WLS Foundation working to set up larger headquarters in Anderson County
by Olivia Parsons for wspa.com
ANDERSON, S.C. (WSPA) – The ‘When Life Sucks’ Foundation or the WLS Foundation is the resource to get veterans their resources, according to its C.E.O. Patrick Elswick.
“We’re not the end-all-be-all organization,” Elswick explained. “We do love to partner with other organizations, and we keep it strictly partnering with direct support service nonprofits. By that, I mean like that actually do the work.”
The name came from the phrase ‘welcome to the suck’ that the Army and Airforce use overseas.
“Like when you’re at the lowest of lows and life is terrible for you, just give us a call because we don’t know the answer. Maybe not. But we’re going to try to help you get to that answer,” Elswick said. “And it started off that way.”
Elswick is a Marine veteran.
He said the direct connection is important.
“If I send you to one of our partners, like vets helping vets or, you know, service dog for vets, or any of these organizations, you’re dealing with that direct person
Some, Elswick said the WLS Foundation helps with directly, like job placement, counseling, or navigating the Veteran’s Affairs office.
“A lot of people don’t know how to navigate the V.A.,” Elswick told 7NEWS. “So they think it’s all bad, but that’s actually not true. The V.A. has a lot of great parts if you can learn how to navigate it and we’re that assist to help them get there.”
Elswick said the job keeps him humble.
“I think really the joy is helping people because the statistics rate of what we’re able to do is not as great as you think,” he said. “Like if we help 100 veterans, 20 of them might do really, really good and 80 of them are always going to struggle. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s just figuring out they have to make the decision themselves.”
But, he acknowledges the need and says it’s big. Sometimes bigger than what they can take on.
“We do have some great partners that are national partners, and we get calls from everywhere,” Elswick said. “The problem is, we don’t have the funding that can help, you know, millions of people. So we’ll help anybody we can that we financially can, that’s within our budget to help.”
Right now the foundation is working toward getting all resources under one roof.
The WLS Foundation has a building in Anderson they’re working on setting up so that it can be that sense of structure for the non-profit or as Elswick puts it, a one-stop shop.
“That way, if you need help getting a home loan, or accessing your V.A. claim, or doing things that you know, the veteran doesn’t need to know, or you want to get help when life sucks, you want to be seen by you know, our counseling team?” Elswick said.
It’s all there. Resources available at a veteran’s fingertips.
But, what’s most important, Elswick said, is making sure that each veteran is taken care of the correct way.
“Our job at When Life Sucks is not to see 10,000 veterans,” Elswick explained. “It’s to see five veterans and make those veterans whole again. And I would rather do you know, a quality instead of quantity, all day long.”
Because to some, as Elswick puts it, the Foundation might be all that veteran has.
“This job will keep you humble,” he added. “Because when you think life’s bad for you, you’re going to get five calls today that life’s real bad for them. I will tell you that.”
And that’s what Elswick said, keeps him going.
Patrick Elswick, Thank You for Your Service.
