United Family Services helps people change their lives for the better – inspiring individuals, families and communities to find solutions that create a better future. 

Each year, UFS helps more than 25,000 people. We are the only agency in the greater Charlotte area to provide the comprehensive resources, education and support needed to live healthy and stable lives. 

Brandon, Counseling & Education Client

Before I came to UFS, I was young and looking for a life of fun—a life full of drugs and alcohol and, for the most part, meaningless relationships. I lived a life of fear and I was not a person that someone would call trustworthy or a good friend. Since then, I have reached a point, with the help of UFS, of accepting that I had a chemical dependency issue. Today, instead of living in fear, I live in excitement and with a level of joy that I wasn’t sure that I would ever reach. And I’m not the only one who has seen a difference. My family members have commented on it time and time again. Counseling changed my attitude, it changed my perception, and it changed the way I deal with people on a daily basis. Counseling doesn’t just benefit the individual, it benefits everyone that counts.

Kate, Crisis Intervention & Advocacy Client

Victim Assistance was instrumental in helping me to get back on my feet and deal with all of the emotions that I was experiencing [after a sexual assault]. It has been such a help to me in getting control back in my life, brought dignity back into my life and changed me in such a way that is just immeasurable. I can’t put a price tag on that; I can’t describe in words how wonderful the service is and what a difference it has made in my life. I was a lump of clay after the assault and from the moment I stepped into the office, they helped shape me back into not the person I was before, but something different… better.

Rachelle, Domestic Violence Services Client

In April of 2002, I arrived at The Shelter as a result of a rape, being beaten, and left for dead. I felt worthless and like death had to be better. I was sick and tired of being abused, of living on the street and of selling my body. I was slowly committing suicide. At the time I didn’t see it that way... I thought it was a way of having fun, making things better, that I could save the world. But the whole time I was saving the world, I was losing myself—my mind, my body, my self. The service I received when I came to The Shelter, you just can’t begin to imagine. There was so much love and understanding. I found out that I wasn’t alone, that there was help, and that I am somebody. I found out that I have the right to change, I have a right to say no, and I have the right to get my life together.

Will and Elizabeth, Economic Independence Clients

A year ago, we had over $60,000 in debt. We used it to pay medical bills and pay groceries, and it got 100 percent out of control. I wasn’t sure if our marriage would stay together, if our family would stay together, and where we were going to go financially. Consumer Credit Counseling helped have the creditors stop calling, gave us a plan and gave us ideas on how to go forward. Because of the budget and where we went, our home is secure, our mortgage is secure, we paid off our car and were able to purchase another car with cash with the money we saved. We’re not carrying bankruptcy on our record. We signed that pledge not to get any more credit cards and not to go any farther in debt, and we have taken that very seriously. We’ve learned our lesson the hard way. We’re working too hard to get out of this to do that again.