Domestic Violence Help
Programs and Services
Individual Counseling
A Safe Place provides shelter, court advocacy, referrals and comprehensive counseling program for victims of domestic violence - women and children who have been physically, verbally, or emotionally abused. Counseling services are available to women and their children residing at A Safe Place, as well as to nonresidential clients.
To view details about our domestic violence help services, please select one of the links below:
If you would like more information about A Safe Place and the domestic violence help services and programs we provide, please call us at 847-731-7165 or email us at info@asafeplaceforhelp.org.
Emergency Shelter
No one in danger is ever turned away from A Safe Place. Six-week shelter stays are available to women and their children who must seek safety from their abusers while they develop plans that will lead to violence-free lives. When our modern, 35-bed home is at capacity, we find safe accommodations nearby so victims can continue to receive services until room becomes available in the shelter. A stay at A Safe Place allows victims to assess the resources and options available for setting up new and safe lives for their families while they begin rebuilding their shattered self images.
24-Hour Help Line
Breaking free from a life threatened by violence often begins with that first courageous step of calling A Safe Place's 24-hour HELP LINE. Staff and trained volunteers offer immediate counseling and support to victims of domestic abuse using our dedicated crisis lines. These are also available fo the hearing impaired through a TTY number. Once a victim's immediate safety is established, she is encouraged to tell her story so that her pain and fears can be validated. She is then assisted in exploring options available to her, including the shelter and other programs of A Safe Place.
Individual Counseling
Individual counseling sessions with A Safe Place's counselors are encouraged for all victims of domestic violence on both a residential and a nonresidential basis. One-on-one counseling offers a woman the opportunity to share the depths of her suffering and to vent her long-witheld anger and fears. A Safe Place's counselors help each vitim recognize and appreciate her individual strengths as she works with her counselor in setting new goals and designing a plan to achieve them.
Group Counseling
A comprehensive group counseling program for both residential and nonresidential clients allows women to share and compare their experiences, to practice new relationship skills, to discuss concerns for their families, and to encourage each other in planning for the future.
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Support Group allows victims of domestic violence to share experiences and offer support and encouragement to other women in similar situations. Support groups work to dispel myths associated with abuse and to affirm each woman's positive image.
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Anger Expression Group addresses a person's right to be angry while focusing on the safe expression of anger. Anger triggers, self-discipline and techniques for self control — including "time-outs" — are explored.
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Assertiveness Training teaches women to exercise their rights without denying the rights of others. Special emphasis is given to safety issues for women currently living with abusive partners.
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Parenting Group encourages a positive, supportive approach to parent-child relationships. Skills for successful, non-confrontational, nurturing child rearing are taught.
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House Meeting provides a forum for shelter residents to resolve conflicts that may arise in a group living setting and to discuss house policies and responsibilities.
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Morning Meeting focuses on daily plans and achievements - such as acquiring housing or legal assistance. Long-term goals become more realistic when the significance of each day's successes is recognized.
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Coping Skills Group examines the interrelation of domestic violence and substance abuse. Group discussions center on issues of safety, coping without substances, and cycles of violence and addiction.
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Satellite Support Groups offer weekly group support to victims of domestic violence throughout A Safe Place's service area in Lake, McHenry, and northern Cook counties. Groups currently meet in Deerfield, Round Lake, Vernon Hills and Waukegan, providing a supportive and constructive alternative to counseling nearer their homes for those not in need of an emergency shelter.
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Latina Support Groups allows Latina women an opportunity to share their feelings and experiences of domestic abuse in their native language, with sensitivity to cultural issues unique to their own community.
Court Advocacy
The Court Advocacy Program has assisted victims of domestic violence in the Lake County Courthouse since 1984. Court advocates, including some bilingual, bicultural staff and trained volunteers, assist victims in A Safe Room within the courthouse as they prepare to seek orders of protection. These court advocates offer support to victims in the domestic violence courtroom and also will assist victims who choose to be witnesses during the criminal prosecution of abusers.
Referrals and Information/Non-legal Advocacy
A Safe Places offers extensive referral and information systems to all clients through networks with numerous service providers, members of legal and medical communities, schools, churches, and local businesses. The staff of A Safe Place advocates on behalf of women and children in the areas of housing, employment, education, public assistance, day care, and medical services.
