Sasha Gillespie is testament to the difference the right kind of support can make when someone’s life has taken a turn for the worse. As Intake Coordinator at IMPACT Family Counseling, a United Way of Central Alabama (UWCA) partner agency, she not only hears about the troubled lives of those seeking help through counseling but has been on the receiving end of that kind of help herself.
Gillespie, a single mother of two, was referred to IMPACT as a client in 2022 after seeking a restraining order from a former boyfriend who was the father of her second child. Over the course of the previous two years, their relationship had deteriorated to the point where she feared for her safety and that of her children. The man had even taken money from her.
“It was so bad, I really should be dead…one of those kinds of stories,” Gillespie said. “But I wasn’t, and I thank God for that because I didn’t realize how toxic the whole situation was.”
Even prior to that experience, Gillespie’s life had been quite unsettled and transient, on the move between Greenville, Tennessee and Birmingham and always staying with friends or family members – never having a place of her own until about the time she and her ex-boyfriend met. So when that relationship blew up, she was lost.
“IMPACT was the village I needed,” said Gillespie. I would have been out here by myself since 2021, and I didn’t feel like I had anybody…nobody that could support me in the way that I needed. I really felt stuck.”
But once Gillespie was put in touch with IMPACT Family Counseling, things began to turn around. She enrolled in the organization’s PROVE program which is designed for low-income parents and provides training in healthy relationships, anger control, parenting and general life skills. Participants also receive monetary stipends for reaching certain milestones in the yearlong program and to help with the cost of vocational training so that they can become gainfully employed and financially stable.
For her, talking with, and learning from, other parents about appropriately disciplining children was one of the most helpful aspects of the program, Gillespie said. “The biggest thing that I wanted to work on as a parent was…how I talk to them because I had been yelling…and trying stuff like using a belt or putting them in timeout,” she said.
Before graduating from the PROVE program in 2023, Gillespie enrolled at Jefferson State Community College, where she is currently completing an associate degree in Social Work. She also plans to continue her education to become a licensed social worker.
George Casey, Executive Director of IMPACT Family Counseling, said Gillespie has been a shining star in the PROVE program. “Sasha is able to share her successes and struggles with the students, and she knows exactly what they are going through because she has gone through it herself. I’m so proud of her for continuing with school while working full time and being a single mom to two young daughters,” Casey said. “And I know her daughters are proud of her, too.”
Gillespie’s experience does, indeed, make her empathetic toward others going through similar situations, with whom she speaks frequently through her role with IMPACT. The fact that these types of calls have become commonplace makes them all the more serious. And the need for organizations such as IMPACT Family Counseling is all the more essential.
“IMPACT has been a United Way partner agency since 1999, and the funding and support we have received has enabled us to grow as a company, implement new community programs and serve more families in the Birmingham area,” Casey said.
Programs such as PROVE contribute to a number of UWCA’s core impact areas in Central Alabama, including Mental Health, Early Childhood Development & Education and Financial Stability & Career Development. To learn more about UWCA’s work in any of these areas, visit https://uwca.org/impact.