It has been nearly 20 years since Javad Marshall-Fields and his financé Vivian Wolfe were tragically murdered while driving on Dayton Street in Aurora on June 20, 2005. The two Colorado State University graduates were ambushed by criminals trying to prevent Javad from testifying in an upcoming murder trial.

 

On Sunday, March 1, 2015, the Dayton Street Opportunity Center officially opened its doors with the goal of preventing tragedies like that which claimed the lives of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe on the same street nearly 10 years before. 

 

During the trial for Javad and Vivian’s murder it was revealed that the perpetrators had dropped out of high school, were second or third generation family members to be incarcerated and had limited opportunities in their respective communities. The goal of the Dayton Street Opportunity Center is to reduce factors like these and create more opportunities for youth, families and children in Aurora who might otherwise turn to a life to crime. 

 

Following their tragic loss, the mothers of Javad and Vivian – Rhonda Fields and Christine Wolfe – met at Fields’ home and discussed their shared desire to make victim advocacy, social justice, and education a community priority. They created the Fields Wolfe Memorial Fund to ensure all children from the ages of zero to 24 have a fair, safe, healthy, head start toward a successful passage to adulthood. Fields has since created the non-profit Fields Foundation and ran to serve in the Colorado State Legislature in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

 

In 2012, in an effort to provide assistance and opportunities for Aurora’s children and youth, the Fields Foundation began to recruit institutions and community partners to address the multitude of social and environmental risk factors that cause Aurora’s children to struggle academically and engage in unhealthy, risky behaviors.  This effort led to the creation of the Dayton Street Opportunity Center. 

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