Carol Fox knew that her husband's abusive behavior was negatively affecting her and her sons and she wanted something better for her family. It took a lot of strength to leave but Carol knows it was worth it.

"It cost me everything but it’s given me my life back and freed my sons," Carol says as she recalls the decision she made with the assistance of the Memphis Area Legal Services Plus, a grantee partner of the Women’s Foundation of Greater Memphis. After 29 years of marriage, the working mother of two finally found the strength and support she needed to leave her abusive husband and move into her own apartment.

Memphis Area Legal Services Plus offers financial and emotional support to women who have made the decision to leave an abusive situation. The Women's Foundation of a Greater Memphis’ grant of $20,000 has made it possible for the program to reach 300 women who were survivors of verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

The women who participate in the program are given the space to create new approaches to difficult problems that they, in turn, share with their families – thus impacting the wider community. A further 400 people – the family members of the women participants -- were identified as having been positively impacted by this program.

As OPP Director Debbie Casey explains, "We don’t want them to return to the abuser just for economic reasons."