We’re just getting started:
- 100% of students served maintaining active enrollment and good academic standing
- 100% of students accessing much needed medical care (acute and chronic)
- 100% of students in stable housing
- 100% of students now food secure
- 100% of students now giving back to their community through volunteerism
- 100% of administrative costs covered by Board Members
- 100% of dollars raised devoted to student expenses
- $65,000 raised to transform lives
- $20,000 donated through employer-employee matching programs
- 100 volunteer hours from non-board members
Meet Katie
Meet Katie, a 19-year-old native of Wilmington, NC, who grew up in Charlotte with her mom and dad, whom she credits for her love of animals, laughter and board games. Katie holds on to the good memories, thinking about when she baked cookies with her mom. Her mom would let her shape the cookies into animals, hearts and stars. She remembers her dad teaching her to ride the purple and silver bike she got for Christmas. And she remembers dressing up every Sunday to go church as a family.
Her parents died suddenly when she was in the second grade. She went to live with her only living relative, her grandmother in Virginia. While Katie’s heart was broken, things were good with her granny until she got sick and passed away only two years later. With no other family, she was placed in foster care and discovered that not all adults were as loving as her parents and her grandmother. In fact, some foster homes were abusive and violent. Moved from home to home, she found herself in increasingly dangerous situations. At 15, she had no safe place to go and ran away from her abusive foster home. Told she was going to be loved and protected, her vulnerability was exploited, and she is now the survivor of sex trafficking. It was two and half years before she escaped.
Katie didn’t let her obstacles stop her. She got her GED and started trying to plan a future.
Despite all the adversity she has faced Katie remembers the love of her parents and all they taught her. She is back in NC, which even while she lived in Virginia, is the only place she would ever call home. She is currently about to begin her sophomore year of college and wants to become a nurse.
CatchMUp helps young people like Katie who are fighting for their futures. We are honored to serve these young people, many of whom have been subjected to unfathomable horrors and unimaginable obstacles and fallen through the cracks. We strive to provide holistic support—financial, medical and educational resources as well as mentorship opportunities. We work to provide a safe community and help launch them to successful futures where they can be self-sufficient thriving members of their communities.
These days, Katie talks about how different her life is and only a handful of years ago, she couldn’t imagine being in college with a 3.69 and working to fulfill her dream of becoming a nurse. She is immensely grateful for all the support she has received. When she isn’t studying, Katie volunteers as a mentor to younger youth and is active in her new church and loves to play board games and cook anything with zucchini for her friends.
Without support, I wouldn’t be in college, I wouldn’t be on the dean’s list. I don’t think I’d have a safe place to live. The only way I know I can pay back all the support I’ve received is to pay it forward. I’m totally committed to that.
When you support CatchMUp, you give us the opportunity to provide robust, life changing resources and support to students like Katie. When young people like Katie have a chance to build their future, we all benefit.
*Names and identifying information have been changed to protect the privacy of our students.