A father and daughter team debuted their documentary, Untold” during Columbia College Chicago’s two-day Doc Your World festival in May.

Leah Zeiger, 20, a dance major at the college, was in an abusive relationship as a teenager. She told that story with her father, David Zeiger, 66, a professional film director and producer from California. When Doc Your World students were called upon to produce a documentary on a pivotal moment in their lives, the Zeigers felt obligated to share their story to heal themselves and other survivors.

“Making this film about what Leah and our family went through was necessary for all of us,” said David Zeiger. “It’s part of our DNA; that’s how we deal with it.”

Her father used his talents in film and photography to express his emotions after the death of his 9-year-old son in 1987.

Doc Your World is an interdisciplinary course. In addition to making short films, the students organized this two-day event.

A panel including the Zeigers and other sexual assault survivors, Jean Cozier, 61, and Cassandra Kaczor, 23, shared their experiences. Cozier, founder and executive director of Awakenings Foundation Center and Gallery, encompassed all of the panelist’s goals in combining their pain with their art.

“I’m a survivor who uses my art to heal myself and other people as well,” Cozier said. “I believe in it more strongly than I believe in almost anything in my life. The power of taking control of what happened to you is the most empowering thing that anybody can ever experience.”

Cozier, who was sexually assaulted as a child, exemplified this mindset with her foundation. The center provides coaching and a platform for survivors to open up about sexual violence in their lives in the form of artwork, writing, and graphic design.

Kaczor, a Roosevelt University graduate student in music composition, was sexually assaulted at 16, when a music producer she worked with forced her to perform sexual acts on him. She was then raped her junior year of college. Since then, she made it her mission to create and perform pieces that help herself and other survivors recover from their trauma.

With the same goal of healing through artistic expression, Leah Zeiger created the Sunflower Project. The multimedia organization uses dance, film and writing to educate young adults from middle school to high school about sexual assault, domestic violence and dating abuse.

Through education of young adults about healthy relationships, she hoped that they would be able to spot the early signs of abuse before escalation. One indicator she stressed was jealousy or paranoia, two signs that were prevalent in the beginning of her relationship.

The relationship was abusive mentally, physically and verbally, she recalled. After prom night, the abuse became sexual. She internalized the abuse, became depressed and attempted suicide. With her parents’ and professional help, she ended the relationship and filed a restraining order.

Sitting on a couch with her father in her documentary, she told of her ex-boyfriend’s terrifying retaliation. Police found him and a friend outside her house with a backpack filled with rope, chloroform, a bat, bullets, and condoms. Their intent was to break in the Zeiger home, take out her father, tie up her mother and siblings and rape her, police later said.

He was arrested and charged with eight felonies. After a plea deal, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

She recalled the first time she revealed her story to the public, in a dance called “Unnamed.” She spoke of the emotions that lead to it and the insights and power she gained by creating it.

“I was a dancer before I was a survivor,” she said. “Dance became a way to communicate what was going on and what happened–also a way to heal. I started dancing with a different purpose–I can dance to heal others.”

But awareness about domestic violence is increasing. In fact, some women in the Arab American community of Chicago are adding a clause to their Islamic marriage contract stating that they will go to the police if their husbands abuse them.

Sheikh Ahmed Arafat, a part time Imam at The Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, said a couple came in a few days ago to receive their Islamic marriage certificate, and the woman put a condition on the contract that stated, “in the case of physical abuse the wife surely will call the police,” Arafat said.

According to Islamic law (Shari’a), both the husband and wife can put any condition they want in the marriage certificate (prenuptial agreement), and both sides have to agree to it. Similar to people of other faiths, in addition to being married in a civil court, Muslim couples go to the Mosque or a Sheikh to obtain an Islamic marriage certificate.

“Marriage, particularly in Christian and Islamic communities, is considered a religious act,” said Azam Nizamuddin, president of the Muslim Bar Association of Illinois and adjunct professor of theology at Loyola University.

“Regardless what the government thinks about marriage, Muslims and Christians will always engage in religious, social practice,” said Nizamuddin.

