10-23-2022 W2W - Flipbook - Page 10
T.
Following Her Heart to Give Back
T. Sky Woodward, Helping Up Mission
Sky Woodward enjoyed a
successful 30-year career as a lawyer
representing clients in a variety of
industries, navigating complex legal
issues and defending high-stakes
litigation. So, what would cause this
successful lawyer in July 2022 to
dramatically switch gears to become
Chief Administrative Officer at Helping
Up Mission (HUM), a Baltimore nonprofit,
which since 1885 has impacted the lives
of those experiencing homelessness,
poverty and addiction by providing
individual care that addresses their
physical, psychological, social and
spiritual needs?
“I followed my heart,” Woodward
responds. “I have been referred to as
‘fierce,’ and that ferocity comes from
my tendency to be very passionate and
enthusiastic in whatever I am doing.
The more I was exposed to what was
happening at HUM through serving on
its board—the new Center for Women
& Children, additional partnerships
with Johns Hopkins and other health
care providers, and opportunities to
work with other missions around the
country—the more excited I became
that all of these developments were
happening at once. A light bulb went off
one day when my husband and I were
driving to work, and I said to him, ‘I know
what I need to do. I need to go work at
Helping Up Mission.’ I met with HUM
CEO Bob Gehman, and he said, ‘I think
we can make this happen.’ I was ecstatic
because I truly believe God had sent me
to Helping Up Mission.”
Woodward’s relationship with HUM goes
back to 2007 when she was working at
the Baltimore office of law firm Womble
Bond Dickinson and one of her law
partners was former Gov. Bob Ehrlich
who had gotten to know HUM while he
was governor.
10 | 2022 | WOMEN TO WATCH
people recover and get their dignity
back. People come to us because they
need their hearts and souls put back
together,” she says.
Woodward says that Fridays are one
of her favorite days due to the two
chapel services held on Fridays each
week, “The key moment is when one
of our residents graduates, and we get
to celebrate their completion of HUM’s
365-day spiritual recovery program. Our
graduates speak and share, and often
their friends and family members are
there to support them. I am so fortunate
to experience that life-affirming
moment and watch the restoration of
someone to a life of dignity, serenity, and
wholeheartedness,” says Woodward, who
adds that many of HUM’s graduates later
become staff members.
“Learn, earn, return.” In July 2022, amid a brilliant career in law, T. Sky Woodward
felt God calling in a new direction – and following that leading, she joined Helping
Up Mission as the Chief Administrative Officer. Now her days are spent returning the
blessings she’s been given to the staff and guests at HUM.
“One Thanksgiving season, a group of
lawyers volunteered at HUM to serve
lunch. Later, I provided pro bono legal
services to the nonprofit itself as well
as HUM’s clients. My husband and law
partner, John Parker Sweeney, also did
pro bono work, and we both continued
to do so when we joined the Bradley
Arant Boult Cummings law firm in
Washington, D.C.,” Woodward recalls.
Woodward says she feels so fortunate
that she has a job where she is excited
to go to work every day and appreciate
the moments of joy not found in many
workplaces.
“While the big opportunities that are
rolling into HUM are amazing, it’s the
smaller moments, like when I am in the
elevator at the Center for Women &
Children, and I can look into a woman’s
eyes and know that she is alive…not just
that she’s physically with us, but there
is a sparkle in her eyes. I don’t know
what brought her to HUM —addiction,
poverty, or homelessness, or all three —
but I will stake my life that there was no
sparkle in her eyes when she first walked
in the door here. When I see that, it’s a
reminder that this is why we come to
work each day,” she says.
Acknowledging that there are several
wonderful nonprofits seeking to address
addiction and homelessness in the
Baltimore area, Woodward believes
Helping Up Mission is unique.
“This organization has a soul, with
people who are driven by a higher
calling to do the hard work helping
Woodward says she lives her life by the
adage, “Learn, Earn, Return.”
“The concept is that your life is allocated
in three segments. You spend a third
of your life learning, the next third you
spend earning respect, credentials, and
a living. Then you hit a moment when
it’s time to return—return the blessings
back into the community,” she says. “We
are here to try to make people’s life a
little bit easier, and if I can play a part in
making someone’s life a little bit easier,
clean and sober, I am doing the Lord’s
work, and I feel blessed to be doing it.”
For more information, visit
HelpingUpMission.org/WeCanFixThis
Provided by Gregory J. Alexander,
contributing writer. This paid post is
produced by Helping Up Mission. The
newsrooms and editorial departments of
Tribune Publishing Co. are not involved in
the production of this content.