VISION

Our history

Sarah moved in to an emergency domestic violence shelter in 2005 with her two young sons. She was later accepted into their transitional housing program where she spent two years working and going to school. After graduating from both the housing program and college in 2007, she began serving on the board of directors for that shelter and speaking publicly to help raise support for the organization. She also began to visit the shelter regularly to encourage the women who were living there.

What seemed to be a rapid and dramatic success story soon began to crumble. Not long after she was living on her own, it became clear that it was no longer sustainable to suppress the trauma she had been carrying. She began the long process of unpacking and addressing the deeper issues through therapy, attending relational classes, and growing in her faith. This process took several years and was difficult to balance with maintaining a career and raising children on her own.

She continued to visit the shelter and noticed through the years that so many of the other women followed a similar pattern: short term success followed by a deep drop-off. After doing some research, she decided that in order to "be the person she needed when she was younger", she would need to launch something new to fill an existing gap.

Our mission

The mission of Dynamis House is to equip survivors of trauma with the space and tools required to recover and thrive long term.

Dynamis House is a faith-based program that uses the trafficking/addiction recovery model to serve Chicago-area survivors of domestic violence who are struggling with moderate to severe PTSD. In this model, there is an acknowledgment that the person entering the program has a debilitating condition severe enough it must be addressed first through intensive care. This is a 3-month, in-house, full time segment of the program that includes individual therapy, group therapy, boundaries & relationship classes, mental health classes, and identity work. This provides residents with the time, space, and support required to gain their footing and have a more solid foundation to build on as they move forward in their recovery. The next 21 months are spent with a blend of support that addresses both internal and external issues including continuing education, career training, and personal financial management as needed.