Nareman Taha co-founder of Arab American Family Services (AAFS) said, “the biggest problem we are facing in providing services to the Arab community, is the culture of denial.”

“We as a society allowed it to happen,” Radhika Sharma-Gordon, Outreach and Education Manager at Apna Ghar, said.  “There was not one typology of abuse, we as societies and cultures are allowed to think it is all right to use whatever power and advantages they have over another person in their lives and try to control them.”

Every community has this issue and how every community responds to it differs, Radhika-Gordon said, adding, “It is seen everywhere in every culture and all socioeconomic levels.”

Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence–according to the U.S. Department of Justice definition–can be physical, sexual, emotional or economic, but also psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person.

Arab American Family Services, which started in 2001, handled 377 new domestic violence cases last year, said Aysha Shalabey, one of the agency’s lead victim advocates.

All were considered successful, she said, because the women broke the silence and came forward to talk about their abuse; and they now know what options they have if the abuse continues in the future.

“We had cases; we go to the moon and back [to help the victims],” Shalabey said, adding that sometimes even when they’re successful, the victim comes and says she wants to go back to her husband.

The agency created its domestic violence prevention department after it launched in ’01. The agency describes itself as both bilingual and bi-cultural, and empowering to Arab-American and Muslim women through advocacy, according to its website.

The agency also works with local Chicago-area police departments to inform them about the Arabic culture, as well as cultural sensitivity training, when dealing with cases in that community.

An Arab-American police officer, who preferred not to use his name, said that during his 10 years on the force, he’s dealt with a dozen domestic violence cases involving the Arab community. Most of the time, the victims would not sign a complaint for “personal reasons.”

“They just want the husband out of the house,” the officer said.

There are also some instances when the women who have reported a domestic violence case will not press charges. Instead, they choose to seek counseling at their local mosque.

This is an Arab tradition deeply ingrained in the Arab culture, as people prefer to solve their problems away from official authorities. They’ll instead choose a mediator who is either an elderly family member or a religious leader, such as the Sheikh in their local mosque.

Shalabey said a police officer from the Village of Hickory Hills reached out to her recently to better understand the role of the mosque in physical abuse cases. This refers to cases where individuals will tell the police department that they will solve the problem at the mosque. That officer, Shalabey recalled, also mentioned in his message that the mosque called them back and updated them on the case.

The Arab American officer said his presence in the police station helps his colleagues better understand Middle Eastern culture when they receive a call involving domestic violence situations in the Arab American community.

As for the victims, it’s not easy for them to leave or call the police, said Ibteesam Asfour, a victim advocate at Arab American Family Services.

“It takes a lot, and it does not happen right away,” said Asfour, who got her bachelor’s degree in management while in Jordan. During her U.S. stay, she’s completed many training programs about domestic violence and social justice.

“Why am I involved is a question that I ask myself, and the answers come from my clients when I realize the difference my services make,” Asfour said.

The Arab women, she added, “graduate” from their fathers’ homes to their husbands’ house–their family has always protecting them.  “Asking a woman, who’s never made a decision on her own [and] never worked for herself; to do so, suddenly, is often difficult,” Asfour said. “And now you are expecting her to make a decision, NO!”

Asfour said her agency’s’ hotline receive calls from different counties in Illinois and from out of state as far away as Maryland, New York, and California. Asfour said she once received a call from France; a relative was calling on behalf of a victim.

Asfour added that supportive family members and friends also know that the victim should leave the abuser. But because the victim has been in the “circle of violence” so many times, the victim does not realize she should go. “We make the point: she should call because it is her decision,” Asfour said.

Along with Arab American Family Services, The Mosque Foundation, a nonprofit support agency located in Bridgeview, also deals with domestic violence cases in the community.

While both agencies do a good job with these cases, AAFS co-founder Nareman Taha said she   wished the two organizations were able to better work with one another, though there have been occasions when the foundation has referred victims to her.

Asfour, however, said that her agency takes a different approach than the foundation–preferring not to try and make the abusers “more religious” and, therefore, a better person who won’t abuse in the future.

