Life Span was founded in 1978 by a coalition of women and organizations in the North and Northwest suburbs of Cook County to address the urgent need of battered women in the area for services. 

In the last 30 years, Life Span has grown from a small, grass roots agency staffed by an Executive Director and a legion of volunteers to an agency employing 27 people. Our agency has grown from one which provided group counseling to one which is a leader in the provision of expert services from counseling and criminal court advocacy to legal representation in all types of family law cases.  Life Span has created a number of innovative programs, including the Police Project, the TAC Project, and the Immigration Project. In addition, we are also the only agency in Illinois, and possibly the country, to put into practice Civil No Contact Orders for sexual assault survivors.

Throughout our history, Life Span has been true to its original mission, the eradication of domestic violence in the lives of its individual clients and in society. Our direct domestic violence services work toward this goal.  In our extensive advocacy and policy work, we use what we have learned in assisting our clients to improve the systems that impact domestic violence in our society.