January Impact Numbers

   The year 2023 was another record-breaking one for Trusted World. Last year, the organization provided its network partners with resources valuing $3 million. The Trusted World Network helped impact the lives of more than 93,000 people and provided 184,000 meals in 2023. An impact like that shows how far the organization has come since its 2014 founding in an Allen, Texas, garage.     

                 Trusted Wrap-Around Services

   The Trusted World Network now has 830 network partners in North Texas, and it’s taking collaboration and innovation to a new level with the Trusted Wrap-Around Services launched this week. The pilot program gives counselors and administrators in 143 schools in Garland and Plano ISDs network resources and services on demand to help struggling students and families. It’s considered a one-stop that demonstrates the power of the Trusted World Network.  

   “The number of people that have incurred situational poverty has blown up. It’s not like we deal with one or two families per school. No, we’re dealing with 50 to 100 families per school,” says Assistant Superintendent for Plano ISD, Dr. Courtney Gober. He oversees the district’s Student, Family, and Community Services. For eight years, Dr. Gober has relied on Trusted World resources for the district’s 72 schools. 

   Trusted World Founder and CEO Michael Garrett says, “Trusted Wrap-around services is taking our three core services, providing clothing, food, and toiletries, the trusted directory and our trusted cares program and making the school counselor the most powerful person in the room.”

   The Superintendent for Garland ISD, Dr. Ricardo Lopez, says, “From the touch of a button on the screen, my counselors can give anything that family needs, and the handoff goes to Trused World, and they come.” Dr. Lopez oversees 71 schools and has relied on Trusted World resources since 2019.

   Michael says, “Trusted World’s platform is made up in such a way that we provide the methodology for them to talk to each other, communicate with each other, and share clients amongst each other.” 

Michael is known for his innovative ways of helping people, help people.

    Lopez says, “When you have the platform of 

Trusted World, you have this collaborative partnership, you have the agencies that are tied to without the Sky is the limit.”

    Michael says, “Our partners are able to rely on each other. The school counselor has always seen the child struggling. That’s an indicator that the family is also struggling, and we’ve always told the school counselor, you can’t just take care of the child; you have to take care of the whole family.”

   Dr. Gober says, “Here’s the magic with Trusted World! Trusted World has a database, a bank of resources. We have a one-stop shop for many, many resources to help our families. They called it a directly of resources, that’s all local! You know, we’re not sending them to another county or to another city. Most of the stuff is in our school district often very convenient, you know, in terms of bus lines and train lines.”

   “To have access to families in all of those schools. It is exciting.” Daniel Bouton is the Senior Director of Health and Wellness at the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, a Trusted World Network partner since 2020. Bouton, also a Trusted World Board member, oversees the United Way’s HealthCare Navigators program, which helps economically disadvantaged families get health care. His program is participating in the wrap-around services pilot. Bouton says, “We are excited that counselors are identifying our services as a critical service for the families… …For our team at the United Way, I see it increasing our traffic, of course, and increasing our impact.”

   Michael says it’s simple, “The power of the Trusted World Network is sitting at the tips of the fingers of the counselor.”

   Dr. Lopez says Trusted Wrap-Around Services are invaluable, “For a school district like ours, you can’t live without it. Trusted World has come up with a system that gives these wrap-around services that nobody’s been able to do. We need to galvanize around this project and make it the lighthouse for others to emulate. It’s going to revolutionize how things are done.”

   Dr. Gober agrees, “The basic needs of our students –and their families are being met, and this kind of partnership, every school, every school, not just in Texas and the nation and the world, would love to have.”

“What we know is when a family is thriving, then future generations will thrive,” Lopez says. 

                            Employee Spotlight

   Trusted World employees make it possible to provide partner clients with quality resources on demand. Trusted World team member Luis Dominguez, who recently graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas with a degree in business. Dominguez is a picker/ stocker, or you might say a “personal shopper,” picking out clothing items to fill orders for Trusted World’s more than 800 partners. Dominguez says he Loves being a small part of a big cog that’s helping so many people help people.

                                 Volunteers

   Volunteers are critical to Trusted World’s mission of addressing situational poverty. Trusted World’s Corporate Volunteer Challenge celebrates that spirit. The 2023 challenge was a close competition, but ultimately, State Farm won, beating out defending champion Texas Instruments. State Farm won both categories of the Challenge, leading in the number of volunteer visits as well as in the number of volunteer hours. Trusted World will award State Farm a giant pizza party to celebrate their dedication to volunteerism—details of when and where to follow.

                        Food and Clothing Drives

   Like volunteers, food and clothing drives are mission essential. Anna ISD recently organized a clothing drive for Trusted World, and students came together and tackled the challenge head-on. They donated hundreds of bags of clothing, filling two full truckloads with the donations. These students show us what happens when we work together to impact the community, proving that age is no barrier to helping others. 

                     Sponsorship Opportunities

   Sponsors allow Trusted World to help its partners with clothing, food, and toiletries on demand. 

H-E-B lives up to its motto of ‘Helping here’ is helping here. H-E-B is this quarter’s sponsor for toiletries and feminine hygiene products.  

   While the Trusted World Platform is efficient and effective, it needs sponsors to continue making an impact. There are more sponsorship opportunities available. To become a Trusted World sponsor, go to TrustedWorld.org and click on sponsorship opportunities under the ways to give link.

   If you’d like to help make a difference, go to TrustedWorld.org, click on volunteer experiences, and sign up. If you’d like to explore other ways to help, you can go to the same website, and under the ways to give link, click on needs to find the items the Network most needs. For clothing donations, one of our key sponsors, the Credit Union of Texas, has donation dropoff bins in every one of their North Texas branches. Next to the bin is a banner with a QR code if you want to donate money.

    You’ll find a complete list of dropoff bin locations on the Trusted World website.