Killingsworth, Inc.

The mission of Killingsworth is to support, empower, and advocate for vulnerable women who are recovering from various life crises including drug and alcohol addiction, recent incarceration, difficulty living with a diagnosis of mental illness, abuse, sexual assault or homelessness. Our goal is to provide a transition home where residents find a safe environment of love and encouragement where responsible change is embraced, and growth toward maturity is experienced and celebrated.

Funds raised through Midlands Gives will be used to support and strengthen the program of Killingsworth which has a direct and significant impact on each woman who comes to live with us. Our impact begins with each individual resident. As each one focuses on how she came to her crisis and learns to deal with it, life becomes more manageable. As she accepts the consequences of past behavior, takes responsibility for today, and sets goals for the future, her life is impacted forever. As she becomes a responsible functioning adult, her family, friends and coworkers are also impacted. The domino effect of one life changed for the better strengthens families, provides productive workers, and populates our communities with mature citizens.

Testimonials

Everyone knows someone - a niece or daughter or neighbor or aunt or sister or friend
who has made an impulsive, reckless decision, or
loved someone who was not good for her, or
found herself in an impossible terrifying situation and felt caught.
Everyone of us knows someone whose life was falling apart.

Like Sherry
who at age 8 saw her brother murdered in her front yard by drug dealers. After finishing high school with a 3.8 average she started selling drugs herself and ended up in prison for four years instead of four years of college. She came to Killingsworth with a chip on her shoulder, and it didn't start changing until she enrolled in school. She relearned that she loved school; and, she was smart. She worked as an CNA at Still Hopes Episcopal Home for two years, then, went back to school -- first to Midlands Tech, got a two year associates certificate; then to Columbia College and got her bachelors degree in Social Work. ~~ Sherry worked on the staff at Killingsworth while she was in college, including going to USC and getting her Masters in Social Work! her MSW! She couldn't be a Licensed MSW with that prison record on her resume, however, so Killingsworth helped her get a pardon from the state of South Carolina. Now she is working with those who have difficulty with life as she did when she was a teenager. An active church member and Sunday School teacher.....Sherry used her eleven months as a resident at Killingsworth well.

Or
Like Doris
whose father abused her and the rest of her siblings so severely and so sadistically that still forty years later whenever she hears a challenge or critique -- like when is asked to redo her assigned chore, or told she had forgotten to sign out before she left Killingsworth -- she collapses into a puddle of tears. Doris sees only her father's threatening face, and hears only his screaming humiliations in every reminder or reprimand. Doris is learning slowly that at Killingsworth she is safe, and she is beginning to believe that "yes, she was created in the image of God" and not the image her own father painted of her. ~~ In frequent therapy Doris is learning to make friends without buying them; to be productive, and offer herself in service as a volunteer to others who need someone who understands how difficult and hurtful relationships can be. Her depression is lifting and suicidal thoughts don't come so often anymore.

Or
Like Lynne --
a single mother whose three children were taken from her as her relationship with a drug dealer took her farther and farther into cocaine-hell on earth. Finally at rock bottom, Lynne reached out for help....help for treatment of her addiction, help getting her children back, and for help understanding that she was a person of worth -- forgiven and able to act like a grown-up, independent and responsible woman. While at Killingsworth she also asked for help for her children whom we helped place at Epworth Children's Home for a year while Lynne worked hard at her job. She has received two promotions, and now has a full-time job with full benefits. She has regained custody of her children, and they are living successfully as a family. Since last New Year's Day Lynne has lost 40 pounds and learned that while it is pleasant to have a man in her life -- she doesn't NEED to have one. She wears a T-shirt that says "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle!" Living forgiven makes her smile.

Or

Like Amber --
an alcoholic married to an alcoholic. The main difference between Amber and her husband before she came to live at Killingsworth was she wanted to change her life; her husband did not...