Despite their different approaches to dealing with domestic violence cases, both organizations agreed that the police should be contacted immediately.

“When they come to us, we tell them to call the police,” said Arafat, who recalled witnessing a lot of divorces resulting from domestic violence disputes. He also stressed that it is a woman’s right in Islam to ask for a divorce if her husband treats her cruelly.

He acknowledged that abuse is often not only physical but also emotional, as some men will use Islamic law to torment their wives.

Arafat said some husbands tell their wives that although they have been legally divorced in an American court, she’s still his wife according to Islamic law.

Muslim Bar Association of Illinois President Azam Nizamuddin said this is also a problem in other communities, including Catholic Christians and Orthodox Jews.

According to data from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2002 to 2011, of the roughly 3,000 homicide cases involving females in 2010, 39 percent were committed by an intimate acquaintance, while 37 percent were committed by a non-intimate. Sixty-seven percent of females were “physically victimized” by an intimate.

Still, domestic violence is not solely a Muslim problem, Sheikh Arafat said, because it exists in every race and religion. He doesn’t recognize it as a significant issue within the Arab community either, which he credits to the community’s high level of education and professionalism. But, he said it is more prevalent in families with little or no education.

Arab American Family Services is in the process of setting up a medical advocacy program in hospitals, where even if the woman doesn’t want to come forward, she’ll have access to resources, Shalabey said, adding “We are there, we can see.”

The forum for the media on juveniles, justice, crime and violence was at Columbia College Chicago, 1104 S. Wabash Ave., and held by the Community media Workshop.

“Prosecution is the least effective way to handle teen sexual violence,” said Elizabeth Clarke, president of Juvenile Justice Initiatives.

Clarke said that institutions like colleges do not report most sexual violence.

“They don’t report it in large part because, as a society, our response is completely out of proportion; it’s not individualized, it’s not proportionate and often times it’s not fair and it’s not effective,” Clarke said.

Violence among teens is the same as violence anywhere else. But the contributing factors can differ from those of adults. The juvenile system treats the crime but it might not treat the cause.

Elena Quintana, executive director of the Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice, said there are a number of things that contribute to teen violence. She said teens don’t sprout out of the ground and start beating each other, traumatic experience and abuse are things that may lead to acting out in such a way.

“More structures [schools] need to be trauma informed,” said Quintana. “It is a symptom of a lot of other broke down things.”

About 50 percent of teens know another teen that has been abused in a relationship said Tom Schreiner, coordinating counselor at A Safe Place and Domestic Violence Shelter.

Schreiner said that it is very difficult to identify a clear cause and effect for domestic violence or sexual assault. Some people have long standing or trans-generational patterns, their parents may have been in abusive relationships, they may have grown up in abusive relationships it-all depends.

Victims can experience a variety of accompanying health issues that can begin with depression and lead to psycho-sematic symptoms such as, high blood pressure, ulcers and many other issues all the way to migraines said Schreiner.

Quintana said with the flood of visual information from the Internet some young people may think the violence they see is normal or expected.

When Chicago Police Department officer Dan Dowling and his partner arrived at the scene that night three years ago, they saw a woman shaking alongside her two young children, who seemed nervous, too.

The officers separated the woman and her husband. The man seemed calm. After talking to the couple, the officers decided not to arrest the man because his wife insisted that nothing happened, and there weren’t any visible physical injuries on her or the children.

Though Dowling said he had a bad feeling about the situation, there wasn’t anything else they could do but advise the woman to dial 911 if things turned ugly.

Situations like this happen far too often.

“There are approximately 400 calls a night across the city on domestic violence,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last month at City Hall as he honored two police officers for their bravery on helping a domestic violence victim.

“About 10 percent of all the homicides in the city of Chicago are domestic related,” Mayor Emanuel said.

There are approximately 210,000 calls each year and 65,000 arrests stemming from those domestic violence reports, according to statistics compiled by the Chicago Justice Project, a nonprofit organization that analyzes data from criminal justice agencies.

