Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance

 

Our goals center on these three actions:

Intervene: (verb) Step in; come between.

 

Prevent: (verb) To prohibit from occurring by advance planning or action.

 

Engage: (verb) To get and hold the attention of; to involve in an activity.

These actions are the core of all our efforts to end violence against women.

Intervention Team: We provide support and resources to women and children who are in the midst of abuse. A woman may or may not be able to leave her abuser.  Every woman makes her own decisions about how she accesses support and services at the Alliance so that safety and empowerment are fundamental to her experience. Every effort is made to keep survivors engaged beyond their initial crisis period because we know that staying involved with an advocate greatly improves a woman’s ability to stay safe, access resources, and develop a network of support.

Prevention Team:  Through our presence in area schools, our work with local service groups, and our bystander campaign, we work to engage and educate the community in changing the underlying social and cultural supports that lead to violence against women.

Engagement Team: The Alliance understands that, if we work in isolation, we will never end violence against women. We use systems advocacy to work within the criminal justice system, the legislature, and with community partners to improve systemic responses to victims of domestic and sexual violence. We participate in multiple task forces and councils as well as community, regional and statewide work groups – some that do have violence against women as their charter, and some that don’t.  We go where survivors’ voices and perspectives need be heard. We encourage survivors to engage in this process and become systems advocates as well.

Each staff member is primarily assigned to one team, but we all share responsibility for the work in each area.  Woven throughout the teams is to move toward a society that is more just and inclusive.