Our Resilience
There is one constant throughout our history: the resilience demonstrated by survivors.
Founded in 1974, Resilience (formerly Rape Victim Advocates) has been on the front lines of working with survivors of sexual violence. Although much has changed since 1974, the need for our services has not. In fact, it has increased, expanding the need and scope of the services we provide. We continue to work with survivors of sexual violence. However, our work now addresses the entire spectrum of sexual violence, including harassment, abuse, and prevention, with an additional focus on public education and institutional advocacy.
Mission
Resilience is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the healing and empowerment of sexual assault survivors through non-judgmental crisis intervention counseling, individual and group trauma therapy, and medical and legal advocacy in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. Resilience provides public education and institutional advocacy in order to improve the treatment of sexual assault survivors and to effect positive change in policies and public attitudes toward sexual assault.
Resilience envisions a world where prevention efforts and global awareness of sexual violence expose rape myths, remove stigmas, eliminate rape and support all people as equal members of society.