“Domestic violence is unique. It is one of the few charges that I can actually arrest somebody and sign the complaint on their behalf,” Dowling said.

However, many charges don’t lead to convictions because victims are often reluctant to testify. Charges get dropped too often, victim advocates say.

Dowling said that may be why some police officers don’t push these cases.

One problem according to Tracy Siska, founder and executive director of the Chicago Justice Project, is that police are not as well trained as they should be in handling domestic violence cases.

The police and prosecutors should not be focused on winning a conviction but instead making the victim feel safe at that moment in her life, Siska said.

For many years, the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network has worked alongside law enforcement agencies such as CPD. They train and educate police departments, ensuring officers have the basic knowledge and skills to help victims professionally and to hold offenders accountable for their actions, said Lillian Cartwright, the network’s court watch program coordinator.

Cartwright emphasized the importance of commitment at the very top of a police agency.

“Training only goes so far if there isn’t institutional commitment to implement what is learned in those trainings,” she said. “There needs to be measures of accountability … all throughout the ranks of CPD, from the top down.”

Besides that, Siska said the rate of victimization that occurs within the CPD — among police officers who are abusing loved ones is high and the discipline system is not taken very seriously. That makes it hard for the police department to do its job efficiently, he said.

“It’s hard to imagine them taking abuse by others very seriously,” Siska said.

Cartwright said instead of relying on the criminal justice system for help, society needs to work together to create safe communities for victims.

“If we exert 90 percent of our energy toward building community and 10 percent toward responding to the actual violent incident rather than the other way around, I think that we would be in a more peaceful space,” Cartwright said. “Our role isn’t to rescue or to save, it’s to walk alongside someone.”

Domestic violence victims are less likely to pursue charges for several reasons, but ultimately it comes down to the control a man has over his family, advocates and experts say. Economic dependence, access to housing and the custody of their children also make it hard for a victim to leave her abuser.

“[We need] to make sure that there is adequate resources to help women get on their feet,” Siska said.

He said there’s a huge stigma to being victimized.

That’s why everyone needs to pay attention.

“Domestic violence is not a private matter, it’s a public crime,” said Mayor Emanuel. “It needs to be dealt with, it needs to be confronted.”

The last five years of economic turmoil have rattled America’s nonprofits. While funding for these organizations has been slashed, the demand for them has been steadily growing, advocates said Wednesday.

“Cuts in spending do not mean cuts in demand for social services,” said Delia Coleman, Donors Forum executive director of public policy. “These cuts affect more than nonprofits. … They affect children in need of nutrition, families needing shelter and our communities as a whole. These cuts have hit services for women, children and the poor hardest.”

Coleman spoke at the Illinois Nonprofit Policy Summit at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Called by the Donors Forum. It featured a panel of nonprofit advocates and politicians discussing the future of funding and the government’s role and how best to confront a harsh economic reality.

The sequester alone gutted many nonprofit organizations by $64 billion across the board and more cuts are expected in January.

According to the National Council of Nonprofits, the last years have brought:

· A $405 million budget loss in Pre-K education programs

· A 5 percent cut in the Section 8 housing vouchers program due to sequestration

· More than 19 domestic violence crisis centers closing nationwide.

“Governments and nonprofits need more dialogue, more data to understand each other,” said Valerie Lies, president and CEO of Donors Forum.

State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet), echoed her sentiments.

“One thing I brought up during the discussion was [we need] better communication between the governor’s office and the agencies they have jurisdiction over,” she said.

Coleman discussed how important the nonprofit sector is to the public’s well-being.

“Nonprofits are at the center of communities,” said Coleman. “We’re the ones helping them get shelter. We’re the ones helping them with food. We’re the ones who help them recover from violence, recover from substance abuse. We’re the ones who help educate them, keep their kids safe, protect their water, give them art, maintain their health. So if the nonprofit sector isn’t there for the public, where will the public turn?”

