Rolling Meadows shelter to benefit from Purple Tie Ball

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan headlined the annual Purple Tie Ball Saturday, hosted by the social service agency, Women In Need Growing Stronger, or WINGS.

Held at the Schaumburg Convention Center and drawing 280 guests, the event raised money to support domestic violence programs, and specifically to fund the agency's Safe House in Rolling Meadows.

"It costs $1 million per year to run the Safe House, and we get virtually no state funding," said Rebecca Darr, executive director. "The only grant we get is from Lisa Madigan's office, so that's why it's so special to have her here."

The event drew many local elected officials, including Rolling Meadows Mayor Kenneth Nelson, Hoffman Estates Village President Bill McLeod, as well as State Rep. Fred Crespo and Rep. Mark Walker, and Illinois State Sen. Mike Nolan.

Madigan gave the audience more than a polite acceptance speech. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington, she detailed one of the many facets in the fight against domestic violence that her office is battling: abusers who have not been served their orders of protection.

"An order of protection should be the strongest tool that a survivor has," Madigan said.

Yet, she pointed to the more than 20 percent of active orders across the state that have not been served, and the more than 25 percent in Cook County alone.

"That is absolutely unacceptable that Illinois has a double digit record of unserved orders of protection," Madigan said.

She described how her office is working to design a shorter form for serving the orders - for which she was interrupted by applause - and following through on serving those perpetrators who are right beneath their noses, namely incarcerated inmates.

Over the summer, Madigan said, her office has worked with the Illinois Department of Corrections to identify inmates and those out on parole, to identify the unserved abusers, and serve them.

"Hundreds of orders of protection have been served in the last three months," Madigan said.

WINGS officials said the weakened economy had hurt their ability to shelter abused women.

"We're running the (Safe House emergency) shelter at 30 women and children, when it could hold up to 45," Darr said. "We've had to lay off two staff members and cut our census. How well we do tonight, could allow us to shelter more women."