Teen Dating Awareness Month Wraps Up
Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month is wrapping up today, but our work won’t stop.
Interested in starting a conversation about healthy relationships with a young person in your life but not sure where to start? Courtesy of Love Is Respect this spectrum provides useful signs of healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships.
You can make a positive difference in a young person’s relationship. Consider sharing this with someone you know.
Better yet, reach out to the Life Span counseling team if you know a group of young people who might benefit from more knowledge. Life Span counselors have taught youth about healthy relationships in dozens of city and suburban high schools.
Coping During COVID: How Life Span Counselors Help Clients
Life Span counselors Jasmine Steele and Ginni Doshi
53% of adults in the United States reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the coronavirus in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey conducted over the summer. We think the other 47% may have misunderstood the question.
How is the Life Span counseling team helping clients to survive abusers during a pandemic? New counselors Ginni & Jasmine joined Life Span this summer, and might be best equipped to describe Life Span counseling.
What was it like joining Life Span during a pandemic?
Jasmine – “I was an intern at Life Span in undergrad six years ago and I knew it was somewhere I desired to be a part of when I completed my Masters in Social Work. It feels like I belong here. We somehow still manage to (digitally) see everyone’s beautiful faces every week!”
Ginni – “The pandemic has created a “New Normal” for everyone…at first I felt uncertain about my choice of starting a new job. My uncertainty quickly dissipated by the immersion and inclusion of the counseling team at Life Span. Life Span is unique and truly practices the definition of being in a world of helping people.”
How do you help clients?
Jasmine – “I am a Domestic Violence Counselor at the downtown office so I help clients with counsel, education, and processing about the abuse they are/have experienced, as well as aid them with identifying and pursuing their goals. I also host a zoom group that serves as an opportunity for clients to connect with each other in a more casual space and talk through any stressors a s well as provide support to each other.”
Ginni – “I am a Domestic Violence Counselor in Life Span’s Des Plaines office. I assist my clients to manage the stress and anxiety of leaving the abusive life and starting an unknown new life of independence. I like to find customized solutions that are sustainable for my clients in their environment.”
What do you like the most about Life Span?
Jasmine – “I like that there are so many different people from different backgrounds in one space. I love that Life Span has been intentional about that. It makes Life Span itself so resourceful.”
Ginni – “I love my colleagues – our people make it a fun place to work. I also like the mission of Life Span. Helping people believe that they can fight the intimate partner violence, Life Span gives their clients that lifeline and confidence to live life on their own terms.”
How COVID-19 Impacts Our Clients
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an awful health and economic impact on our country. And survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault are no exception.
COVID-19 has harmed Life Span clients in too many ways. Here are six examples shared by Life Span counselors and attorneys; client names have been changed to protect privacy.
- “Magdalena,” living separately from her abuser, was self-employed, cleaning houses in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. She has not worked since March 17 and is not eligible for unemployment benefits. Family members are helping her with some expenses, and she is not sure when families will allow her back into their homes to work.
- “Josie” works as an office clerk in a private high school, one that is physically open for students. But her children are doing remote learning, so she took COVID family leave, and is now receiving just a fraction of her prior salary.
- “Wanda” works at a gym and was furloughed until last week. She is now back, albeit with reduced hours, and she worries about contracting the virus at her job. Members of her church had been helping with her expenses.
- “Rebecca” had been working two part-time jobs and raising her daughters. Both jobs cut her hours, so she no longer can afford a babysitter. With no other option, she made the difficult decision to allow her abuser into her home to care for her children. At first, he was a big help, but now he has begun to make degrading comments about her to her kids
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- “Lynn” was receiving adequate child support from her abuser, until three months ago when he lost his job as a manager of a live music club. She now doesn’t know where to turn.
- “Angie” cares for her aging grandmother in her apartment, and shares custody of her two children with her abuser. She feels her abuser’s behavior is reckless – inviting large groups of friends over and not wearing masks in public, and is worried that he’ll expose the kids to COVID-19, who then may expose her grandmother.
Thank you for supporting our survivors.
Human Trafficking Project Expands
(image credit: Learning Center for Human Development)
Human traffickers use manipulation, threats, violence, and financial exploitation to control their victims. Sound familiar? These are the same tools of abuse that perpetrators of domestic violence use. And as we have for victims of domestic violence for over four decades, Life Span now is standing up for survivors of human trafficking.
We are excited to announce that our Human Trafficking Project, began last year with one advocate/counselor, is expanding. We now provide a full range of services – counseling, advocacy, and legal services – in multiple languages – to survivors of human trafficking.