The 2008 recession, sequester and recent government shutdown have all forced nonprofits to layoff workers, form partnerships with each other and seek funding from nongovernment donors. However, nonprofits that are just starting to look to the private sector for funding are putting extra pressure on nonprofits that have used the private sector as a source long before the economic collapse. Coleman said.

Such is the case of Manufacturing Renaissance, a nonprofit that trains young engineers.

“We rely completely on private funding and donations to keep our doors open, but when you have these new nonprofits entering the competition for private funding, things get difficult,” said Mark McKelvey, the company’s director of Foundation and Corporate Relations. “In the end, this makes it more difficult to help the communities we are in because we have to focus more time on securing funding.”

In the face of all of this adversity, the politicians on the panel were as serious about helping nonprofits as the advocates themselves. “Some of the best money the government spends is invested in nonprofits,” said state Sen. David Koehler (D-Peoria).

“My experience was that every dollar you gave to a not-for-profit, you got probably back… because they were able to stretch those dollars,” said former Gov. Jim Edgar. “So I would urge policy-makers today to learn how to deal with budget realities [and] that you make sure you take in consideration how effective that dollar can be used.”

On the same day Congress passed the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in February, three women were brutally murdered by a domestic partner in the United States. One of these women was five months pregnant and her two children sat in the car as their father burned her body, said Kim Gandy, president and chief executive officer of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

“That made it a very average day in this country,” Gandy said. According to the National Institute of Justice and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four women are affected by domestic violence every day in this country.

Gandy painted a vivid picture of domestic violence on Wednesday at an awareness brunch in downtown Chicago that was hosted by the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) and the Allstate Foundation.

Vickie Smith, chief executive officer of the ICADV, said government appropriations have always been the largest source of operating funds for domestic violence programs.

Government funding cuts are two-fold: the 2012 fiscal year sequester, which was a result of the 2011 Budget Control Act, and the Oct. 1 government shutdown that occurred as a result of the 2014 fiscal year budget not being approved.

“The situation going on in D.C. is affecting us directly,” Smith said.

ICADV works to reduce domestic violence incidents statewide through various programs, but Smith said limited resources continue to present challenges.

Gandy said local, state and federal cuts with the sequester hit hard and many shelters are closing doors.

Funding totaling $20 million was taken out of domestic violence programs and support over the past fiscal year because of mandated budget cuts from the 2011 Budget Control Act, according to The Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Gandy said domestic violence organizations used up their funding in reserve waiting on the sequester, leaving them with no additional funds on hand when the government shutdown hit.

And ICADV said limited resources led to turning away 10,000 adults and children seeking shelter last year.

Staffing reductions cut the agency’s manpower in half, which resulted in a revision to the shelter’s eligibility criteria. ICADV said that of the domestic violence survivors served, only 9  percent received emergency shelter or transitional housing.

“Domestic violence emergency services save lives,” Smith said.

ICADV survivors and staff members aren’t the only ones burdened with budget cuts.

“The leaders of the Rainbow House have not been paid in almost a month,” said Kathleen Higgins, the executive director of The Rainbow House. “I’m looking at about $20,000 worth of bills that I need to pay. We received a $6,000 grant from The Dominican Sisters organization, which is great, but I don’t know what to pay first since there is so much debt.”

This isn’t a new occurrence as Higgins said, “The government, for the last three years, has been seven to nine months late in allocating our funds.”

Despite late payments and limited resources, ICADV, which served more than 52,000 adults and children last year, announced its continuing partnership and programing efforts in the fight against domestic violence.

Also, ICADV will continue to provide services that include initial support, such as emotional counseling, and continued support, including career readiness programming.

“Public education is the most important step,” Smith said.

Smith said ICADV will partner with the Lt. Governor’s office again to hold its Verizon Wireless sponsored “No More Dating Abuse” video competition. In this competition, high school students statewide can submit a video calling for an end to teen dating abuse and promote healthy relationships.

Although ICADV does not partner with The Allstate Foundation, Smith recognized its Purple Purse finance independence program, which raised $350,000 for the YWCA this year.

