Germantown Non-Profit Provides Philadelphia with Violence Education

Every Murder is Real (E.M.I.R.) is an organization located on Germantown Avenue that provides services to families and friends that have been affected by homicide. I found out about this organization when my group and I were visiting Germantown for one of our previous projects. One of the two ladies that work there gave me her card in case we needed any information on our project about the Germantown construction. I saw the card on my dresser today, and I decided to look into the organization further because the name itself made me curious.

Every Murder Is Real was founded by Victoria Greene, the mother of Emir Greene, who was murdered in 1997. The non profit offers educational services to Philadelphia to try and stop senseless acts of violence in our city. E.M.I.R. (a play on words with Emir Greene’s name) also reaches out to the loved ones of homicide victims to provide counseling and grief services.




Victoria Greene had to go through what no mother ever wants to, and had to cope with the fact that her son was killed over drugs and violence. She now wants to help other families cope with the loss of a son, daughter, sister or brother. I think this is a great organization, and her story really moves me. I think it is great that people are really getting involved with the community and trying to help out, instead of just leaving the responsibility up to city programs. To read more about Victoria and her story, here is the link to the City Paper cover story, about ten years ago: http://www.citypaper.net/articles/050798/cov.deadson.shtml. To learn more on Every Murder is Real, visit their website at http://www.everymurderisreal.org/

-Amanda Hill, Erika Ransom, Steve Urgo- Germantown