North Texas nonprofit to help connect Garland, Plano ISD students and families to needed resources

GARLAND, Texas - A North Texas nonprofit announced that it is expanding its services in Garland and Plano ISD schools.

Trusted World helps thousands of families through care packages delivered to school counselors.

Now, the organization says it wants to go a step further and help connect families with things like healthcare and childcare.

"The number of people that have incurred situational poverty has blown up," said Dr. Courtney Gober, Plano ISD's assistant superintendent.

Gober says there is a growing number of families in need.

"It's not like we're dealing with one or two families per school. No, we're dealing with 50 to 100 families per school," said Gober.

Shelly Garrett, the assistant superintendent as Garland ISD says school counselors are usually the first to recognize that a child's family is experiencing a crisis.

"You find out, we need some shoes, that is why he is not going to gym," said Garrett. "You find out that mom says, I have an infant at home, I would work if I had childcare and my husband is suffering from anxiety or depression."

On Thursday, Trusted World announced it will move beyond providing care packages of food and clothing for families. It is now working with United Way to help connect families to the services they need like childcare and healthcare.

"I feel blessed, so glad Garland ISD gets to be part of this pilot," said Shelly Garrett.

Michael Garrett founded Trusted World in his garage in 2014.

Since that time, the nonprofit has grown a lot.

"We have 23,000 square feet of resources that we are constantly turning around. Last year, we helped over 93,000 people, we put $3 million worth of resources back into the community," he said.

Garrett says the next step, with help from school districts, will fill an important gap.

"If we can nip situational poverty in the bud, we can prevent families from actually becoming homeless, and we can actually prevent them from moving into generational poverty," he said.

In addition to schools, Trusted World also works with police departments to help families who are in need due to a crisis.