Additionally, ICADV’s Virtual Legal Consult program allows shelters to offer remote legal counsel for domestic violence survivors. The shelters provide a computer and private rooms for individuals to Skype with an attorney, obtain legal consult and receive up to an hour of counsel.

“The process is really simple,” Smith said. “As long as the agency has a computer with a camera, they can discuss whatever issues that seem important.”

Smith said this tool can change the victims thought process by answering basic questions.

While these efforts provide help for survivors, prevention of domestic violence remains.

“We all want to be out of a job, but unfortunately we all have much more work to do,” Smith said.

Jasmine Browley and Christa Smith contributed to this story.

“When you hear from the mother’s that they see a change in their children, it always resonates with me,” said Gracia.

Gracia, 36, works as a children’s counselor at Rainbow House. Gracia conducts individual and group children’s therapy. Gracia’s goal within the children’s therapy sessions is to help them identify their feelings and teach them healthy ways to express their feelings. Gracia also helps with the teen and adult therapy groups at Rainbow House. Each age group’s therapy session is geared towards different aspects of violence. Teens therapy groups talk more about community violence, children’s groups are geared toward domestic violence, and the women’s therapy group varies.

Rainbow House is located in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. Rainbow House aims to help those who have been affected by domestic violence. They help families remove themselves from the violence and seek safety. On the Rainbow House website, it says that they help those affected through holistic, client-centered interventions, and community based prevention. The program creates a large foundation of support for those affected.

According to FuturesWithoutViolence.org, one in four women have experienced violence by a spouse or boyfriend. Seven million children live in families in which severe violence occurs. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence says, 85% of domestic violence victims are women. An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. In March, President Barack Obama renewed the Violence Against Women Act, which according to Fox News, authorizes about $659 million dollars to programs that help strengthen the criminal justice system’s response to crimes against women and some men. The money will also go towards legal assistance, transitional housing, law enforcement training and hotlines. The renewal of this act also focuses on reducing sexual assault on college campuses. It also renewed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which adds stalking to the list of crimes. For the first time ever, the act now includes violence against lesbian, gay, transgender, and bi-sexual survivors.

Little Village was predominantly a Polish community between the late 1950’s and early 1970’s. Gracia’s grandmother would help others within the community access everyday things like buy furniture. She acted as a translator when language was barrier.

Gracia’s grandmother expected nothing in return, and this is what inspired Gracia the most. “I wanted to be able to do that, to be able to give back in whatever capacity I can and to feel that I can make a difference even if its in one person’s life,” said Gracia.

After Gracia’s undergraduate studies she worked in child welfare services and also as a children’s counselor at a domestic violence agency. Gracia also worked part time answering hotline calls at the agency. Shortly after, Gracia began working with the Latino Family Institute and provided outreach presentations to communities about mental health. Gracia then went back to grad school and began working with after school programs that helped students and families. After this, Gracia finally made her journey to Rainbow House.

“Domestic violence impacts more than just families, it harms entire communities. Adriana’s job as Children’s Therapist is so much more than helping children heal from the trauma of family violence. It’s also empowering them to develop their own healthy relationships,” said Kathleen Higgins, the executive director at Rainbow House.

When the women and children come to the organization in need of services, they are given an assessment and evaluation. From here they determine whether they can be put on a waiting list, given immediate help, or if Rainbow House does not believe they can help them with what they need they are given a referral. If women and children receive services from Rainbow House they begin therapy sessions.

 “Bringing my daughters to Rainbow House has not only helped them, but I have made changes too. I have been learning parenting techniques that have made my family’s life less stressful and more enjoyable,” said Lourdes Ortega, a mother who has been receiving services since 2011.

Particularly for women there are three women’s support groups that meet three times a week. Within these support groups, the women’s experience with domestic violence is talked about, as well as their experience with the abuser, court, and police officials. These groups also talk about different topics of interest. “Recently we had Mary Kay come in and do makeup for all the women,” Gracia said, “They took a lot of pictures.”

