Everyone has a story. The stories told by our clients are often of despair, abuse and, we hope, recovery.

Between January and March of 2006, the City of Chicago made 1,835 arrests for domestic battery and bodily harm. At Rainbow House, we hear some version of that “statistic” from a victim’s perspective every day. “Each day three women die at the hands of men who say they love them; [that’s] nearly 1,100 women a year,” talk show host Oprah Winfrey noted on a recent broadcast. “Saying that number itself might not mean anything, unless it is your mother, your sister, or your daughter.” Or your son. Research suggests at violence may not only be learned behavior, but inevitable in some Chicago communities. Far too often, young men and boys are on the front line.

"The most dangerous time in the life of a battered woman is when she attempts to leave her abuser. " "A third of the women seen at public health clinics had been abused at least once in their lives and 19 percent had been physically abused within the last year."