Culturingua receives visit from Duke and Duchess of Sussex

part of Culturingua’s Sewing for Success program, a Welcome Project grantee. The Duke and Duchess were hosted by Nader Mehdawi, Culturingua COO, and Nadia Mavrakis, Culturingua CEO, respectively.

The Welcome Project, a program of the Archewell Foundation, supports the programming provided by Culturingua for women who have recently resettled in San Antonio from Afghanistan. Through Culturingua’s Sewing for Success classes, these women benefit from group gatherings where they develop their sewing skills and build community.

Helping nonprofits make an impact

After moving to San Antonio in 2022, Rebecca White quickly found her niche. With two decades of experience in the nonprofit world, including five years leading her own consulting firm, she immediately started to explore the local nonprofit landscape.

When she learned about SVPSA from Partner Billy Cox, she was captivated.

“At first I thought wow, could this be? Maybe I don’t understand what he’s saying,” she said. “Then I dug into SVPSA and I was just so impressed.”

Helping the homeless one life at a time

As the director of homeless services for Christian Assistance Ministry (CAM), Valerie Salas often feels like Batman putting on his cape.

She leads a team of five assisting one of the city’s most vulnerable and challenging populations: people experiencing chronic homelessness.

Most of them are not candidates for more conventional homeless services due to mental illness, physical disabilities or substance abuse issues. Salas’ team meets them where they are, whether it’s on CAM’s downtown campus or the streets. When they’re ready, CAM will help them with other needs, such as ID recovery, employment, housing, and other support services.

Restoring the lives of young women rescued from sex trafficking

Youth Center of Texas Restoring Lives

Residents of the Youth Center of Texas are in many ways typical young women in their late teens and early twenties. They love music, clothes, doing their hair and nails and making plans for the future.

To look at them, you’d never know they are all survivors of sex trafficking in San Antonio.

They’re now receiving comprehensive care through YCOT, the only residential facility in Bexar County providing support services exclusively to young women aged 18-22 who have experienced sexual exploitation or trafficking.

SVPSA Announces the 2023-2024 Fellowship

Social Venture Partners San Antonio is pleased to announce Class 4 of our Leadership Fellowship, made up of 20 outstanding nonprofit leaders who begin in September. The Fellowship was developed out of conversations with nonprofits to address some of their professional development needs. We designed the day’s content to strengthen nonprofit executive level leaders to round out their skills. The 7 month program, that is held September – March of each year includes 6 full day sessions (we do not meet in December) with dozens of experts from all areas to share their experience and tools for success.

Creating a world-class park in San Antonio

One of the best parts of Shannon Perry’s job is when she sees children leaving a show at the Magik Theater. As soon as they turn to see Yanaguana Garden at Hemisfair, their eyes get bigger, their jaws drop and they start running with joy toward the colorful, vibrant playground next door.  

“That never gets old,” she said. “I love seeing the faces of those kids.”

Supporting moms and families

When Tia Gibson’s younger brother died tragically, she was lost in grief. 
“I didn’t realize how deep-rooted it was. I didn’t know how to deal with it, but I knew I still had my children to take care of,” Gibson said. “I decided I needed to do something that would allow me to feel again and to live out his legacy.”

That’s when she decided to start Monster Moms…

Pairing young people with caring mentors

Gable Crowder learned early on the difference having a positive role model makes in a kid’s life. Growing up in the projects of Baltimore, he was the only kid he knew who had a father at home…

Advancing and engaging people with disabilities

Melanie Cawthon was working with people with intellectual disabilities when she discovered her calling. She saw that while many organizations exist to help people with specific disabilities, a person or their caregiver dealing with multiple disabilities would need to find three, four or more different agencies to get assistance. The city needed a unified community of service providers. That insight … Read More

Making lemonade through Lemonade Circle

Lemonade Circle

Growing up on San Antonio’s East Side, Brandi Coleman treasured the support of teachers and community leaders. As an adult, she wanted to recreate that support for today’s generation of African American girls. That led her to start The Lemonade Circle, a mentorship program serving girls of color in grades 5 through 12.