Sherry Weinstein needed a strong reason to stand in the bitter cold, holding a metal sign in her bare hands–and she found it.
Weinstein and several dozen community members and government officials were gathered for the installation this week of the first anti-domestic violence sign in Illinois on a lamp post outside of the Naperville Police Department. As many as 49 more signs will be posted in the city.
Weinstein led the efforts to design and finance the signs by her Naperville chapter of the Exchange Club, a national service organization dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and domestic violence.
Inspired by the approval last year of state and city resolutions against domestic violence and a suggestion by state Rep. Mary Lou Cowlishaw (R-Naperville), Weinstein said she took up the gauntlet for the signs after a club meeting on domestic violence in February.
“I like to think that I’m extremely involved in Naperville,” said Weinstein, “but it blew my mind” when 17 anti-domestic violence organizations showed up after a word-of-mouth invitation.
“And I thought, if I’m as well-informed as I like to think I am and they all exist and I’m not aware of it, then obviously there is a great need.” She said she hopes the club’s thousands of other chapters in the country follow the lead of Naperville.
Cowlishaw sponsored the state resolution and said the signs further her goal of increasing the public’s awareness of domestic violence.
Particularly pleased by the effort to put up the sign was Stacie Clyden, community resource coordinator for the non-profit Family Shelter Service in Glen Ellyn.
“Last year, we served over 3,400 women, children and men in DuPage County, and the saying goes that only half actually report (domestic violence). . . . WE are really only dealing with the tip of the iceberg on this,” Clyden said.
Also in attendance was DuPage County Judge Stan Austin, who recently moved to the law division after 3 1/2 years in the domestic relations division.
“We get thousands of (civil and criminal) cases in DuPage County involved with domestic violence,” Austin said. “But the truth is, by the time somebody comes to court, there’s already been a pattern of abuse and we can’t do much to prevent it. All we can do is punish it after the fact.
“An effort like this to put information out to the public to emphasize and highlight that domestic violence is inappropriate and unacceptable and to also give them phone numbers, give them contacts on how to deal with their situation–that’s going to do more for the solving of this problem than anything the courts can do after the fact.”