GOALS OF VIDAS ROBADAS

1 CONNECT

CONGREGATIONS, UNIVERSITIES, ADVOCATES AND TEXANS ACROSS THE STATE

2 ENGAGE

COMMUNITIES TO LEARN ABOUT THE REALITY OF GUN VIOLENCE IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS

3 MOBILIZE

OUR PARTNERS TO JOIN CITY INITIATIVES AIMED AT REDUCING GUN VIOLENCE AND TO HEAD TO THE TEXAS CAPITOL IN 2025 AND DEMAND LEGISLATIVE ACTION

ABOUT VIDAS ROBADAS

Vidas Robadas is a state-wide installation campaign, where congregations, universities, and any other interested locations display t-shirts that name or represent victims from their community whose lives where stolen by gun violence.

This project seeks to connect the various silos of advocacy and violence prevention, and to unite communities of faith with other advocates to create positive change. The project starts with municipal initiatives, connecting city leaders with advocates to enact gun violence reduction measures.

Vidas Robadas will be active up until the Texas legislative session in 2025, when all of our partners and allies across the state will head to the capitol to demand legislative change.

Gun reform is hard, especially in Texas. But not impossible. We have seen progress this past session that would have been impossible years prior. We have to capitalize on this moment. Lives depend on it.

HOW TO HOST AN INSTALLATION

1. EMAIL TEXAS IMPACT AT bobby@texasimpact.org

2. DECIDE HOW MANY T-SHIRT MEMORIALS YOU CAN DISPLAY

• • Shirts are usually either hung along clothesline or placed on PVC pipe and rebar frames, but we can change based on needs. Shirts are usually about 3 ft wide. On frames they need about 4×3 ft of cubic space and stand at 4ft tall.

3. CREATE AND INSTALL THE T-SHIRT MEMORIALS

• • For victims of homicides and accidents Hosts write their name, date of death, and age on a color shirt.
  • For victims of suicide WE DO NOT NAME THEM. Due to the sensitivity of the issue and family’s privacy Hosts use white t-shirts and use blue markers (blue is the color of suicide prevention) to write “Otra Vida Robada” or “Another Stolen Life” instead of their name, followed by “Suicide Lifeline: 988.”
  • Suicides continue to make up the majority of gun related deaths so we ask locations to display half white shirts and half color.

4. HAVE A PRESS RELEASE

• • In order to keep attention on the issue and get more parties involved we ask every location to have a press release to announce the launch of their installation. Texas Impact and local partners will help with logistics.

5. CONNECT WITH OTHER INITIATIVES

• • There are often other events by Texas Impact or other partners related to gun violence happening at the same time. STAY INVOLVED. A major part of this project is to connect with other advocates and city initiatives. See what your city officials and other organizations are doing to reduce gun violence.

6. GO TO THE CAPITOL

• • The culmination of all of this work will be in 2025 when WE WILL TAKE ALL THE SHIRT MEMORIALS FROM ACROSS THE STATE TO DISPLAY AT THE CAPITOL. We have to advocate for legislative change at the state level. The exact date will be determined later.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS