Services
Services offered within the Advocacy Programs include:
Individual Advocacy and Counseling for Women
Individual Advocacy and Counseling Services focus on providing emotional support, domestic violence education, information and referrals, and one-on-one assistance with accessing resources to become self-sufficient. Advocates also provide safety planning to help women and their children stay safe during an abusive situation. Services are provided at our Oak Park office as well as at The Westside Minister’s Coalition office, The Welcoming Center, and the Department of Human Services Family Resource Centers in Austin and Melrose Park.
Support and Education Groups for Women
Advocates facilitate multiple weekly community-based Support and Education Groups where participants provide support and encouragement to one another, share their stories and communicate about resources in the community. Support Groups also provide women with valuable life skills such as financial literacy, parenting assistance, résumé writing, and interview skills. Groups are held at a variety of locations throughout our service area to accommodate the needs of the communities we serve. Child care is provided, and support and education groups for children and teens run concurrently with the women’s group.
Parenting Support and Education
Parenting Support and Education is provided to women during individual advocacy and counseling, support and education groups, art therapy, family activity nights, and the agency’s 24-Hour Crisis Line. Parenting Support and Education highlights the impact of domestic violence on children and parents. Workshops on parenting are facilitated throughout the year and cover topics such as discipline, stress management, safety planning and divorce.
Child Care
Child Care Services are available and are offered concurrently with women’s support and education groups. Volunteers provide children between the ages of 0-3 years with a safe environment where they can receive support and express their feelings through play, art, music and dance.
Family Activities
The purpose of family activities is to repair communication and enhance stability in the family. The Family Advocate facilitates these activities once per month. The Family Advocate will also bring together any non-offending family members with their individual advocates for the purpose of enriching and strengthening the family.
Individual Advocacy and Counseling for Children and Teens
Individual Advocacy and Counseling Services focus on providing emotional support, domestic violence education, information and referrals, and one-on-one assistance with accessing resources that a child or teen may need. Individual advocacy and counseling offers a safe, nurturing environment where children can work through painful feelings, build their self-esteem, and gain the resilience needed to thrive. Advocates also provide safety planning to help children, teens and their families stay safe.
Support and Education Groups for Children and Teens
Children and Teen Advocates facilitate multiple weekly community-based Support and Education Groups for children and teens, all of which run concurrently with women’s groups. Like the women’s Support and Education Groups, the children and teen groups are held at a variety of locations throughout our service area to accommodate the needs of the communities we serve. Children and teen victims receive support, both from each other and from our advocates, for the violence they have experienced in their homes or dating relationships.
Teen Dating Violence Prevention
Teen Dating Violence Prevention Workshops are provided by our Prevention & Education Specialist and Teen Advocates at a variety of schools and organizations throughout the communities Sarah’s Inn serves. Through these workshops, participants learn about definitions of abuse, warning signs of an abusive relationship, and resources available for those in a violent dating relationship. Presentations and workshops help participants identify the differences between healthy and unhealthy dating relationships and connect youth to services at Sarah’s Inn or at other community resources.
Art Therapy
Art Therapy is offered to women, children, teens and families through individual sessions and group sessions. Art Therapy provides an alternative avenue for individuals that have been exposed to violence who have difficulty verbalizing that experience in a more traditional counseling setting. This service opens lines of communication; allowing women, children, teens and families to move one step closer to healing from abuse.
24-Hour Crisis Line
The Crisis Line provides a 24-hour safety net for battered women and their families through crisis intervention, emergency assistance, and information and referral services in English and Spanish. Calling our Crisis Line is often a battered woman’s first step in seeking assistance when her life may be in danger. Crisis Line Advocates provide critical emergency counseling, linkage to shelters, information and referrals, advocacy, emergency transportation, and access to emergency hotel stays when domestic violence shelters are full. During office hours, Crisis Line Advocates also provide in-person services to walk-in clients. Because of the range of services offered through the Crisis Line, battered women and their families have access to a safety net of options between them and homelessness or further abuse.
Emergency Financial Assistance
In the midst of a domestic violence crisis, emergency assistance is critical to ensuring the safety of women and their families. Through our Emergency Financial Assistance Services, Sarah’s Inn helps women and their families facing imminent homelessness due to domestic violence through rental, security deposit, mortgage and utilities assistance. In addition, advocates provide food and personal care items to meet basic needs and public transportation cards to assist women with getting to work, the doctor or other essential services. Sarah’s Inn also provides emergency transportation to domestic violence shelters, a service crucial to ensuring women and children can reach safety.
Rapid Response
Advocates at Sarah’s Inn will go wherever needed to assist a women, child or teen in crisis. Clients need not come to Sarah’s Inn for assistance. Hospitals, police departments, high schools and other social service providers often call the crisis line to request an advocate to come to their location to meet with someone in an immediate domestic violence crisis.
Emergency Shelter
When all area domestic violence shelters are full, Sarah’s Inn provides safe shelter to women and children in a non-traditional format through emergency hotel placements. After hotel placement, an advocate will work with the family to ensure a safe, long-term housing solution.
Emergency Transportation
In cases where a woman and her children are fleeing from an abuser, Sarah’s Inn will provide transportation assistance via cab fare to local shelters or a bus/train ticket to a program in another city or state.
Services offered within the Legal Advocacy Program include the following:
The Legal Advocacy Program provides assistance to victims of domestic violence in exercising their legal rights under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act. Housed at the Fourth Municipal District Courthouse in Maywood and the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse at 555 W. Harrison, Legal Advocates inform victims of their legal options and assist them in pursuing the option that provides the most safety to the victims and their children. While this includes filing for Orders of Protection in civil and criminal court and advocating for the victim to receive the Order, it also includes advocating for victims to secure crime victim compensation and providing linkage to legal representation for divorce, child custody, child support, and petitioning for legal residency under the Violence Against Women Act. Legal Advocates are often a liaison between the client and the States Attorney’s Office, Judge and the Clerk of the Circuit Court.
Legal Advocates also provide police departments with training on such topics as current domestic violence laws, sensitivity when responding to a domestic violence call and interviewing child witnesses to domestic violence. Sarah’s Inn’s Legal Advocacy Program is represented on the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network’s Legal and Legislative Issues Committee which advocates for systemic change in the legal system and the Attorney General’s Order of Protection Enforcement Committee which recently made substantial changes to how Orders of Protection are served.
Services offered within the Partner Abuse Intervention Program include the following: The Partner Abuse Intervention Program provides perpetrators of domestic violence with the tools that are needed to make different choices, holds them accountable for the choices they have made, and encourages them to lead a non-violent lifestyle. Clients must take responsibility for abusive and controlling behavior and recognize this behavior as unacceptable. Our Partner Abuse Intervention Program has been in operation since 1989 and has provided services in Cook County since its inception. The program was one of the first to be protocol approved by the Illinois Protocol for Partner Abuse Intervention Programs in 1993, has maintained certification since, and continues to be a leader in the field. Steps to complete the Partner Abuse Intervention Program include participating in an intake/orientation session, 26 weekly group sessions and three aftercare sessions.
The intake/orientation session consists of an in-depth interview in order to document the client’s history of abuse, criminal history, family and marital history, substance abuse history, and other general information. In addition, each client signs a participation contract that outlines guidelines such as attendance, written assignments, behavioral expectations and payment of fees. Participants are acclimated to the program’s policies and procedures, including what conduct will not be tolerated. In addition, participants are informed of the basic beliefs and causes behind violent behavior and taught how to identify their own warning signs.
Each weekly session begins with a group discussion on topics including the following: definitions of different types of abusive behavior; belief systems; the choice to abuse and the consequences of that abusive behavior; the effects of domestic violence on their partners and children; safety planning to prevent further abuse; communication skills; situational stressors; physiological cues; and recognizing and taking responsibility for abusive behaviors. The session concludes with offering clients an opportunity to share their personal situations, at which time counselors and other group members generally provide feedback and support. Groups are interactive and may include exercises and role-playing. Discussion topics are reinforced by homework, which is reviewed by our counselors and returned to group members. Clients who have completed the full 26 weeks are required to attend three monthly aftercare sessions. Aftercare is meant to provide participants with a forum to discuss their challenges and successes since the completion of the weekly group sessions.
Sarah’s Inn has recently begun to accept women and teens into PAIP. These clients participate in individual sessions with PAIP counselors and/or advocates as appropriate.