Victims’ Help Program ‘Can Make A Difference’

An Orange County program received national recognition Friday for its efforts to help families that have been victims of gang violence.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno presented the Crime Victim Service Award to the Orange-based Gang Victim Services Program at a ceremony in Washington.

“I am so very proud to present this award to these men and women who have devoted their lives to making a difference--to making positive change--for the benefit of others,” Reno said in the presentation at the Justice Department. “Their accomplishments lend support to something I’ve always believed to be true, and that is that one person can make a difference.”

The award, the highest federal honor for service to victims, was accepted by Christine Lopez, founder and supervisor of the 7-year-old program. The other four staff members of the program were also at the ceremony.

“As I was accepting the award, I was thinking back to the early beginning of the program and all the people I had met,” Lopez said. “I thought of the pain and sorrow I saw.”

Lopez has become known in the community as the “Angel of Death” because she works with police to notify families when loved ones are killed in gang violence.

“It’s different each time I notify a family, and I pray that I never get used to it,” said Lopez, who said she deals with the trauma by talking to colleagues and writing in her journal.

The program was started in 1990 not only to comfort the bereaved but also to provide translation services when needed and to strengthen ties between police and the community.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi nominated the program for the national award.

“These individuals go above and beyond the call of duty,” Capizzi said Friday. “They’re invaluable to us, and they’re doing a terrific service.”

Fourteen individuals and programs were cited Friday as part of the annual awards program to recognize those who help crime victims.

The winners were chosen among a pool of 200 nominees from federal, state and local programs nationwide.