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2013 Year-End Update
The Alliance survived 2013 thanks to a dedicated staff, board, volunteers and you, our donor supporters. With full staffing in 2012 we served 739 individual survivors — a 30% increase from the year before. In 2013, with reduced hours and only a part-time advocate we will have served over 300 survivors. It was a lean year and we had the time to reflect on what is core for achieving our mission — ending violence against women The Illinois Valley is a remote rural area (more than 60 minutes from a population center of 50,000). Evidence indicates that survivors in remote rural areas face additional barriers that prevent them from accessing…
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Winter’s Garden
Although the ground is frozen, temperatures are dropping and spring is far from our grasp, garden catalogs will soon begin to trickle in through the postal system. After the holiday flurry of activities and long after company goes back home will be the time of year we sit back in our cozy homes with a hot cup of tea to dream and plan what we would like to do in our gardens come spring. At the Alliance, we look at the Community Garden and although the ground is covered with ice, and there are still reminders of the over-abundance of tomatoes and tomatillos from last fall, I see the hardy…
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Why Intimate Partner Violence Effects Everyone
You may ask yourself what your neighbor beating his wife has to do with you. What business of yours is it when you see someone on the street yell, curse and belittle their partner and their children? We often believe that it is their business, we shouldn’t get involved, and they will work it out. We may believe that what someone else is doing in their home is none of our concern because it doesn’t affect us in any way. Besides, there is nothing we can do about it anyway. The truth is that is does affect us and there are many things we can to end intimate partner violence…
