Partners

The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ILCADV) is the federally designated statewide coalition of domestic violence service providers for Illinois, bringing together more than 50 member organizations that support survivors and their children through emergency shelter, counseling, legal advocacy, public education, policy leadership, and professional training. As ILCADV works to expand access to ever-improving services for survivors of all backgrounds, language access has become an essential part of how its statewide network can reach multilingual communities with clarity, safety, and dignity. 

ILCADV first came to the Multilanguage Service Foundation through an existing interpreting relationship with one of the Foundation’s language service partners. Traditional business development had produced little growth because the need was not simply more interpreting; it was a more strategic way to align language service spending with ILCADV’s training mission, government grant requirements, and aspirational goal of reaching more limited-English proficient participants across Illinois. 

The Foundation approached the opportunity consultatively. Our advisory review found that ILCADV was required to provide language access under public funding obligations, yet had little practical guidance on procurement, service mix, or how to convert compliance spending into measurable program value. The coalition’s language access model relied primarily on interpreting, while training materials and post-event takeaways remained largely in English. 

That gap mattered. ILCADV has provided statewide and regional training for professionals working to end domestic violence in Illinois since 1981, and its Training Institute continues to coordinate in-person, virtual, and on-demand programs that equip advocates with the knowledge and tools they need to support survivors. For multilingual participants, auditory access through interpreters is vital, but effective learning is strengthened when visual and digital materials receive the same language treatment. 

In response, the Foundation designed a pilot program that increased language service consumption while lowering unit costs. By augmenting ILCADV’s existing interpreting expenditure with Foundation-backed volume support, the program helped create the conditions for better pricing, more predictable access, and broader service coverage. The Foundation then added targeted grant support to fund premium Spanish-language dubbing for training videos, transforming core educational content into a more accessible resource for Spanish-speaking advocates, service providers, and community participants. 

[link to ILCADV video with toggle for English / Spanish ] 

The result is a practical language access model built around ILCADV’s real operating rhythm: approximately 50 annual trainings across the state, an expanding base of multilingual participants, and a management commitment to increase interpreting investment as demand grows. Rather than treating language services as a stand-alone compliance expense, the pilot positions interpreting, translated materials, and dubbed media as connected investments in participation, retention, and statewide impact. 

The Illinois pilot is also designed to inform a larger national effort. The Multilanguage Service Foundation has contacted major foundations regarding interest in a $2.5 million nationwide campaign to expand language access for domestic violence awareness, support, enforcement, and reporting. The Foundation has pledged $500,000 toward that goal, with ILCADV serving as the pilot partner whose experience can demonstrate how coalitions, service agencies, legal aid networks, and funders can work together to make domestic violence resources more accessible in every state.