Our Work

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Since our founding in 2024, we have made  significant impacts on victims' rights awareness, rights violations and policy and practice abuses. We have successfully advocated for stronger awareness of victims' rights and community resources provided at the local level when reporting crimes and navigating the justice system. We have conducted assessments of local and state government and justice system agencies. The following is a list of some of our progress.

We have been an outlet for victims to come forward and report on how they have been mistreated and the type of experiences they are receiving in the justice system.  These stories have helped immensely shed light on what has been a mostly undisclosed problem until now.  These stories are shared in meetings with coalition partners, government and justice system agencies and help support and bolster the legislation we are working on.  We will continue working on additional outlets for victims to come forward and share their stories to bring about systemic change and justice system reform. 

An assessment was conducted on the McLean County Illinois justice system and includes 13 different agencies that resulted in over 150 recommendations for improvement.  CARE for Victims is currently working with these impacted agencies to review and implement these recommendations to improve victims' rights information as well as access to community resources and improve transparency of information and accountability to those seeking help. We will continue to use this work to help inform changes needed in all counties in every state as we continue to grow and scale our work. 

We have actively been  engaged in the community attending events, rallies and conducting workshops to engage with and partner with potential coalition members including individuals, appointed and elected officials, organizations and businesses. To date we have contacted, met with, presented or shared our information to over 100 different groups/individuals, with some of those being their own coalition with dozens of organizations behind them.  We will continue to expand our reach locally, regionally, and at state and national levels.

We are currently working with coalition partners to introduce formal legislation requests in the spring session of  2026 to better address the needs and rights of victims in addition to addressing laws that allow loopholes and undermine accountability in the justice system. Stay tuned to our news and media updates for more on our upcoming legislation proposals. 

One of our earliest wins includes having "victims' rights" added as a practice area, searchable field on the Illinois Lawyer Finder website a service of the Illinois State Bar Association. This was done to help attorneys refine the services they provide and allow those seeking these specific services have better results in receiving a qualified match. This is anticipated to be completed later this year.  We will continue to work to have this added to other websites where applicable and work with law schools and bar associations to elevate the need for victims' rights attorneys.