Latina victims of violence get help

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Latina victims of violence get help
Palatine group will focus on their needs

By Kayce T. Ataiyero
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 25, 2006


A Palatine domestic-violence assistance group will launch a new initiative next year to reach out to Hispanic victims.

In February, the Suburban Latina Project will offer a bilingual and bicultural approach to help Latina victims of domestic violence.

The goal is to overcome some of the obstacles that hinder Latino women from seeking help, including language barriers and concerns about immigration status.

The project, a program of Women In Need Growing Stronger, or WINGS, will try to educate women about their options and set up support systems, officials said.

In addition to hiring a project coordinator, the group plans to distribute literature about its services in churches, supermarkets and doctor's offices.

WINGS runs 24 homes and apartments in Chicago and in the north and northwest suburbs. The group provides women and children with transitional shelter and services. It also runs a safe house for emergency shelter.

About 30 to 40 percent of WINGS' clients are Latino women.

Amy Kingan, WINGS' director of clinical services, said the need for the Suburban Latina Project became apparent as more women began arriving for help.

Some said they felt as if they had too many children or not enough language and job skills to leave abusive relationships, Kingan said.

In some cases, abusers threatened to have them deported, she said.

"The project is about developing trust, knowing they can come to us and we are not going to turn them into immigration," Kingan said. "We want to find a way to be a voice for them and help them find their voices."

Silvia Perez Manetti, a WINGS board member, said that for domestic-violence services to be effective in the Latina community, providers must understand the culture.

Although all cultures know that domestic violence is not acceptable, there are differences in how such behavior is addressed, Manetti said.

"Services that are available to them here are not available to them elsewhere. So they are not always aware that they exist," she said. "And if there is a language barrier, you don't even know how to ask for help."

For information, call WINGS at 847-908-0910.

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kataiyero@tribune.com



Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

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We have to much domestic violence on our own we sure as heck don't need it imported.

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Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

We have to much domestic violence on our own we sure as heck don't need it imported.

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Very well said.

Perhaps some of these women should cross back over the border to Mexico. They may feel safer with Mexican police handy to protect them.

Just this past week, a Mexican man walked into a restaurant and shot his ex-girlfriend, killing her and in the same week another Mexican man shot at the truck, his ex-wife was riding in along with another man, hitting the man in the leg. It's becoming epidemic. Just one more burden on police and taxpayers.

As one local cop said, "If you get rid of all the illegal non-English speakers, we wouldn't need an extra 100 policemen.....I spend over half my time dealing with people who cannot speak English."

I think in our paper we had one woman stabbed to death as she was leaving work by her husband...which of course is probably on the way to Mexico and another woman found murdered in her basement and they suspect it's her live in boyfriend and of course he's on the run as well and probably heading back to Mexico. They wouldn't say outright if they were legal or not, but the job declined to say anything about what her job was and the other murder victim lived in a 2 story apartment with numerous other relatives. We haven't licked the problem yet and having a whole new group to start over with is going to be a nightmare. Not to mention the huge amounts of children.