Area’s Leading Charity
Changing Its Approach
to Addressing Community Issues

Creating Synergies Among Non-Profits

Your elderly grandmother can no longer see well enough to drive. She’d benefit from the social interaction of the local community center and could use the services of the nearby health clinic, but she has no way to get to either.

A year ago, if she couldn’t get a ride from her friends or family, she was out of luck. Dozens of organizations were offering her the services she needed, but the transportation gap prevented her from taking advantage of them.

Then Trident United Way convened local providers of senior services and together they recognized that a lack of transportation interfered with the delivery of all of their services. By stepping outside their individual spheres, they were able to create the Independent Transportation Network, which provides dignified, low-cost rides for the elderly in the Lowcountry.

Based in part on that experience, Trident United Way (TUW), the hub of our area’s charitable community, is changing the way it invests its resources to solve the most critical problems facing people in the Lowcountry.

Because TUW works with hundreds of partners and fosters collaborations, this new approach is also changing the way our entire community invests its resources.

In the past, TUW funded programs and initiatives that measurably change lives in six distinct areas: children under six, school age youth, self-sufficiency, health and wellness, basic needs and the elderly.

It has become increasingly apparent that these areas of need are inter-related and can’t be considered separately. For example, people can’t be self-sufficient unless they are healthy and achieve the physical, intellectual and emotional development necessary for success as small children and school-age youth.

“If you want to make a sundae, having great ice cream isn’t enough,” said Christopher Kerrigan, president of Trident United Way. “You need to find the best ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and nuts and then put them all together. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Trident United Way has spent the last year working to align all its programs, initiatives and services to a common set of goals and strategies. Moreover, it is working to align all its partners as well, by promoting more collaborations across issue areas.

Another example of this approach is Trident United Way’s Links to Success, a research-based academic success initiative that brings together schools and multiple non-profit partners to provide academic and non-academic support for at-risk students. Links to Success requires providers to step out of their silos and meld their services for maximum impact on students’ lives.

After a pilot project in the Spring, Links to Success will debut in nine schools in the Fall.