It's payback time for Melyn Acasio. In the early hours of a 1996 October morning, she was brutally beaten by her husband while she was sleeping, leaving her with a fractured skull, three broken teeth, and a terrified 6-year-old daughter. At the time, Acasio didn’t know where to turn for help. "You don’t want your family to worry about you," she says. "So we got our stuff together and I took my daughter to school and went to work." From her job at a Wells Fargo bank Acasio called the employment crisis hotline, who referred her to the San Diego YWCA. "The Y told me to get in touch with the police, and they would have room for me and my daughter to make our escape." For the next two weeks mother and child found a home at a local YWCA crisis facility and got their lives back together. "The Y counseled us and let us know we were not alone. When we got up the next morning, they had already scheduled a meeting with a legal advocate to get a restraining order and ordered counseling from child protective services." San Diego’s YWCA has been helping people like the Acasios for some time now. Back as far as 1907, the organization began tackling such issues as homelessness, domestic violence, child care needs, poverty, fair housing and civil rights. And since its inception nearly a century ago the YW has been responsible for a number of area firsts, including the first women's employment bureau and first adult education classes. But it’s perhaps for another first that the organization has been most identified in recent years — San Diego’s first shelter for battered women and their children. "We’ve been known as an agency of crisis," says Judy Case, who took over as the YW's executive director less than a year ago, after holding a similar position in Bradford, Penn. "When our women come, they come with one suitcase. They have left behind everything they have known in their lives." Currently the YWCA provides a number of programs for women in crisis including Passages, a shelter/housing program in which residents work toward career employment and self-sufficient living; the Domestic Violence Institute, with individual and family counseling, as well as teen relationship violence-prevention workshops in county schools; and Children's Services centers in east and southeast San Diego, focusing on children from low-income, single-parent families. The organization accomplishes that mission with a staff of 115 and an annual budget of $3.7 million. But there's more to be done, Case says, and even now a new facility called Becky's House is under construction. The idea for Becky's House began on-air with Jeff & Jer from Star 100.7 FM radio. After talking with a caller who wanted advice about her abusive relationship, Jeff and Jer began a fund-raising drive, gathering $40,000 to help the caller get back on her feet. Councilwoman Barbara Warden heard the story and eventually allocated $1 million in federal block grant funds for a home for women in similar situations. The 10-unit townhouse, designed by architect Tim Golba with the support of the city of San Diego, is scheduled to be completed in late fall, and will be under the direction of the YWCA. Becky's House will offer residents child care, job training, job placement, counseling, and other support services for up to two years. It even includes a foster-care-for-pets component. "Volunteers will give the pets — anywhere from cats and dogs to gerbils — a home until mom and child are ready to go back into the community," Case says. "Surprisingly, one of the main concerns for people in abusive situations is they are afraid of what will happen to their pets if they leave. We have women who left to go back and take care of their pets." Overseeing the opening of Becky's House and the other YWCA outreach programs is a 23-member board of directors. The board will have seven new members this year, including Connie Cragal, Jane Haskell, Michelle Haines, Sherry Jones, Dorothy Stanley, Patricia Wright ... and Melyn Acasio. This is where the payback part comes in. "There are so many women that end up paying the consequences because they don’t know where to go for help," says Acasio, who since her stay at the YW has had three promotions and become branch manager/assistant vice president of Coronado's Wells Fargo. "I bring to the board the knowledge of what it feels like for those living in the shelter. I always promised myself that if I can get through everything, I'd like to pay back the Y in some way." And while rescuing women in situations like Acasio's will remain a top priority for the YWCA, it’s also time to look in new directions, Case says, to refocus on prevention and education programs. "We want to go out of the business of domestic violence and we hope prevention programs will help us do this. Prevention is an important component to enhance, expand and re-evaluate, to meet the changing needs of the community." The new director has a laundry list of innovations she'd like to spearhead in the coming months and years. Among them, expanded business training for women, including education on the ins and outs of starting a small business; a program for young women fresh out of foster care who are technically emancipated but still need supportive services like help getting a GED and links to job skills training; more child care centers; extended outreach to teens about the warning signs of relationship violence and suicide prevention; and forums for women in the business community as a way to come together on a regular basis to network and discuss women's issues. The women's networking forums would be held in conjunction with the annual TWIN (Tribute to Women and Industry) awards, which has become the premier businesswomen's recognition event in San Diego County since its inception two decades ago, and one of the signature fund-raising programs for the YWCA, raising $112,000 last year, and $1.5 million overall. "TWIN is a way for corporations to salute women who have worked so hard and contributed to the greater good of the San Diego community," Case says. "And there is still as much excitement about this event and a desire by corporations to honor outstanding women as there was in the beginning." In addition to paying tribute to women who have made it to the top of industry in managerial, executive and professional roles, TWIN honors those firms that have provided the opportunities for women to achieve their potential. This year’s honorary chairperson is Jerry C. Lee, president of National University, the lead sponsor of the 21st annual ceremony. "I think it’s such an incredible event," Lee says. "We (National University) like to support initiatives like this and are happy to be a sponsor. It’s a wonderful time to identify women who have made a significant impact, and when you salute a few, you salute all women." Each year in December nomination forms are sent to 500 to 600 local companies, who then nominate those they wish to honor, says Suzanne McClain, special projects manager at the YWCA, who coordinates the effort with the help of a committee of former TWIN recipients. The volunteers take the nine-month commitment very seriously, McClain says, meeting once a month to work out every detail, ensuring the luncheon goes smoothly. This year’s chairperson, Marla Farrage of BFGoodrich Aerospace/Aerostructures Group, was a 1997 TWIN recipient for her work in contracts administration. "When my boss said he had submitted my name, I was very excited," Farrage remembers. "It was something I was hoping for but thought it would happen later in my career. It’s a definite career boost. You get more visibility in your company, and it boosts your self esteem and confidence." Volunteering to help with the next year’s celebration followed naturally, Farrage says. "It’s a great networking opportunity, and it’s not all work. We get to oversee everything including tasting all the food, the cover of the program, picking out the guest speaker and gifts for the honorees." But the best thing about working behind the scenes for TWIN, reports Farrage, is the satisfaction of a successful luncheon. "Just the feeling that you've done something this extraordinary and it’s going for a good cause." In the end that’s what it’s all about — a good cause. Just ask Melyn Acasio.

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