According to recent statistics, 67% of formerly incarcerated men are re-arrested within three years. Our next guest’s organization however, has found a way to reduce that number significantly. Mike Switzer interviews Leah Rhyne, director of marketing and communications at Turning Leaf, a Charleston nonprofit expanding soon to Columbia, SC. Listen now
When I hear household names like George Floyd, Walter Scott and Alton Sterling, I don’t land on the grisly videos of their killings or the fates of the police officers who ended their lives. I think about their children. Police murdered my father three decades ago, when I was 8. As his son, I know firsthand how losing a … Read more
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is: “focus on what you can control.” It’s humbling to recognize how much happens in life that I have no control of. Instead of wanting things to be different – the way I want them to be, the way I expect them to be – I try … Read more
Amy Barch didn’t set out to become the director of a nonprofit, but she’s really good at it. In fact, Barch just might change the world. Six years ago, she opened the Turning Leaf Project with the wildly ambitious goal of keeping violent felons from returning to a life of crime after prison. And that’s important. Law … Read more
“Change is really hard, even under the best circumstances. People leaving prison attempt to change their whole lives with the cards stacked against them.” So writes Turning Leaf Founder and Executive Director Amy Barch in an article published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) on July 7, 2021. The article, A Better Way to … Read more
We were honored to host a group from Leadership Charleston for a tour of Turning Leaf last week. Leadership Charleston is a yearlong program that engages participants in experiences that help them become better community leaders. The Chamber has been running this program for over 45 years – offering an intensive and up-close look at … Read more
“I’ve always had a strong sense of fairness and equality, and an equally strong belief that people should get a fair shake in life,” said Turning Leaf Founder and Executive Director, Amy Barch, at a recent meeting of the Columbia Rotary Club in Columbia, South Carolina.
Barch was invited, along with Aulzue “Blue” Fields, to share the Turning Leaf story to this group ahead of the organization’s planned October 2021 opening of its second center. Speaking before a crowd of x members, Amy first shared a bit of the “why” and “how” of Turning Leaf’s origin.
The most basic purpose of our justice system is to convict and punish the guilty while protecting the innocent and safeguarding the rights of all Americans. As part of that mission, rehabilitating offenders and helping them return to society should be a primary goal. Unfortunately, for decades, our criminal justice system has failed to fulfill … Read more
Communities often address crime through a cycle of prison time and release. This cycle leads them back to old habits, separated from their families and a drain on tax payer dollars. That is why The Turning Leaf Project (TLP) exists—to work with individuals who cycle in and out of the criminal justice system in order … Read more
An audience at the Mount Pleasant library listens silently as three men calmly talk about violence, the crimes they’ve committed, the drugs they’ve sold — and the reason they quit. She’s sitting in the front row. The men are students of Amy Barch’s Turning Leaf Project, a local nonprofit working to quell the epidemic of recidivism. … Read more
