Social work was in her heart: Trinda Owens stands up for youth, just causes.

By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus

On the brink of turning 50, Trinda Owens decided it was time for a career change, so she re-enrolled at the University of North Alabama in 2018.

Owens had dropped out of college in her early 20s and spent over 15 years in manufacturing at the former SCA “tissue plant” in Barton. Though she made a good salary, Owens said her heart wasn’t in the work.

“During my last five years at the plant, I just got to thinking I wanted to help people more than I was already doing,” Owens, now 54, recalled. “I honestly battled with the thought: ‘Am I really going to walk away from this money?’ But my passion and my purpose was calling me.”

Having grown up in what she calls a “chaotic household,” Owens endured physical abuse throughout her childhood. She admits she found unhealthy ways to cope with her trauma as a young adult.

She had enrolled at UNA following her high school graduation with intentions of forging a career in the entertainment industry. Realizing that it wasn’t her calling either, she started exploring other career options, but her grades were already failing.

“Those unhealthy coping skills I had already developed were causing my academics to suffer,” she said. “So, there I was, back and forth between quitting school, being on academic probation and getting suspended.”

Owens gave up on her dream of graduating college for the time being, but she had already found that her passion was helping others.

At 18 years old, she had begun volunteering with a former Shoals branch of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a non-profit focused on helping marginalized youth reach their potential.

“That got me involved, and on day one I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do with my life,’” Owens said. “I was working with at-risk kids, and I saw that I wanted to be the person that I didn’t have when I was a kid. You know, I had needed someone to talk to, and I wanted to be that for other kids growing up with some of the same issues I had.”

At the time, obtaining her degree seemed out of the question, but Owens continued to make an impact in whatever small ways she could — as a volunteer with Boys & Girls Clubs, with her church, and by dedicating her free time to other forms of community service.

Eventually, Owens stepped up as a youth pastor at Open Door Church in Sheffield. She served in this capacity for seven years, all the while still working at the tissue plant.

“I have always been focused on working with kids — getting involved with different organizations, speaking in schools, mentoring where I could, you know, giving talks about character and the choices we make in life,” Owens said. “No matter what I was doing in life, that was my focus. I was just out there doing it.”

In June of 2011, Owens remembers watching the news and being struck by a story from Jackson, Mississippi.

James Craig Anderson, a 47-year-old Black man, had been murdered by a group of white teens who reportedly yelled racial slurs in the unprovoked attack. An FBI investigation led to the arrest and convictions of 10 individuals, who all plead guilty to the hate crime and were sentenced to federal prison terms ranging from four to 50 years.

“Basically, these teens had hit that man with their pickup truck, drug him around and beat him to death,” Owens recalled. “I sat there and thought, out of those teens, I knew at least two were raised right.”

Reflecting on the strong effects of peer pressure, Owens drafted a message to take to her congregation. She spoke to her youth group about the incident and pulled from all her experiences over the past two decades of talking to teens about choices and consequences.

Those preachings in her church led to other speaking engagements in her community, but Owens still felt like she could do more.

“I couldn’t shake it,” she said. “Those kids made a conscious decision to kill a stranger out of blind hate. It bothered me. I’ve always said, if something bothers you long enough, it’s meant for you to do something about it.”

That same year, Owens formed her own non-profit campaign she called “I Stand.” The effort was meant to encourage young people to stand up for just causes in their communities even in the face of adversity.

She began speaking in schools to students of all ages and all races. Students who wanted to get involved began organizing skits, songs and speeches through the organization to take those messages to other young people in the area.

“The kids took that and started coming up with messages focused on the things they were dealing with,” Owens said. “It all just kept evolving, and then I found myself being asked to talk about bullying a lot. In 2013, without really realizing what I was doing, I created a bullying prevention curriculum called BAE.”

BAE, Owens explained, is a “two-fold acronym” which stands for “Bullying Affects Everybody” and is built on these principles — Be kind, Act respectful, Express compassion.

Every year since its founding, Owens leads a BAE walk on campus at UNA to raise awareness for bullying prevention. She continued her work with her non-profit and with BAE, but Owens said she was still feeling a pull to do more.

When she decided to return to UNA, this time she had a clearer picture of what she wanted her future to look like.

A little apprehensive about applying to the same school she’d been suspended from for her poor academic performances, she took a chance and drove herself to the admissions office before she could talk herself out of the idea.

She was accepted.

Owens returned to school in January 2018 at the age of 47, and graduated in December 2019. Throughout that year, she continued to work her regular 12-hour shifts at the tissue plant.

“There were days I might not have slept for two,” Owens recalled. “I’d get off work at 7 in the morning and then drive the 40 minutes from the Barton-Cherokee area to Florence to be in class at 8 a.m. I had to physically be in class, and some days, I was there until 2 p.m. and then had to be back at work again at 7 that night.”

Some co-workers supported her, offering to take her mandatory overtime shifts throughout that time. Others, including some of her friends and family, told her she was crazy for leaving a well-paying job and putting herself through the extra work.

“It’s not for everybody,” Owens said. “Sometimes people knock others who don’t have degrees and all that, but I tell people that I’m just now to the point where I’m making more now than I was at the plant. It was hard to turn loose because I did make good money down there, but that wasn’t in my heart.”

What was in her heart was social work, Owens said. Following her college graduation, she accepted a position with DHR.

“On day one, I knew that still wasn’t it,” Owens admitted. “I knew I was called to help people, but I guess not in that form. So about three months into that job, a professor emailed me and told me that UNA had established a master’s program and encouraged me to apply.

“Of course, I’m weighing the pros and cons because of my age,” she added with a laugh. “I knew that I wanted to help people from a therapeutic standpoint, but I needed my master’s degree. That was not in the plan. I was just grateful after all these years to get my bachelor’s.”

Still, Owens decided to take the leap one more time. She achieved her graduate degree and started off in a position as an in-school therapist, where Owens said she loved the work but did not love the pay.

She worked for the experience and took on other work to supplement her income. Eventually, Owens was offered an adjunct position to teach a class at UNA.

“It was an in-person class in social work,” she said. “You know, now I feel like that was part of the plan for my life, but I didn’t know it at the time. Teaching had never been a dream of mine.”

After her first semester, Owens applied for the position and was accepted on staff full-time. The work still allowed her to pursue her passion for therapy, which she continues to do on a contract basis.

With better pay and a flexible schedule, Owens said she’s also been able to continue her work in her community through BAE. Over the past few years, she’s moderated discussions led by area teachers and students about mental health, bullying and other issues youth face each day.

At this stage in her life when most of her friends and colleagues are starting to slow down and consider options for a path to retirement, Owens feels she’s just getting started.

“You know, the greatest testimony in all this is probably perseverance,” she said. “I never would have thought that I’d be teaching, especially at this very university that I flunked out of years ago. I hear it all the time. Some people think that when they mess up — whether it’s their college experience or another aspect of their life — they think it can never turn around. I’m here to tell you, it can.”