Meet The Board: Martha Sledge
For Martha Sledge, serving on New Directions’ Board of Directors is “the right thing to do.” Born and raised in Whiteville, NC, Martha earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center.
“I was very fortunate that my family valued an education. My father died young, and my mother was left to raise two children by herself on a minimal income. We always knew that we were going to college, and we were fortunate that we were able to do that through scholarships and loans.”
Martha joined New Directions’ Board of Directors in 2016, shortly after a fourth facility - Myrtle Beach Haven, now known as New Directions for Families - was added. During her time as chair from 2018 - January 2021, New Directions established partnerships to address client needs such as medical care (Little River Medical Center), transportation (The Rolling Forward Project), mental health (The Center for Counseling & Wellness), and legal issues (City of Myrtle Beach Homeless Court). Under her leadership, the organization undertook a needs analysis for a day center serving the chronically homeless and assessed the feasibility of a capital expansion project to serve more clients.
“We tried really hard to get the day center and expansion going. Everywhere we went we ran into a wall. When we started looking at the day center, a concept that has been successful in Charleston and Columbia, we talked to the police officers on the homeless beat and asked them opinion if that would work here, and they were very positive that it would be helpful. The board was interested and so we tried to lease a property and see how it went before we started to raise money to build. We wanted to make sure it worked before we committed a lot of money to it. But everywhere we went, nobody wanted it next door. That’s how we finally ended up with this campus idea. That, I think, will be a solution for a lot of the problems this community faces.”
The vision of a homeless campus, a central location for our Men’s & Women’s Shelters, a Homeless Day Center and Administrative Offices, became more feasible with the purchase of a lot on Mr. Joe White Avenue adjacent to our Men’s Shelter in 2019. Martha’s advocacy for this land acquisition paved the way for the future of the organization and today, our Walk-in Center partially occupies that land, operating as a pilot facility for a day center by providing showers, laundry, basic needs and a safe environment for those still on the street. The rest of the property remains empty, a blank canvas upon which New Directions has, in many ways, mapped out its future - our hopes and dreams for both what could be and what should be, driven by the needs of community - both now and in the future.
Martha’s tenure as Board Chair did not come without difficult days, including the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and all of the challenging decisions it required over the next year. One of those was the cancellation of the Compassion Through Fashion event. Another challenge still faced by New Directions is the popular misconception that expanding services to the homeless will increase homelessness in the community. “People think that they can get a good job here and they don’t realize how expensive it is to live here, or that most of the work is not highly compensated and seasonal. Sometimes they move their families here and find themselves unable to support themselves and become homeless. I don’t think most people realize that the first thing New Directions does is to provide transportation, usually bus tickets, to get those people home to a place where they have a support system. People don’t move here for the opportunity to become homeless.”
For Martha, facing problems head on and helping people efficiently is what makes New Directions unique. “I’m a real fan of getting something accomplished. My favorite part of serving on the board is to get something done… We feed and shelter people well - so efficiently. Every dollar that comes into this place meets the basic needs of people. The more efficiently you can do it, the more people you can help - that I think is the prime reason for New Directions’ success.”
Since the beginning of her career as an attorney, and now as a board member, serving the less fortunate has been very important to Martha. “The only thing I wanted to do when I graduated from law school was to represent indigent defendants. Those were the only jobs I applied for.”
Through Martha’s service as chair and currently as board member, she has been “doing the right thing” for both New Directions and the community. Her advocacy paved the way for several partnerships, and during her leadership, New Directions acquired “the blank canvas” on Mr. Joe White Avenue upon which our organizational dreams could one day be written into reality. Like Martha, we too are “real fans of getting something accomplished” and look forward to seeing continued growth in the partnerships, services, and facilities we offer.