Our Human Trafficking Project is focused on Chicago’s west and south sides, to meet the needs of victims where they live. Life Span will work closely with community violence and women’s health organizations to address the many forms of human trafficking. Finally, we’ll add to the growing understanding of the intersectionality of community violence and domestic and sexual violence, and we also will advocate for better laws to protect survivors.
This Human Trafficking Project is only possible because of your support. Thank you so very much.
How Life Span is Helping During COVID-19
At Life Span, we have adjusted our practices to fit the needs of our clients.
Most trials have switched to zoom. Most counseling is conducted by video and phone. For clients who prefer and staff who are able, we are doing in-person counseling. Our advocates and attorneys visit the courthouse when necessary. For example, advocate Ericka Maya (pictured) visited the domestic violence courthouse recently to talk with assistant state’s attorneys about our work, and to encourage them to refer clients our way.
While we don’t see them in person as often as we would like, we remain here for our clients. Laura Valiukenas, Life Span’s Director of Counseling, points out one bright spot: “Some clients have been willing to open up with their challenges over the phone, in a way that they hadn’t before in person.”
On balance, the work isn’t easy…but it never was easy before the pandemic either. Thanks to you and your support, Life Span remains able to stand (with masks on, of course) with survivors.
November 2019 Newsletter
Senate refuses to reauthorize VAWA
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) became federal law in 1994. VAWA brought groundbreaking legal relief for victims of domestic and sexual violence and provided funding for innovative programming to address the needs of survivors. Congress has reauthorized VAWA periodically since then. VAWA expired in at the end of 2018, and Senate bipartisan negotiations to pass a critical bill to reauthorize VAWA were abandoned earlier this month.
Speculation about why Senators gave up on their efforts to pass legislation to protect victims centers on politics and gun rights. Joe Biden, who hopes to run for president next year, was the principal author of the original VAWA. Republicans may not want to draw attention to one of his successes. The 2019 reauthorization bill would prohibit abusers from gaining access to guns. Not surprisingly, the NRA and all who are indebted to this powerful gun lobby stand in opposition to the current reauthorization efforts.
The House passed its bill to reauthorize VAWA 6 months ago. The Senate’s inaction is endangering victims of domestic violence across the country. We urge senators to go back to work and pass their VAWA bill. Literally thousands of lives are at stake.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month Recap
Throughout October, Life Span staff hosted and participated in Domestic Violence Awareness Month programming around the city and suburbs. Pictured above is Advocate Sasha Solov at a panel on domestic violence that she participated in at Northeastern Illinois University with partners from Apna Ghar, KAN-WIN, and Resilience. Below are Life Span staff, including counselor and yoga instructor Ryan Spanton, at Twisted Tree Yoga before a domestic violence awareness month vigil and yoga session.
Meet our new staff:Karen SavellaKaren (she/hers) is the newest member of the Immigration Project team at our downtown office. Karen recently graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law. During her time there, she interned with Civic Legal Corps, working on divorce and parentage cases. She also worked as a legal assistant in a small immigration firm and spent her last semester as a volunteer assisting domestic violence victims with Family Rescue. Karen speaks Tagalog, and lives in Bridgeport with her husband, Zach. |
To read more about Life Span’s November updates check out the rest of this month’s newsletter at the link below!
See entire newsletter here
September 2019 Newsletter
Youth Advisory Board to Raise Awareness About Dating Violence
“Domestic and sexual violence end here” is a Life Span motto and an ambitious goal. One way we can make it happen: educating the next generation. Life Span Director of Counseling Laura Valiukenas and Advocate Sasha Solov provided teen dating violence prevention training to a group of older youth. This group, called the “Youth Advisory Board” was recruited by Life Span and our partners at The Network and Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline. Members participated in a focus group, discussing ideas and graphic design to determine how to most effectively raise awareness about teen dating violence.
Thank you to all those who attended our
2nd Annual Light to Life event!
You can find all of the event photos on our Facebook page!
Meet our new staff:L PollardL (she/they) is a new Criminal Court Advocate at Life Span. They just earned their Master’s in Education Policy from University of Illinois at Chicago. Their studies focused on how social structures and institutions perpetuate inequality. As a graduate student L provided research and programming support for the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center and the Campus Advocacy Network at UIC. She has also volunteered with the YWCA providing advocacy and support for survivors. |
To read more about Life Span’s activities in September check out the rest of this month’s newsletter at the link below!
See entire newsletter here