Turnabout: Stories of Individuals Who Overcame Tough Challenges to Move from Dependency to Self-Sufficiency in This Amazing Country of Ours and the Lessons We Can Learn from Them.

Author Peter Heegaard, following on the success of his two previous books about non-profit organizations, Heroes Among Us and More Bang for Your Buck, has now, in Turnabout, collected the stories of a few of the individuals who benefit from such organizations. By letting his subjects speak for themselves, he has put a human face on the zone of life where financial resources are meager and family support often non-existent, though intelligence and courage remain strong. We’re introduced via first-person narratives to the dark regions of household violence and abuse, the self-perpetuating culture of drugs and crime, and the marginal world of recent immigrants with few language skills or local connections. In the course of the interviews well learn how the individuals involved overcame personal difficulties, with the help of local community organizations, to become productive citizens. Uniformly inspiring, these stories underscore how narrow the margin is between success and failure in life, and how important a helping hand can sometimes be.