Agency update: SA Youth

August 12, 2023

The Covid pandemic hit low-income young women of color hard in San Antonio. Many dropped out of high school to care for their young children after childcare services became expensive and hard to find.

SA Youth’s new Mujeres de SOAR! Program is working with young women to help them get a high school diploma and create a better life for themselves and their children. An $11,000 Support Grant from Impact San Antonio last year helped fund the startup.

SA Youth already had a coed SOAR! (See Our Achievements Rise!) program, which was established in 2020 with 10 students. But as the number of female students increased during Covid, the agency saw the need for a program tailored to the needs of young women, said Maria Benevidez, SOAR! program director.

“We were finding ourselves turning students away because we just did not have the capacity to serve them,” she said. “The majority of the students being placed on the waitlist were female students who left their traditional high schools due to Covid. That led us to seek additional funding not just for an additional cohort, but one that served the highest need population, which was and continues to be females ages 16-24.”

So far, Mujeres de SOAR! has served 50 young women, with 15 graduates this past May. Another 30 are expected to graduate in September.

Students work toward their high school diploma via online classes. They also receive support through academic coaching; connecting them with health care providers; bus passes if needed; and food, clothing and childcare for their youngsters. In addition, students are offered help with enrolling in college, enlisting in the military or securing employment.

The City of San Antonio reported last year that about 75,000 people ages 16-24 were unemployed and not in school. That is twice the number in 2020, and half of those are young women, Benavidez noted.

She praises those who have entered the program or are on the waiting list to do so.

“These students have made the choice to get their lives back on track, to earn a diploma, to secure employment for a living wage, and to access community resources for their physical and mental health,” she said.

The Impact SA Support Grant, along with major funding from Methodist Healthcare Ministries, enabled SA Youth to hire two educators to launch Mujeres de SOAR!, she said. Plans are to expand the program in the future.

Maddy, the Mujeres First Spirit to SOAR! award recipient, praises the program for what it has done for her.

“Never in a million years did I think I would be here,” she said. “Younger me would be so proud. The staff here believed in me on the days I wanted to give up. They gave me a second chance when nobody else wanted to.