Largest Domestic Violence Shelter in Chicago at Risk of Closing

[Rican1]

Rainbow House Press Inquiries: Felicia Ramos 773-580-3390

P.O. Box 23408 [e-mail]

Chicago, IL 60622 Jacqueline Luna 773-720-2881

[e-mail]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Largest Domestic Violence Shelter in City at Risk of Closing

Rainbow House is a domestic violence advocacy agency which operates the largest domestic violence shelter in the city of Chicago. Rainbow House has been at the forefront in advocating for the rights of women and children to live free from abuse. Besides providing 24 hour shelter for women and children, we make up 1/3 of only 250 beds available for domestic violence victims in the city of Chicago. At Rainbow House we reach out and provide services to all members of society who are affected by domestic violence regardless of race, class, sexual orientation, or citizenship status. Rainbow House is the only shelter that accepts women with substance abuse issues and mental illnesses, and that has 24 hour bilingual staff available to residents and for all calls that come through on our crisis hotline.

As an agency, we are in a dire financial crisis. We are in need of immediate individual, community, and corporate support. As of Thursday, April 27th, we were instructed by the Board to freeze all intakes. Having to tell a woman that is ready to leave an abusive relationship that we are not accepting new intakes, despite that the shelter is half empty has been unbearable. We are currently more than 120 days late with accounts payable and have been forced to take loans from the state in order to pay staff for the most recent pay period. Our executive director has resigned from her position as of April 13th and we have yet to find a replacement. Acting as our interim executive director, is the vice president of our Board of Directors, who is proposing to shut down the shelter and turn it into a community based resource center.

Our shelter staff, which are the direct-service providers for the women and children at Rainbow House, were never a part of the decision-making and were just informed of this urgent financial crisis at a staff meeting on Thursday, May 4th. Despite the pressure and emotional and physical toll this has taken on staff, we want it to be known that we have the strength and are willing to fight to keep the shelter open and operating. We do not work for Rainbow House for the money or for the recognition (both of which are minimal). We do it because we believe in the work we do. Every night that a woman or child stays at the shelter and does not have to witness or experience abuse is a success. Without Rainbow House, many of the women would not have been able to get Orders of Protection, access to jobs or educational opportunities; many would not have custody of their children, and even worse, many would not even be alive today.

Therefore, we are standing together on behalf of the women we serve in order to raise the awareness and funds necessary to keep Rainbow House open. However, we are facing the possibility of closing in as little as four business days, at which time, the women and children currently staying at our shelter will have to leave as well as the shelter staff. As a city, we cannot afford to lose an agency that provides the scope of services that Rainbow House has to offer. We cannot turn our back on victims and survivors of domestic violence. Please stand with us and help us in spreading the word to anyone that may be able to help in any way.

In Solidarity,

Rainbow House Shelter Staff

[Erika]

1. K and R

[mopinko]

2. how did this happen?

i don't think you will get a lot of help unless you can come up with some explanation as to how they ended up in this situation. i have worked with a lot of non-profits. i know it can be very difficult they run. but this smells like incompetence or worse. without more info, it is hard to know.

[bloom]

3. I don't know anything about the Chicago case

but I know that it's getting more difficult - esp. the last couple of years - for our local shelter to get the grants and stuff that they were used to getting.

They are having to do more fund raisers.

[mopinko]

4. people resigning and urgent financial crisis out of nowhere

is more than the run of the mill tough-to-raise-money-these-days. it sounds like serious mismanagement at best.