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Community programs
Ending violence takes more than a shelter. It takes prevention, intervention, and a real path out for people who want to change.
If you are being harmed, this is not the page you need. These programs are for prevention work and for people who have used violence and want to stop.
For help as a survivor, go to Get help now, or call Maxine’s Arms at 773-243-5464. In immediate danger, call 911.
Violence Prevention
Prevention is one of the five program goals of Maxine's Arms: promoting early intervention and prevention strategies aimed at reducing family violence and supporting healthy community relationships.
That work happens in schools, churches, workplaces and on blocks — teaching what healthy relationships look like, what warning signs mean, and what to do when you see them.
What this involves
- Healthy relationship education
- Bystander and early-intervention training
- School, faith and workplace programs
- Community awareness campaigns
Gang Reformation & Exit Support
Leaving a gang is its own kind of leaving — dangerous, isolating, and rarely done alone. Maxine's Arms provides reformation support for people who want a way out and a way forward.
The work is practical: safety, stability, education and employment pathways, mentorship, and connection to community partners who can carry it further.
What this involves
- One-to-one reformation support
- Safety planning for people exiting
- Education and employment pathways
- Mentorship and community connection
Partner Abuse Intervention Program (PAIP)
A Partner Abuse Intervention Program is structured group work for people who have used violence or control in an intimate relationship. It is accountability work, not anger management and not couples counseling.
In Illinois, PAIP providers operate under the state Protocol for Partner Abuse Intervention Programs. Referrals may come from a court, a probation department, an agency, or from a person who has decided on their own that they need to change.
What this involves
- Structured group sessions
- Accountability-based, survivor-safety-centered
- Court, agency and self-referrals
- Not anger management, and never couples counseling
How we hold these together
Survivor safety comes first, always
Running shelter and accountability work under one roof only works if the wall between them is real.
- Program participants are never housed at, or brought to, the shelter.
- Survivor records are never shared with an intervention program participant.
- A person’s participation is never presented to a partner as proof that they have changed.
- Partner contact, where it happens at all, follows survivor-safety protocol and is entirely voluntary for the survivor.
- PAIP is not anger management, not substance treatment, and never couples counseling.
Illinois Partner Abuse Intervention Programs operate under the state Protocol for Partner Abuse Intervention Programs. Certification status: [PAIP CERTIFICATION STATUS REQUIRED]
Referrals and partnerships
Courts, probation departments, schools, agencies and employers can refer to these programs. So can a person who has decided on their own that something has to change.