For the past eight years, City Hall has left it to volunteers to organize vigils and comfort grieving families after the slaying of a relative, an all-too-common occurrence in Richmond.

That is about to change as the result of the April 27 shooting deaths of a young mother and her 3-month-old daughter at a South Side apartment complex.

Mayor Levar M. Stoney and Richmond City Council are mov- ing to revive professional support to assist traumatized families and communities.

As a first step, the mayor plans to introduce and seek immedi- ate passage of a resolution at the Monday, May 24, City Council meeting to put on the record a declaration that gun violence is a public health crisis in the wake of the killing of Sharnez Hill and her baby, Neziah, who were caught in a crossfire of bullets at the Belt

Atlantic Apartments. Neziah was the youngest of five children under 18 killed in city shootings this year. The mayor, who or- ganized a work group last fall to prepare rec- ommendations on ways to reduce or halt gun violence, said the resolution reflects the city’s “commitment to double-down on efforts to address the social, economic and health inequities that often lead to gun violence.” City Council also agreed to include $133,000 in the new 2021-22 budget to be adopted Monday to enable the mayor’s administration to hire social workers or community staff whose job would be to assist families of the slain.

An additional $367,000 in unspent funds is to be made available at the July 1 start of the new budget year to fund support services and to pay stipends to mentors and volunteer groups that are involved.

The moves represent a modest revival of the award-winning Second Responder Program that previously enabled police officers to call in social workers to provide support and comfort. The program was disbanded in 2013.

The program essentially was a professional version of the long- running volunteer service provided by the late Alicia Rasin for more than 20 years to families of homicide victims to help them cope, hold prayer events and make funeral arrangements. Others, such as Charles D. Willis, executive director of United Communities Against Crime, have sought to continue Ms. Rasin’s efforts.

Fifth District Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch, who has led the effort to provide funding as chair of the council’s Education and Human Services Committee, said the horrific killings of Ms. Hill and her infant created the “enough is enough” moment that made it possible to secure council support for the money.

“We have trauma-impacted communities, but until now, we have had nothing to fund some of the community-based grassroots work” that is so critical or to provide other services that a family or community might need to begin healing, said Ms. Lynch, a social worker.

The goal of the envisioned program is to generate the kind of response to future events that emerged after the Hill slayings. There was an outpouring of support from residents and community members, service organizations, area churches and businesses.

At least 10 families with children most affected by the slayings received expense-paid stays at a Short Pump hotel during the final days of April and then returned to find services, counseling and mentors waiting to assist in their recovery.

“I’ve never seen a response like that,” said Keisha Cummings, founder and chief executive officer of the nonprofit 2Love LLC, in testifying before Ms. Lynch’s committee in early May. “The community saw that they could heal themselves.”

Ms. Cummings, whose organization seeks to link poor residents to jobs and other services, welcomed the idea of having city staff involved in the effort to galvanize such a community response after other tragic incidents.

“I think Richmond has a responsibility to do what they did,” she said.