In February 1977, several women in Bloomington-Normal saw the need to assist domestic abuse victims. They developed Countering Domestic Violence (CDV) which began providing services on December 1, 1978. They offered a 24-hour volunteer program to assist victims by emotional support, information, and referrals to area human service agencies, which provided emergency housing, financial aid, counseling, legal assistance, transportation and babysitting. The organization ended in 1980 and was absorbed into other social service agencies.
The collection includes the minutes from the meetings, training materials for volunteers, statistics, bibliographies, newspaper and magazine articles and miscellaneous papers and pamphlets. There are extensive materials from a public forum on Battered Women on November 1, 1978 at the University Union of Illinois State University.