If the women want to feel empowered or raise their self esteem, Rainbow House holds different workshops to do this. “An upcoming workshop will be about self defense,” said Gracia, “Their very excited for that.” When the support groups are not geared toward a certain topic, the space is open for discussion. “Each woman receives three sets of card, and depending on the color, it lets us know if there’s something urgent they want to speak about, if there’s something they want to share but not urgent, or let’s us know I just want to listen,” said Gracia, “For the most part their usually all talking.”

Gracia’s work is not only seen by the people she helps but by the people she works with. “By connecting the women and families to local services, Adriana is supporting the community as well as building strong connections between Rainbow House and Little Village, sending the message that Rainbow House is a place to be safe, welcome, and to get help,” says Camille Baker, an intern at Rainbow House. Rainbow House has affected the Little Village community by creating a foundation of support for those in the community in need of their services.

Rainbow House has created a place for women and children to come to whenever they are in need of safety when in a violent situation.

“The women that come here, because of their experiences that they have here, they then are comfortable referring other people from the community,” said Gracia. “Even if maybe their not going through a situation of domestic violence or maybe they don’t think that they are they know there’s someone here that they can give them that referral for something else,” said Gracia. Rainbow House strives to serve the community of women to help further prevent domestic violence, or violence of any other kind. Rainbow House is the answer for help within this community, “I think it’s really comforting to the women in the community,” said Gracia.

“As a culture, we receive messages all the time about how individuals should be treated or how a relationship should look like,” said Rose. “Unfortunately, a lot of those messages support inferior treatment of women and I feel like that gets absorbed by a lot of young people and perpetuated sort of continuously.”

Rose works with the anti-domestic violence organization by attempting to eradicate such dangers, focusing on intimate partner violence and fights judicially to help victims.

Between Friends is a non-profit agency dedicated to “breaking the cycle of domestic violence and building a community free of abuse.” They have various programs of counseling, health care education and legal assistance, where citizens all over the Chicagoland area can be “saved” in one way or another. They also aid in youth-oriented education and visit public schools in order to reach out about anti-violence in teen relationships.

[pullquote]Listen to an interview with Megan Rose[/pullquote]

Rose leads Between Friends and deals with civil cases as a representation of an advocate, or even in criminal cases of domestic assault or domestic battery.

“My job is sometimes to see if an Order of Protection is right for them. I tell them about a list of options and choices with their objective and help them determine theirs. I also help in completing the paperwork, filing the case with the clerk’s office, and going to the court to stand beside her recalls instances to the judge,” said Rose.

The program serves a large variety of adults and children in order to assist them in orders of protection in the downtown Chicago and Northwest suburbs of Rolling Meadows. In that time period, Rose also assists in finding a better living space if one was not there, employment opportunities, and whatever else the client may need. Gathering evidence and expectations on future instances, and ensuring that they know how to report other instances are also priorities that Rose’s job entails.

The Illinois domestic violence act is a statute that governs and creates the order of protection, which is mainly what gets done in the organization. It covers a lot of relationships, including parent child, brother and sister, aunt and nephew.

“In Illinois, any type of strike or hit from a family or household member would count as domestic violence, and it is chargeable in a court as domestic violence,” said Chicago Criminal Defense Lawyer Andrew Weisberg.

A child’s exposure to the domestic abuse is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next, according to the American Psychological Association.

“Domestic violence is a learned behavior not a mental illness, so it’s not caused by substance abuse or use, and I feel like it’s supported by a lot of messages that society wrongly transmits,” said Rose.

Domestic violence as Between Friends attempts to eradicate it, depicts more of a focus on intimate partner violence, according to Rose.

“The relief can come from no contact between two people, or exclusive possession of a shared home, issuing child support or payment for losses,” Rose said.

According to Weisberg, many repeat offenders aren’t generally found in courtrooms he’s experienced. If they have, greater charges of jail time has also arisen for them.

“Usually patients get admitted by first calling the 24 hour crisis center hotline, (800) 603-HELP (4357), then they get referred to by a counselor after a phone assessment is made over the phone, and if appropriate we give them as much assistance as we can from there,” said Director of Programming Yesenia Maldonado

According to their website, Between Friends’ Healthcare Education Project continues to be the only program on Chicago’s far North Side which prepares the healthcare field to safely and sensitively respond to the needs of domestic violence victims.

