Trident United Way helps the people who need it most.
Hand-in-hand with our partners, Trident United Way is committed to broad and long lasting community change. Alyson is just one example of what it means to achieve long term financial stability.
Alyson’s dad died when she was ten. “The Christmas after my dad died, Trident United Way gave us Christmas right there on Main Street in Summerville,” Alyson recalls appreciatively. The Carroll family received new shoes, food vouchers and rent assistance.
Her drug abuse began before she turned 21. After her father’s death, a series of events made life feel like an unbearable burden, including her mother’s cirrhosis, maintaining good grades while working three jobs in high school, an abusive boyfriend and her brother’s suicide.
Alyson had no blueprint for a stable life.
A series of Trident United Way partners have helped Alyson, now 38, stand on her own feet. After her husband’s death in January 2015, Alyson did what many homeless individuals do and found her way to the emergency room at the Medical University of South Carolina. From there, the Charleston Dorchester Department of Mental Health connected Alyson with the mental health and drug abuse counseling she needed, as well as Origin. "There is such clear evidence that all of these groups who partner together make a real impact in our community," says
David Geer, CEO of Origin, Inc.
The Representative Payee program at Origin, Inc. manages her limited disability income and rent payments. Alyson is now stably housed and retains responsibility for paying her utilities. She says faith and having a place of her own are her motivations for staying clean. “Having a place of my own makes a world of difference. I’ve been able to function,” Alyson says.
“It’s so wonderful, I can’t help from smiling.”