24-hour hotline
Is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week service handled by trained staff and volunteers.   In 2000/01, 1162 hotline calls were handled.

24-hour shelter
A home-like atmosphere in which to heal and establish self-reliance and dignity.  Shelter is given for 90 days to women and their children who are escaping abuse.  Care is taken to maintain a culturally appropriate environment and services in a safe, welcoming atmosphere.  Counseling, legal advocacy, support groups, parenting, conflict management and communication training, art therapy and parent-child cultural and recreational activities all take place while at the shelter. In the last program year 105 women and children received a total of 3,723 shelter nights.

304 women and their children received a variety of services from Apna Ghar in fiscal year 2001.

Counseling (group and individual)
Apna Ghar provided 4878 hours of groups and individual counseling in FY01.

• Individual and Group Counseling - for residents and non-residents toward achieving a happy life
• Communication/Assertiveness/Mediation Skills
• Building Self Confidence and Self-Reliance
• Parenting Skills
• Art Therapy - to express feelings and goals in a non-threatening, non-verbal medium.

Translation
Members of Apna Ghar's multi-lingual staff, volunteers and affiliates, is part of the services offerered.   Tranlators of Asian and Middle Eastern languages accompany resident and non-resident clients and guide their negotiations. In the past year clients utilized translation services amounting to 948 hours.

Legal advocacy
Help in understanding the Illinois Domestic Violence Act (IDVA) and legal rights and remedies inside and outside the courtroom; support in obtaining orders of protection; assistance with child support, custody, divorce and immigration procedures.  The aim is to ensure that clients fully access and are well-served by the legal system. Our agency provided 3758 hours of legal advocacy in the past fiscal year.

Housing
Apna Ghar assisted seven families with first month's rent and deposit during the past year.

Transitional Housing
This is a new expansion in FY01. Two apartments are available for women and their children for a period of 9-18 months. Supportive services such as counseling, job training and referrals are provided during this period. Women and their children can use this time to attain long term self-sufficiency.

Employment
Job assistance for training, interviewing, protocol and placement is carried out by staff and by referral and networking.

Case Management Advocacy
Involves assisting clients with services such as housing, public aid, medical and psychiatric attention, education, literacy and child care. Advocacy consumed 2210 hours of staff time in the past year.

Supervised Child Visitation Center
Offers a safe, well-equipped and comfortable setting for children to visit with their court-mandated, non-custodial parent under supervision by specially trained staff and volunteers. Apna Ghar served 239 individuals last year.

Community Education and Professional Training
This focuses on raising community awareness of the effect of domestic violence on the entire community, what behavior is considered to be domestic violence, and directing people to the available resources.  The staff of Apna Ghar trains high school, college and graduate interns and hundreds of volunteers.