“We see about 600 people a year for direct services, and help out about 4000 students a year in schools with training and health care education,” said Maldonado

Between Friends also partnered with St. Francis Hospital, along with other medical providers, to prepare more than 1,700 nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals to respond to the needs of survivors.

“A lot of members of Between Friends take an empowerment approach because many of our clients haven’t had power or control of their own lives, or could be decades since then,” said Rose. “We try not to replicate that so we give them some choices and it’s the clients that tell us what they would like.”

According to leading psychologists, evidence shows that domestic violence could lead to mental health problems in men and women involved in the matter.

Many victims and offenders are both suffering from long-term illnesses due to different types of domestic violence, according to the American Psychological Association. Not only do the victims suffer from physical and sexual abuse, but the incidents generally result from coercive abuse that the perpetrator had in the past as well as leading psychological damage of schizophrenia or even bipolar disorder.

With the help of Rose, Between Friends is one step closer to preventing domestic violence and such illnesses among citizens in the Chicagoland area.

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The Illinois “skin tax,” that went in to effect on Jan.1, requires strip clubs that serve alcohol to pay a tax that would raise money for underfunded rape crisis centers. Clubs have the option of paying a $3 surcharge per customer or an annual fee of anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 depending on the size and sales of the business.

The original bill, introduced by state Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields), called for a $5 tax for the entry of each customer into a strip club. Many club owners opposed the $5 tax, and the two sides eventually negotiated a $3 tax instead.

Polly Poskin, executive director for the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, presented the idea to Hutchinson after learning the Texas Supreme Court ruled a $5 entrance fee into Texas strip clubs constitutional.

“You can thank the Texas Supreme Court for the skin tax,” she said.

Rape crisis centers have had quite a few funding cuts over the past four years, said Cathy Byers, the executive director for the Growing Strong Sexual Assault Center.

Byers called the skin tax “fantastic.

The tax in place would allow many centers to continue to provide services, instead of eliminating them like other centers have had to, Byers said.

Mickie Owens, the legal advocate for Counseling and Information for Sexual Assault, believes the skin tax is an appropriate one, she said.

“I understand some people have some difficulty with it, but there is some correlation with the sexual objectification of women and the sexual assault that is occurring,” Owens said.

But when the bill was first introduced it was not welcome by some strip club operators.

Sam Cecola, director of operations for Chicago’s Admiral Theater was “strongly opposed” to the proposed tax while Michael Ocello, president of the Illinois Association of Club Executives also protested, reported the Chicago Tribune.

Ocello, who is also the owner of five Illinois strip clubs, argued in 2012 that the tax might run some clubs out of business, leaving dancers, bartenders and even custodians without jobs, reported STL Today.

But Owens and Poskin agree that they don’t think the live adult entertainment industry will suffer from the new tax.

Ocello told ABC news he didn’t see a connection between strip clubs, alcohol and rape.

But Poskin disagreed saying, “If there is live nude dancing and the consumption of alcohol combined, it contributes to negative secondary consequences.”

Ocello and Cecola did not return calls for comment.

After repeated attempts to contact various club operators about the connection between strip clubs and sexual assault, only one club manager commented—but only on the skin tax.

“I think that if they’re going to skin tax strip clubs, they should tax all of them, not just the ones that serve liquor,” said Polly Kirby, manager of Silver Slipper Saloon.

Poskin said the “ideal” solution would be to eliminate all strip clubs but doesn’t see that happening. With the skin tax in place, at least victims of sexual assault are benefitting from the business, she said.

“If we as a culture are going to allow [strip clubs] to exist even with the negative consequences they have brought upon women,” Poskin said, “then the funds should be used to help women and assist in the recovery of that harm.”

The funds will be made available to rape crisis centers on July 1, 2014.

Lily Moore from Northside College Prep wrote this story:

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