Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance

Our Mission

The mission of the Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance is to serve survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, dating violence, elder abuse, and / or stalking (in all its forms), while they meet their immediate and long term goals of safety and self-sufficiency.

Our Vision

Imagine a world where women are free from fear, with a voice as an individual, as a group, and as a community;

Imagine a world where women speak free from fear, live free from fear, and participate in their community free from fear;

Imagine a world where we embrace differences with compassion, understanding and encouragement.

Our Goals

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance works to accomplish this mission using a trauma informed, survivor led and victim centered approach with survivors, with each other, and with our community.

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance strives to end all domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, dating violence, elder abuse, and/or stalking (in all its forms), through intervention with survivors and engagement of the community to challenge and change the culture of violence.

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance intervenes by helping survivors achieve safety, build confidence, and take the first important steps on their healing path.

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance works together with survivors in their communities to enable them to rebuild and sustain their lives as safe, self-sufficient individuals.

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance strives to prevent harm to victims through education, and empowers people to intervene in acts of violence, and challenge and change the culture of violence.

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance recognizes that all forms of oppression intersect and that to end violence against one another means to end all oppressions.

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The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance recognizes that

• Intervention is the most basic need for survivors and intervention is the foundation of the organization’s work.  The organization strives to meet each survivor where she is and tailor our services and support to meet their needs. 
• To build a world where women are safe and free to participate requires work to understand all oppressions.  Our prevention work looks to educate and inform the community of the causes of violence against women, how oppressions intersect with that violence, and how to interrupt the violence.
• In order to create real and sustainable change the organization must engage the whole community in the work.

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The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance takes the following actions to end violence against women:

Intervene: To step in; to come between.

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

Engage: To get and hold the attention of; to involve in an activity

Intervention Goals:

• Provide crisis intervention, assist in stabilizing survivors lives and keep survivors engaged with services so:
  • It is easier to stay separated from their abuser
  • They are less likely to be re-assaulted
  • They access the resources they need
  • They have a bigger support system and sense of community

Prevention Goals:

• Provide education on violence against women and the tools to interrupt and prevent the violence from occurring:
• Prevention work in the schools
• Community awareness and bystander campaigns
• Dedication of staff and resources to support prevention and anti-oppression work
• Participation and leadership in anti-violence work throughout the county (DSV Council, Leadership Summit, schools, and community partnerships) and statewide groups (DHS, OCADSV, AGSATF).

Engagement goals:

• Establish by-stander groups
• Publicize services and brand to community groups (presentations, social media)
• Increase the number of volunteers (board members, by-stander groups, fund and friend-raiser events, schools)