WINGS helps women, kids escape domestic violence

Domestic abuse traps thousands of Illinois residents in a cycle of violence that too often can seem endless.

But Rolling Meadows-based WINGS aims to give victims and their children an escape route.

WINGS operates emergency shelters in the Northwest suburbs and Chicago. Women, men and their children are eligible for shelter. It also has dozens of houses and apartments throughout the Chicago area for longer transitional and permanent stays.

In addition to shelter, WINGS offers intervention services in some hospital emergency rooms, counseling, legal assistance, career services and more.

For the third consecutive year, WINGS is one of the five beneficiaries of the Daily Herald’s annual Neighbors in Need program, a partnership with the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. For each dollar readers donate to the program, the foundation contributes 50 cents.

WINGS launched in 1985 as the Housing And Shelter Program, a volunteer group focused on homelessness in the Northwest suburbs. Women and children were a particular concern.

It shifted its focus to domestic violence and in 1989 was rechristened WINGS.

Among its newest efforts is the Foglia Family Resource Center, which opened in 2023 and provides counseling services to adults, teens and children at a location in the Northwest suburbs the organization prefers not to disclose to protect its clients. The center served 114 adults and 34 children in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the group’s annual report.

“As we have grown, so has our ability to provide even more programs of the highest quality to aid survivors,” WINGS CEO Rebecca Darr said in her introduction to that report.

Stories of women who went to WINGS for assistance are shared on the group’s website. Among those women who benefited from the organization’s program is one identified as Michelle, who was pregnant when she fled her abusive boyfriend.

“To this day, I’ll never forget when WINGS called me to say I was accepted into the housing program,” Michelle wrote. “Once I moved in, I felt very blessed to have such great support services. With WINGS guidance and resources, I felt like I was becoming the best mom I possibly could be.”

To help fund operations, WINGS operates resale shops in Arlington Heights, Schaumburg and Niles. Funds generated by the sale of donated items go back into the program. Recipients of WINGS housing services can select furniture and housewares at the shops for their temporary homes, too.

· The Daily Herald and the McCormick Foundation initiated the Neighbors in Need fundraiser in 2021. Last year, Neighbors in Need raised $58,125 — $38,750 from readers and $19,375 in matching funds. That resulted in $11,625 grants for WINGS and four other charities. To donate to Neighbors in Need, visit dailyherald.com/neighbors.