About
At Sarah's Inn, our clients are among the 5.3 million women and 3.3 to 10 million children who are abused or exposed to domestic violence each year. For women, domestic violence creates dangerous, often life-threatening living conditions: Forty-two percent (42%) of all female homicide victims are murdered by an intimate partner or family member, and women who leave their abusers are at a 75% greater risk of being killed by their partners. Each year, approximately 324,000 pregnant women are battered by their partners in the United States. In Illinois, 68% of all reported domestic crimes occur in Cook County, and the number of women whose lives, safety and well-being are threatened by abusive partners is actually estimated to be three times that number. In response to alarming statistics like this, a group of Oak Park residents formed a committee in 1981 and uncovered a large number of women being abused by their partners who had few places to turn for help. As a result, Sarah's Inn was created 32 years ago to offer safety and assistance to battered women in Oak Park. Today, Sarah's Inn provides services in 23 communities, offering support, advocacy and outreach services to thousands of individuals each year alone. Since its inception, Sarah's Inn has embodied its mission to improve the lives of those affected by domestic violence and to break the cycle of violence for future generations. Last fiscal year, Sarah's Inn reached thousands of community members through a broad array of programming which included the following activities: provided information and support to 4,525 callers on our 24-hour crisis line; helped domestic violence victims prepare or modify 617 orders of protection; assisted 1,516 women and children through both individual advocacy and support and education groups; worked with over 100 batterers in our Abuser Intervention Services Program; and reached over 9,769 participants through our community outreach and violence prevention efforts.
Mission: The Mission of Sarahs Inn is to improve the lives of those affected by domestic violence and to break the cycle of violence for future generations.