When Racheal Williams and her son moved to North Charleston for a job as director of sales at a Hilton hotel in late 2019, she couldn’t have guessed how difficult the next few years would become.
The COVID-19 pandemic began the following year, and as the hospitality industry adjusted, Williams lost her job. She and her son were living off her savings for a while, and then in May 2021, Williams was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.
While she was able to get medication to help contain the cancer covered by Social Security disability insurance, Williams said the medicine hurt her joints and made it hard to move, leaving her unable to work.
It got to a point where she was unable to pay rent or utility bills, until she saw a post on social media about Trident United Way’s resource connection centers, essentially a liaison between residents in need and services who can provide resources or funding for a range of things including utility payments, food and job-search support.
Williams made an appointment at the center in Summerville later in 2021, and said she was surprised at how supportive the manager, Torie Gardner, was in taking the time to help her.
“She treated me like a friend,” Williams said.
With Gardner’s help, Williams was able to continue paying her rent and utility bills until she started working again in 2023. Williams said the resource connection center changed the trajectory of her life.
The need for financial assistance in the tri-county area has increased over the past few years, according to Trident United Way’s data. In fiscal year 2025, the resource connection centers served 6,220 households. The year before, the centers helped 5,102 households, and 3,574 households the year before.
Trident United Way has had a resource connection center in Berkeley and Dorchester counties for 30 years — one center in Summerville and the other in Moncks Corner — but until early August, had no locations in Charleston County.
Trident United Way recently held a soft opening for their first Charleston center at the county’s main library on Calhoun Street on Aug. 4 and are planning another soft opening for a North Charleston location in early September to help accommodate the increasing demand in financial assistance.
A growing need in Charleston
When Trident United Way first opened resource connection centers in Summerville and Moncks Corner, DJ Hampton, Trident United Way President and CEO, said the data at the time showed that most of the financial struggles were in rural areas of Berkeley and Dorchester counties.
Now, with cost of living going up faster than wages, Hampton said Trident United Way has noticed an increased need for financial aid and other resources from residents in downtown Charleston and North Charleston.
Natalie Hauff, deputy director of innovation of Charleston County Public Library, said staff had been discussing for years how they should find a partner to help the growing number of patrons who come in looking for resources or financial assistance.
While some libraries throughout the state like Richland’s hired social workers, Hauff said they felt there was a strong community of nonprofits in the Charleston area who could help the library and provide those services.
She reached out to Trident United Way to learn more about how they could help and found a win-win situation: Trident United Way would finally be able to expand their reach into Charleston County with a new center, and the library staff would be able to direct patrons to the appropriate resources within the library.
Natasha Chatman, chief impact officer of Trident United Way, said she feels opening Charleston’s first resource connection center in the library is a great opportunity, and could possibly lead to opening centers in other library branches.
Hampton added that Trident United Way is adding family coaches in the resource connection centers to help families set their own financial goals and work together to reach financial comfort.
How resource centers help clients
Gardner said Trident United Way partners with several places like local Catholic churches, food pantries and thrift stores to help people pay bills and buy food and clothing.
Sometimes, centers start providing resources of their own due to the demand. Gardner said they’ve started keeping emergency food boxes that can feed a family of four for two days if a client comes in at a time when local food banks and food pantries are closed.
Usually, it takes a few weeks for employees at the center to work with clients and compile the resources needed, Gardner said. She added employees check in with clients from time to time to make sure they’re doing well and are becoming more financially stable.
Angie Williams, now Trident United Way director of community initiatives, started at Trident United Way in 2017 working at the resource center in Summerville. One experience she’ll never forget was when a man who came in on a Friday 10 minutes before the center was supposed to close. He had a job interview on Monday but had no clothes to wear for it.
She said she stayed with him and talked to him for a bit before getting him a voucher to help get him some clothes for his Monday interview. Angie Williams said she’ll always remember how he came back that Monday to share his excitement with her, because he got the job. The two stayed in touch, and Angie Williams said after checking in three months later, she learned the man had been promoted.
Racheal Williams now works at the Medical University of South Carolina as a community health worker — where she helps connect patients to community resources — in partnership with Trident United Way. With her job being remote, she chooses to work in the Summerville resource center a couple days a week, one door down from Gardner, who is now a good friend.
Racheal Williams said she’s happy she can pay it forward with her new job.
“(Trident United Way staff) changed my life, just by being nice,” she said. “I hope I get to be that with people.”
This article appeared in The Post and Courier on August 23, 2025
By Maddie Quon, photo credit Grace Beahm Alford