A Safe Place has formal or written networking agreements with more than 40 local agencies, including Northern Illinois Council on Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Lake County Council Against Sexual Assault, Lake County Mental Health Department, Youth and Family Counseling, Great Lakes Family Service Center, and the State's Attorney's Office. A Safe Place also networks with other domestic violence shelters and support programs located in Illinois.
Professional Education
A Safe Place offers ongoing domestic violence training to all area police departments, the sheriff's department, judges, victim advocates and personnel from the State's Attorney's, Probation, and Public Defender's offices, as well as to emergency room and other health care providers and staff members of area service agencies, in addition to clergy and school social workers, administration, and teaching staffs. Knowledge of specific patterns of domestic violence, the interpersonal dynamics of abuse, and the inherent danger are of great value to these people as they work with both victims and abusers. The 40-hour domestic violenct training program is now offered annually in daytime sessions more accessible to professionals in the social and legal service areas.
Prevention Education
Interactive classroom programs offered by A Safe Place's prevention education staff educate young people about the underlying dynamics of domestic violence. They focus on safety, self-esteem, power and control in relationships, nonviolent negotiating techniques, appropriate expressions of anger, and conflict resolution skills.
Community Education
A Safe Place extensive and continuing community education as a key component in achieving our goal of eliminating domestic violence in our communities. Annually, a full calendar of programs informs the public about the dynamics of domestic violence and the toll it exacts on families and on society. Staff and volunteers from our speakers bureau appear before corporate audiences, civic organizations, church congregations and other public forums in an ongoing effort to increase awareness about the issue of domestic violence.
For persons wishing to know more about the issue of domestic violence or whos want to become volunteers at A Safe Place, the agency offers several 40-hour training workshops each year.
Abuser Services
A Safe Place has been providing services since 1984 that address the issue of accountability of the batterer to the victim and to the community. We are the only non-profit agency offering such services in the area.
Staff members conduct assessment interviews to determine the batterers' lethality and to make recommendations for services. A Safe Place co-facilitates two sessions each week of an 18-week program for male abusers in which discussions center on the unacceptable power and control they have been demanding in relationships. Alternatives to violent/aggressive behaviors are presented and discussed. Group co-facilitators emphasize the need for abusers to take responsibility for their behavior toward women in relationships. Specific techniques for nonviolent interpersonal interaction are taught and progress is monitored through weekly journal reviews. Batterer checks are conducted by abuser services personnel to help determine the ongoing effectiveness of treatment services. Currently, HELP LINE personnel maintain interval safety checks with known victims of court-identified abusers.
Children's Services
Each year, children's counselors at A Safe Place help nearly 400 child witnesses of domestic violence learn to deal with feelings of fear and confusion, guilt and shame. It is vital for these youngest of victims to be able to deal with these strong emotions and to learn new and healthy ways of communicating and relating to others. If left unchallenged and uninterrupted, the dangerous lessons children have obsserved may be repeated as they grow into adulthood, continuing the cycle of violence for yet another generation.
Children's counselors at A Safe Place work with both residential and nonresidential children in a variety of settings. They encourage the children to acknowledge and express their feelings. Directed activities let teh children practice critical new ways of communicating and relating to others.
Individual Counseling
One-on-one sessions with our children's counselors focus on issues of loneliness, confusion, fear, anger and guilt. Counselors help the children acknowledge their experiences and recognize that they were not to blame for the violence of adults. Strengthening a child's self-esteem is a vital component of this work.
Support Groups
Weekly gatherings are held for preschool children, school-age children, and adolescents. Through art and play activities, children begin to recognize and to express their feelings and to develop age-appropriate social skills. Group activities provide opportunities to practice relating to others without resorting to aggression or coercion. Counselors and volunteers lead family field trips to zoos, parks, museums and other places where newly-learned communication skills can be exercised and healthy mother-child interaction is fostered.
Advocacy
A Safe Place consults with other agencies and within the legal and educational systems on behalf of children. The agency's role is to offer emotional support and to protect the child's rights and interests. In addition, counselors are trained to detect signs of direct child abuse or sexual assault, in which case appropriate referrals are made. Children's counselors work with each mother on an individual basis, teaching and modeling parenting skills when needed and providing information on child development and the effects of abuse on children.
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