Nonprofit Spotlight : SA Hope
SA Hope Center
Megan Legacy, CEO
What is your role at your organization, and what does it entail?
I have had the honor of serving as CEO for ten years. I oversee the leadership of an incredible team, collaborate with a passionate and highly skilled board, and get to introduce our wonderful donor community to the mission of SA Hope Center. I see my role as CEO as the chief steward, the chief visionary, the chief of healthy organizational relationships, and often the chief of making hard decisions! A nonprofit CEO role is tough but very rewarding.
Describe your organization’s mission in your own words.
The SA Hope Center helps people in our community who are facing homelessness, joblessness, or struggling with any crisis in their lives that is causing them to experience food insecurity or poverty. We help them meet their emergency needs to address the immediate crisis with services such as food and housing assistance. But we take it a step further to help our clients identify and address the root causes of poverty by walking with them one-on-one with a team of social workers. We also provide wrap-around services and programs such as job training, financial literacy, parenting classes, spiritual services, and senior services, to name a few.
What is a common misconception about your organization or the mission you serve?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that people experiencing poverty could overcome their situation through a “bootstrap” mentality. The roots of poverty are complex. Systemic issues, trauma, lack of adequate or affordable childcare and transportation, and many other factors lead to generational poverty and must be solved with complex, multi-faceted solutions. For example, a single mom of two experiencing poverty must earn about $25 an hour in a full-time job to earn a living wage. If she has a GED, imagine how hard it would be for her to find a job at that rate. To further complicate things, the minute she begins earning around $12.50 an hour, she loses most of her supplemental benefits such as childcare and housing vouchers. She is likely taking the bus 1.5 hours twice a day. And when she does receive a paycheck, if she doesn’t have a bank, she is paying a $30 fee to cash it. Overcoming this is very difficult and requires a complex system of care.
What does $100 support when giving to your organization?
$100 supports an entire family for a month. This includes a dedicated social worker “mentor” to walk with the family, high-quality food assistance, and wrap-around services to meet their needs, such as parenting or job training classes. Most families receive 5 or 6 different services every month. $100 provides a huge support network to a family who is working to get out of poverty on a long-term basis!
What is an upcoming way to get involved with your organization?
Consider volunteering, touring to learn more, donating, or coming to an upcoming event! Information about getting involved is on our website at www.sahopecenter.org. Please help us combat poverty in San Antonio!
