Charles Smith

"My mother told me before she passed away, 'You can be anything you want to be, as long as you work hard for it.' I will carry those words in my head 'til the day I die and pass them on to my kids..."

Charles Smith's mother would be very proud of him today. His young life has come full circle from tragedy, loss and homelessness to a future filled with college plans, valuable computer skills, and a job helping others at the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation.

His optimism and drive conceals a life shaped by misfortune and challenges. At age 5, Charles lost his mother to cancer. At 12, he was caught in the gun crossfire that killed his best friend. By 18, 4 close friends had been lost to street violence. Still, Charles had hope, his mother's memory and his hard-working father's unwavering support. By senior year at Charlestown High, he was on the varsity football team and had a sports scholarship to U-Mass, Boston.

Things were looking up. But, like so many families struggling to get by, theirs took a tragic turn when triple by-pass surgery and health problems forced his father to stop working. Charles soon left school to work full time and care for this father. But, the money wasn’t enough. Within months, they were homeless.

"With no job and no income, my whole world seemed to collapse on me," he recalls. While his father found assisted-living housing, restrictions prevented them from living together. The young man drifted from shelter to shelter, sleeping in cars, hallways and sometimes on the street. "I thought I was going to die in the dead of winter," he remembers. Then, Charles found Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a United Way-funded agency that helps high-risk, homeless and runaway youth. Charles calls Bridge, "the light at the end of the tunnel."

Through their Transitional Living Program, Charles was finally given a stable place to live. With coaching and counseling, he found a job, earned his GED, learned how to manage his money, completed both a computer certificate program and an internship, and parlayed his new-found job skills into an administrative position at the DMR. Today, he dreams of college and pursuing an MBA. "I'd like to be the CEO of my own business someday."

What does "LIVE UNITED" mean to Charles? "You've got to want to succeed. You've got to work for it. But, you don’t have to walk alone."