Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Training and public education materials & advocacy program- icadv is the only statewide coalition composed of domestic violence services providers who reach survivors in each of illinois' 102 counties with meaningful and diverse services. 50,068 survivors and child witnesses sought and received from icadv member domestic violence agencies: emergency shelter, legal advocacy, counseling, and support accessing other assistance to help them achieve self-sufficiency on a path to safety. However, there are many victims who never seek assistance from a domestic violence provider. Survivors have specific needs to support their safety, whether it be access to affordable housing when they leave an abusive home, job training because the person causing them harm has prohibited them from working or participating in skills training or finding other means to support themselves and their children. In the course of seeking these options, they encounter other professionals who may not understand how their policies or procedures for providing that specific service may have a negative impact on a survivor, prohibits them from moving forward, and possibly leaving no option but to return home to an abusive environment. We help bring awareness and education about the needs of those experiencing violence and help improve the response survivors receive from those professionals by offering training and awareness materials. Our primary audience for training is professionals working every day in domestic violence service provider agencies, expanding their knowledge to better assist survivors whose needs are different and complex. These service providers step up and recognize the very diverse needs of individual survivors in communities throughout the entire state and we provide them to the training tools to stay up on to date on emerging trends, including addressing specific barriers created by the covid 19 pandemic. Fy 24, icadv hosted 52 in person and virtual trainings for 2096 participants including victim service advocates, legal/justice personnel, mental health professionals and other professionals, increasing their knowledge about the dynamics of domestic violence, how their work impacts a survivor's safety and confidentiality, and increasing their skills for responding appropriately to survivors of domestic violence and their children. This provided a total of over 9000 hours of live training. In addition, icadv provided a series of online training modules as well through its learning management system. 653 online modules were completed. Icadv distributed thousands of brochures educating survivors and the public on the issue of domestic violence. These materials are provided in 12 languages other then english. Items were distributed to organizations who are working with survivors and their children including domestic violence providers, legal/justice organizations, mental health services, attorneys, medical organizations, government entities, and for-profit groups.