To reduce the number of individuals and families who experience domestic violence by providing counseling, community education and fostering independent living free from abuse.
WellSpring Center For Hope
P.O. Box 368800
Chicago, IL 60636
Monday - Friday
8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.
773-723-2119
A Ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church Department of Benevolence
WellSpring Center for Hope was started in 1988 by a husband and wife team of pastors, David Bruce and Rev. MaryNella McLaughlin, on Chicago's southeast side who recognized a critical unmet need for crisis intervention and an emergency safe haven for women victimized by abusive and violent partners. The co-pastors of the South Chicago Covenant Church started a safe home network for domestic violence survivors, and garnered the support of other committed members of the Covenant Church to purchase first a two-flat, and later a six-flat building to provide transitional housing for battered women and their children. Through WellSpring House, WellSpring staff provided counseling, advocacy, information and referrals to battered women, as well as assistance with job placement, housing, and life-skills development to enable women to establish independent households until mid-1999.
Following an assessment of the agency's long-term goals, the WellSpring Board of Directors decided to sell WellSpring House in the summer of 1999. Since that time, WellSpring has focused on enhancing walk-in services, started in 1997, through our office in Englewood, as well as community outreach and education regarding women abuse.
For women in Englewood, living in a socially and economically devastated community compounded the sense of fear, hopelessness and entrapment created when an intimate partner or family member is abusive and violent. Many women who suffer abuse and/or battery are single heads of households, living on public assistance, often times, themselves, the source of support for the abuser.
The Board of Directors of WellSpring is strongly committed to the Englewood community providing leadership for comprehensive walk-in and transitional housing services to battered women and their children, providing community outreach and educational services that will begin to change the attitudes and behaviors of community residents, regarding domestic abuse.
WellSpring is not a religious organization, but recognizes the significance of religion and a faith-based community in the lives of African-American women, many of whom turn to the Pastor of their church for guidance and support. WellSpring's programs are designed to foster the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellness and wholeness of the women and children we serve.
WellSpring is a ministry under the guidance of Covenant Ministry of Benevolence of the Evangelical Covenant Church.