Founded in 2004 by Robina Niaz, a Muslim social worker and community activist, Turning Point for Women and Families (“Turning Point”) is the first community-based agency in the New York area providing professional, culturally specific social services to Muslim women and families from all ethnic backgrounds. Since 2004, Turning Point has provided services to over 200 Muslim women, youth and families.

There are 600,000 - 800,000 Muslims living in New York, from various ethnic backgrounds, speaking a variety of languages. Of this number, one-third are South Asians and almost one-third are African-American/Caribbean, but there are very large Arab, West African, Turkish, Bosnian and Indonesian communities in New York as well. Despite the size of this growing population, Turning Point is the only organization that directly addresses domestic violence and provides social services to Muslim women, families and children regardless of ethnicity. While Muslim-specific statistics are scarce, given Turning Point’s experience and knowledge of the field, they estimate that approximately 25 to 30 percent of Muslim women and children are impacted by violence.