Gretchen S. Vapnar Community Crisis Center: 46 years and still going strong

As society emerges from the necessary restrictions of the oftentimes deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the workers and volunteers of the Community Crisis Center in Elgin continue to do purposeful work not only for victims of domestic violence, but so much more.

From its beginning in a Victorian home, the Gretchen S. Vapnar Community Crisis Center - renamed a couple years ago for its former longtime executive director - now has 62 employees and continues to provide assistance 24/7.

The Community Crisis Center - founded in July 1975 - is one of the state's oldest domestic violence shelters, and was pivotal in organizing both state and national efforts to combat domestic violence. National Domestic Violence Awareness Month was first declared in October 1989 thanks, in part, to the awareness efforts of the Elgin contingent.

As the Crisis Center begins its 46th year of service in a couple weeks, Maureen Manning, the director of client services who has been a difference-maker there for 44 years, is understandably proud of the work employees and volunteers have done not only during the pandemic but all year every year.

According to Crisis Center statistics, "In the past year, 2,329 adults and 170 children found strength, safety and peace at the Community Crisis Center."

Additionally:

• Nearly 200 women and children spent 4,539 safe nights in their shelter;

• 10,788 calls for help were answered;

• 1,129 people received domestic/sexual violence counseling and advocacy;

• 372 households received 11,166 meals, and 168 households received 37,119 diapers from the emergency pantry;

• 94 families received utility and housing assistance to keep them in their homes.

The Crisis Center also offers assessment and counseling to perpetrators of domestic violence, Manning said, via its Abuse Intervention Program.

The goal is to stem the tide of abuse and to help abusers understand the effects of their behavior on their children.

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, there are more than 10 million abuse victims annually, an average of 20 people every minute.

The Crisis Center has sheltered victims in every collar county, Illinois and Wisconsin, and from places as far away as New Jersey, Oklahoma and Washington state.

If you need help, the Crisis Center can be reached at (847) 697-2380.

If you'd like to help the Crisis Center keep making a difference, call (847) 742-4088.