1. What is Turning the Corner?

NS: Turning the Corner was born last year to help women survivors of
domestic violence achieve financial self-sufficiency. It was born because without the ability to handle finances, many women remain or return to abusive relationships.

Bill, domestic violence is just like cancer. It does not care that you are wealthy, indigent, middle-class, black, white, oriental, how old you are, what religion you practice or what country you are from. You never know when it will strike.

2. Nancy, your bio indicates you are a survivor of domestic violence and Turning the Corner has something to do with that part of your life…

NS: The name Turning the Corner is very personal for me. It’s personal because I “turned the corner” on December 28th, 1991 and left a 20 year abusive marriage. I’m catholic and Sicilian. So I was brought up according to the Sicilian Catholic “rule book”. For example,

“You make your bed, you lie in it”.
Obviously, one would think this statement has to do with how clean and crisp the bed linens are ….but let me translate, “If you screw up, you’re stuck, so deal with it, because it’s your fault and there’s no way out of it”.

“Carry Your Cross”.

That one baffled me for awhile then a light went off and I realized it meant, “Life is tough, there’s little if any joy and you have “to carry the weight” of your unhappiness and keep it to yourself, because no one is really interested”.

So as a teenager I was ready for that abusive relationship to come into my life and it did at age 16. By 17 I has sex and of course I was sure that everyone could see the “Scarlet Letter” on my chest. So boy was I relieved when he asked me to marry him. He was doing me a favor and making me an “honest” woman. What woman: I was 19!

The emotional abuse began before we married. He would be jealous of my friends and just yell at me for no real reason. He told me once, “If someone doesn’t yell at you, they really don’t love you”. DUH! anyway I fell for it.

The physical abuse began the day we returned from the “honeymoon”. It was a combination of physical, sexual and emotional terrorism.

3. How widespread is domestic violence?

NS: Statistically, 3 to 4 million women are battered every year.

Also approximately 50% of homeless women and children are fleeing abusive situations.

About 85% of the women who leave violent relationships return to the abusive relationship. All too often peoples assume that women stay and or return to violent relationships because they have low self-esteem. However, the reasons women stay or return are far more complicated that the strength of her character. A significant proportion of women who return to violent relationships attribute their inability to deal with their finances as a major contributing factor, which is often enhanced by the fact that the abuser often has all of the economic and social status.

Bill, there are also women like me, women who do not report the violence, the unreported statistics. Women who live double lives one as a competent professional by day and the abused wife by night.

The economic effects of domestic violence are felt far beyond the personal life of the victim. Research indicates :

That as many as 74% of working abused women are harassed on the job, I know I was one of them.

56% are late for work on at least 60 days. How can you get to work on time if you are being terrorized the evening before?

And 20% lose their jobs altogether. Obviously, this is all related to days off, days late or days they have to leave early. Employers have so much tolerance, especially if they are not aware.

4. Why Turning the Corner?

NS: There are a number of good programs that teach financial literacy. However, Turning the Corner is the only organization that utilizes a holistic approach.

Turning the Corner takes a holistic approach to help these women achieve personal financial health and independence. The Business of Me, which is the name of the program, directly addresses abused women’s fears of money and provides specific methods to overcome those fears. The program outlines a series of tools and action steps to develop all aspects of developing and maintaining financial self-sufficiency.

The workshops address issues relating to self-worth or as we call it self-ability. Self-ability is one’s perception of what one is able to do. These women are mired in what is wrong with them that they take that way of thinking into the area of managing money. This is usually reinforced with negative self-talk and the myth the “postponing dealing with money” brings ease and buys time. Turning the Corner helps the participants understand positive ways of thinking about money; dealing with negative self-concepts; understand positive ways of thinking about money and identifying their own values, thereby, enabling them to create a future based on the rewards of self-ability.

5. Tell me more about “The Business of Me” workshops.

NS: “The Business of Me” is a workshop series consisting of five two-hour sessions, four that are offered consecutively over a 1 – 4 week period with the fifth being presented a month after the last session in order to evaluate progress and answer any questions that may have come up.

Before we begin a program we meet with the organization to review the areas of importance to their clientele and adapt “The Business of Me” to attain their desired goals.