Lake County Crisis Center

What it reported doing in 2024

A safe place is the sole provider of services exclusively addressing domestic violence and human trafficking in lake county, Illinois. Guided by the mission of being the leading advocate for eliminating domestic violence and human trafficking in northern Illinois, a safe place offers comprehensive services that provide a safety net to assist victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and their children. Services are designed to meet the immediate crisis and longterm needs of victims of violence and their children, to prevent future violence, and to help survivors achieve selfsufficiency. The continuum of services provided for victims of violence includes: a 24-hour crisis line, a 24 hour on-call crisis response services with law enforcement, case management, a 24-hour emergency shelter, 58 transitional housing units, 37 permanent supportive housing units, family, individual and group counseling, therapy and art therapy, a legal advocacy programthat provides assistance with orders of protection, safe custody exchanges, and supervised child visitations, life skills, employment, financial literacy and budgeting, advocacy, education, outreach , supportive services, safe youth initiative (which is a violenceprevention and intervention program), mentoring program for adolescentboys to prevent violence from continuing in the next generation, and anintervention program for perpetrators of abuse - teaching them accountability and helping them to examine and change their abusive behaviors over the course of a six-month program.human trafficking program- during the year a safe place's human trafficking program served 100 clients with direct service assistance, 19 with emergency shelter and 13 with transitional housing.intervention program for perpetrators of abuse- during the year, a safe place's intervention program for perpetrators of abuse received 80 referrals, engaged 57 participants , and provided a total of 3,263 service hours.family visitations and exchanges - a safe place's family visitationcenter supervised and facilitated 238 custody exchanges and 552 visitations, with safety of children and survivors as the primaryconcern. During the year, 123 families (with 192 children) were served. 67.6% of cases involved families impacted by domestic violence, with thesecond most commonly reported primary presenting issue being mental health challenges (11.8%), followed by substance misuse (10.3%), child abuse (8.8%), and sexual assault (1.5%). Reported secondary presenting issues included mental health challenges (39.7%), substance misuse (23.5%), child abuse (16.2%), stalking (16.2%), threat of abduction (14.7%), sexual assault (13.2%), homelessness (8.8%), court violation (7.4%), and human trafficking (1.5%). Legal advocacy - our legal advocacy program, located in the lake county courthouse, provided assistance to 1,968 survivors seeking orders of protection for domestic violence. Our legal advocacy team assisted survivors in obtaining 1109 emergency, 1 interim and 7 plenary domestic violence orders of protection. In addition, we assisted 851 people to obtain other orders of protection including those related to sexual assault, and stalking/no-contact. Through the staff, including several volunteers, over 2,635 hours of advocacy was provided to survivors.outreach & education - we work to educate the community about the dynamics and effects of domestic violence, advocate for survivors, while raising awareness of the services that are available through multiple outreach efforts by staff members dedicated to our education programs as well as through staff members from every area of our agency. Education and outreach are provided at businesses, religious institutions and other community gatherings. We also educate professionals such as social workers or law enforcement officials who may come in contact with domestic violence survivors. We provided over 2,871 hours of education and training through 1,655 presentations reaching 26,330 p

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 67.9%; rating input score 68
• Program expense ratio: 75.7%; rating input score 76
• Fundraising efficiency: $20.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Scored; rating input score 0

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 10.5%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.85; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.37; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 3.6%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings