A prominent anti-violence nonprofit in the city is adding a special teammate to help tackle a groundbreaking campaign.
Three-time Super Bowl champion Matthew Slater, who for 16 years was a Patriots’ fan favorite as an elite special teams captain, is helping push a fundraiser for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute.
Slater will be headlining a fundraiser for the institute next week, while they raise money to construct a building for outreach space — which will be a “place of refuge,” the Pats legend tells the Herald.
The nonprofit is trying to raise a total of $25 million for its “Campaign for Peace,” as the institute looks to build the National Center of Healing, Teaching, and Learning in Dorchester.
“People go through a lot, the human experience brings you a lot, and a lot of it is very hard,” Slater told the Herald this week.
“But to be able to have a space where you can come and try to heal and move forward from that, find common ground with the people you’re in community with, I think we need more spaces like this, and it’s so great to see the work that they’re doing,” he added.
The new center for the Peace Institute — named for founder, president and CEO Chaplain Clementina Chery’s 15-year-old son who was shot and killed in 1993 — will be located at 30 Westville St., across from Up Academy Dorchester.
Clementina Chery, Pres. and CEO of the Louis Brown Peace Institute, at the lot on Westville as the Louis Brown Peace Institute prepares to build a new facility. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
Clementina Chery, president and CEO of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, at the lot for a new facility. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
The Boston-based nonprofit has served the local area since 1994, providing support to families and communities impacted by murder, trauma, grief and loss.
On the L-shaped plot of land, the plan is to build a 19,000-square-foot center with public and private spaces for survivor and reentry support services, counseling, youth programming, training, and arts and movement therapy. The new site will also feature outdoor spaces for gatherings, meditations and community events.
“For the folks in that community to have a place of refuge where they can come and kind of lay their burdens down, I think is huge,” said Slater, who lives in Milton. “It’s so important that we have spaces like that, and they’re harder and harder to come by in the world that we live in, so it’s going to be a beacon of hope.”
Pre-development for the center is well underway, and the institute’s focus this year is on securing the capital needed to begin construction.
“Matthew Slater embodies the values of leadership, service, and community that are central to our mission,” Chery said. “We are honored to welcome him as we bring together supporters committed to building safer, healthier communities.”
The fundraiser “Champions for Peace: An Evening of Life, Legacy, and Action” will be next Thursday, June 25, at Willowbend Country Club in Mashpee.
It will be a “special night of inspiration, connection, and purpose in support of the Institute’s first-of-its-kind National Center of Healing, Teaching, and Learning,” reads a promo for the event.
“Enjoy an elegant evening featuring cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, meaningful conversation, and a powerful program with Matthew Slater, whose leadership on and off the field has inspired countless people,” the promo continues. “Together, we’ll celebrate what’s possible when communities unite around healing, resilience, and action.
“Your participation will help bring to life a groundbreaking Center that will transform a vacant lot in Boston’s Four Corners neighborhood into a national destination for healing, education, and hope,” the fundraiser promo adds. “More than a building, the Center will stand as a beacon of possibility, a place where individuals, families, and communities impacted by violence can find support, connection, and a path forward.”
The fundraiser will be from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
General admission tickets cost $100, and VIP access tickets from 6:30 to 7 p.m. to meet Slater and WBZ’s Steve Burton cost $200.
To buy tickets, visit the Peace Institute website at ldbpeaceinstitute.org/event/champions-for-peace-an-evening-of-life-legacy-and-action/.