.org offers safe housing, compassionate structure, and a pathway forward for vulnerable women and children
- Broken by Violence works with those impacted by violence, offering acknowledgment, community, and a path toward healing
- Tri-City NAACP continues its decades of advocacy and community support across the region
To stay informed about future community healing initiatives and how to get involved, visit kpatriceforfairfield.com and connect with me on LinkedIn.
Fairfield Showed Up for Itself
That’s really the story of June 6th. A community that has been through something hard chose to come together rather than retreat. It chose to acknowledge the pain rather than minimize it, and to offer tools for healing rather than pretend grief resolves itself with enough time.
And it did all of that at the edge of a pond, as dusk fell over Fairfield, with lawn chairs and blankets and seven words that carried more weight than any policy document ever could:
You don’t have to carry this alone.
Fairfield showed up for itself that evening. That’s something worth remembering.
Learn more about my work in District 1 at kpatriceforfairfield.com
For campaign and election information, visit ElectKPatriceWilliams.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What was the Community Healing Circle and who organized it?
A community gathering at Fairfield’s Civic Center Pond that I co-hosted with Broken by Violence and Tri-City NAACP, created to offer collective healing after recent community violence.
2. How can Fairfield residents access ongoing trauma and healing support?
Solano Impact Care at solanoimpactcare.org is a strong starting point for community support services across Solano County.
3. What is Hazel’s Tranquility Place and who does it serve?
I founded it and named it after my mother. It provides safe housing and a pathway forward for vulnerable women and children in Solano County.