FOREST PARK (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - This week's Difference Maker has been making life better for many people in the Chicago area for more than forty years.
“We are a nonprofit domestic violence agency. We serve the city of Chicago and west Cook County,” says Carol Gall, executive director of Sarah’s Inn in Forest Park.
Sarah’s Inn provides a helping hand to families impacted by domestic violence.
“[We] provide a number of different support groups every week as well as individual counseling sessions,” Gall says. “We have a 24 hour crisis line…just really any support that victims need in order to stay safe and to stabilize.”
Sarah’s Inn has been around since 1980.
“We’ll be celebrating our 45th anniversary next year…It’s hard to believe when I say this, people don’t realize that really the domestic violence started around 50 years ago because it really didn’t become against the law to be abusive to your spouse and partner until the late 1970s federally,” notes Gall.
Sarah’s Inn serves about 1,200 adults and 150 children every year.
“It’s a hard thing for people to say, ‘Oh, yes, that’s me, I’m living in an abusive relationship’...Statistically speaking, women are more at risk of being victims of domestic violence. It’s one in four women nationally, but the number of men has greatly increased, so it’s one in seven men now," Gall says.
Sarah’s Inn is a difference maker for past generations, working to break the cycle of violence for generations to come.
“We are trying to constantly work against how are we shifting the culture,” Gall says.
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