Turning Point Inc.

MISSION STMT: TURNING POINT EXISTS TO END DOMESTIC ABUSE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, AND CHILD ABUSE THROUGH SAFE SHELTER, ADVOCACY, PREVENTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE.

Turning Point’s vision is that all people will have safe and healthy relationships, free from domest

Goal One: Significantly improve accessibility to domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse services to all survivors in our community, wherever and whoever they might be.

Goal Two: TP will be intensely socially aware, responding to current issues that impact the prevalence of abuse and those affected by it, and educating our community on how they can be a catalyst for change.

Goal Three: Create a strong foundation of grassroots community support through education and genuine engagement that promotes long-term, sustainable, meaningful investment in TP's work, versus one-time donations.

Turning Point maintains paid memberships in each of the state coalitions relevant to our work. These coalitions provide access to leadership development trainings throughout the year, and provide our organization with technical assistance and guidance, which ensures that our team members, both new and seasoned, learn to perform their job duties utilizing best practices and are informed by current trends and issues that impact our work and those we serve. This guidance also ensures that our team members are primed for development in their careers and have the training they need to reach their professional goals.

As an organization that provides vital, emergency services, much of how we operated during COVID did not change. Our services remained critical, and functioning remotely was not an option for most of our every day work. But our outreach was curbed significantly, as most schools, organizations and businesses were either not meeting, had their employees working remotely, or were not welcoming visitors to their location. It was crucial that our team adapted to ensure that the vital education and outreach that we provide was still accessible to the public. In addition, understanding that the numbers of victims of abuse and violence significantly increased during the pandemic, businesses and schools were faced with the potential for rising numbers of victims within the walls of their facilities, or worse, those victims (both adults and children) were trapped at home with their abuser. Our team adapted all of our educational curriculum for virtual presentation, created new educational presentations based on the needs expressed by employers and other organizations, and developed numerous different marketing approaches that provided our crisis line information, but that provided an inconspicuous way for victims to get the information they needed. These included bathroom stall flyers, small notepads with tear-off pages, crisis line business cards, ads on the back of store (Harris Teeter, Dollar General, etc.) receipts, "Warning Signs" cards, and a large billboard. We also saw a huge increase in the need for professional counseling for our clients. Historically, Turning Point contracted its counseling services out to a local provider, but it was clear during the pandemic that in order to provide the amount of counseling needed, we needed an on-site counselor. Turning Point hired its own counselor who not only was on-site and accessible far more often, but she provided virtual counseling for those clients who needed it.