BCPWN October First Friday Luncheon: Understanding Partner Violence: An Overview
presented by Sheila Bernstein, Center for Hope & Safety
Friday, October 3, 2025
**12:00pm - 2:00pm**
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. And an important time to educate our BCPWN community on the resources and services offered to women and their families by Center for Hope & Safety, located here in Bergen County.
“I’m here to dispel any stereotypes you may have of what a battered woman looks like—because she looks like me.”
Thus began a news segment on New York’s WABC-TV in 2021 featuring Sheila Bernstein, Center for Hope and Safety’s eloquent and passionate advocate for victims of domestic violence. The news report focused on domestic violence as a pandemic within a pandemic and provided Sheila and Chief Executive Officer Julye Myner with an opportunity to let people know that help is available.
“If you are suffering in an abusive situation,” Sheila emphasized, “it is not your fault.”
Sheila’s inspirational work in combating domestic violence goes back to the late 1980s, when her own experience as a victim forced her to leave her home and move in with her brother. As soon as she took her first steps toward freedom, she vowed that one day she would find a way to communicate to as many people as possible what she went through and to help survivors like herself begin new lives.
It was a very different world 30-plus years ago, Sheila recalls, when domestic violence was not taken seriously among “nice people,” when options for victims were few and far between, and when safe houses and counseling were almost non-existent. When a final threatening letter convinced Sheila that she had to leave her home to save her life, she credits Alternatives to Domestic Violence for developing an escape and survival plan. After leaving her abuser, she began to build a new life and new support systems of friends and family.
Sheila began her volunteer work with Center for Hope & Safety after retiring from a successful teaching career in Bergen County, starting in 2005 with gift-wrapping at local malls, a job she takes on enthusiastically every holiday season.
Sheila has served in almost every volunteer capacity—committee work, helping at client picnics and information fairs and mentoring clients. But it was her first speaking engagement at the Ridgefield Women’s Club, and then her first visit with college students, where Sheila truly found her niche and launched her now powerful message of survivorship. Sheila has spoken throughout the county and beyond, in a variety of venues and to all age groups, sharing her experiences and her path to survival. Everywhere she goes, she offers an authentic voice because she has lived the experiences she describes.
With her community outreach and public advocacy, Sheila has taken her teaching career to a new level, providing critical information and hopefully helping and saving someone out there who is suffering. She will continue to share her story “as long as possible and until domestic violence is eradicated.”
Join this conversation at the Allendale Bar & Grill in The Connelly Room for a plated lunch, cash bar and networking.
This event is limited to 25 attendees. We will open a waiting list as well.
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Cancellations can be accepted in writing up to 48 business hours prior to the event. No refunds will be issued after that point.
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