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Rebecca Weiniger is the Director of Domestic Violence Law at North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic. This mother of four has endless energy to help her clients. When a domestic violence victim, be it a woman, man or child, makes that first call to get help, Rebecca and the other four full-time attorneys will speak with them directly and make sure they are given all kinds of information, and where they can access more resources in case they never call back. Many of these people already live with housing and food insecurities and have immigration issues as well. There is one full time social worker working with the team to offer more support for their clients. Rebecca and her team are there for legal help, but also emotional and spiritual. It is very scary for these victims/survivors to take that first step. They may make several attempts before they can feel secure enough to make that monumental move. The clinic's help is free. Where Prairie State Law receives government funds, they cannot assist clients with immigration matters. Since NSLAC doesn't receive those funds, they can help in that area. Some of the attorneys speak Polish, Spanish, Korean and Russian. Rebecca and her team provide videos and podcasts that lets their clients know their rights, financial literacy, share with them information on how to leave, documents needed, schools and pets. Many times these are disguised by a website that looks like a banana bread recipe, or a cooking class. All the information is shared through the chat. Now she and her team are opening a dialogue with teens. Though social media and other events similar to the cooking shows, they are helping teens tell if they are in an unhealthy/abusive relationship. Rebecca is committed to her clients - enough so that she is working to work herself out of a job - ending domestic violence one case at a time. |
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