About Us
Natosha Hayward was born in South Carolina but raised in New York City, in a tightly knit religious family where helping others was just a part of life. “It’s always been my thing; my parents always volunteered through our church,” she says. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Now 51, Natosha is the partner engagement manager at SC Thrive, an AARP Foundation grantee that connects community members to resources, training and benefits. Styling itself as a “one-stop shop,” SC Thrive helps clients find and apply for the available benefits (Medicaid, SNAP, long-term care and more), all in one place.
It wasn’t an easy journey to this point. Unexpectedly pregnant at 17, Natosha decided to leave her parents’ home. “I couldn’t face them,” she says. She finished her senior year in one semester and moved out of the house without telling her family why.
After brief stays with friends, Natosha and her newborn son moved to a teen shelter in Manhattan, a temporary home that would influence her life’s work. “So many people helped me get on my feet,” she says. “They helped me get into college, find an apartment, child care, everything I needed to be successful.”
While at the shelter, Natosha received job training through a local nonprofit. The skills she learned led to positions at another shelter, and she even became shelter director. That’s when she realized, “This is where I need to be. This is where I can help, because I can relate, and I understand.”
After moving in 2006 to care for her ailing father, who by then had moved to South Carolina, Natosha eventually found work as a Medicaid supervisor with the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. But she was bewildered by her staff’s attitudes toward Medicaid, a government program that provides health coverage for people with low income.
“They thought it was just for those already sick and dying,” she says. “So I made it my mission to help them understand that Medicaid is preventative.” It was a major mindset shift for those working in the field.
Over the next decade, Natosha worked a series of contract jobs for the state. Then, in 2016, she attended a meeting hosted by Tidelands Health Community Care Network, her employer at the time. There she met SC Thrive’s chief development officer, Stephanie McGuire and they hit it off right away. When a position opened up a few years later, Natosha was Stephanie’s first call.
Natosha Hayward (left) and Stephanie McGuire (right) conduct a community organization training session.
For Natosha, SC Thrive feels like the culmination of the various positions she’s held throughout her career. “When I got to SC Thrive and saw the vast array of things that we do here,” she says, “I knew everything up to now had prepared me for this.”
She’s constantly on the road: hosting events with community organizations, working with new partners to foster relationships among them, and delivering training sessions on how to use ThriveHub, SC Thrive’s proprietary software. And yet Natosha’s clients say she’s available when they call (and often when they don’t). Energetic and always smiling, she makes time for them even when she’s not on the job.
“It’s not about where I can go or what I can do,” she explains. “I ask myself every day, ‘How can I help?’”
Meet more community heroes like Natosha and learn more about how AARP Foundation Grantmaking helps older adults to secure the essentials.
Read more stories about how our programs have helped people find hope, and about the volunteers who give so much of themselves to help others.