I love these people! Come learn about Street Outreach and how you can get involved. When I did my Lenten Journey in 2012 (www.40daysofhaven.com) I thought I learned a lot about homelessness. However, these amazing women teach me so much more about the importance of compassion and empathy when working with our street friends. Watch the video below and check out this article about Morgan & Valerie.
“Humanizing Homelessness” Pub Theology with SA Street Outreach Leaders Valerie Salas, Morgan Handley.The main goal of street outreach specialists is to offer compassionate care to unhoused and marginalized neighbors while providing them with preventive services, programing and case management. Come learn more about the new ways San Antonio is approaching street outreach and how you can get involved in creating the common good.Pub Theology is a dialogue group that meets to discuss faith, our community and creating the common good. All perspectives welcome. Hosted by Pastor Gavin Rogers and other community leaders.
Morgan Handley is the Associate Director & Street Outreach Specialist at Corazon San Antonio. She is a graduate of UTSA and has previously served with Centro San Antonio in downtown.
Valerie Salas is the Director of Homeless Services at @Christian Assistance Ministry and has previously worked with Haven for Hope and Centro downtown.
Pub Theology is a weekly interfaith dialogue group that talks about faith, our community and creating the common good.
About Megan & SA Hope Center: Megan Legacy is the CEO of the SA Hope Center. The SA Hope Center is a non-profit whose mission is to love people well by empowering them to meet their needs. Born and raised in Colorado, she began her career in Washington, DC, where she worked for the US Senate and then later for a government relations firm. In 2009, Megan moved to San Antonio and worked for three years as the Development Director for Haven for Hope, one of the country’s largest homeless organizations in the US. Megan has been with the SA Hope Center since 2012.
The SA Hope Center’s mission is to love people well by empowering them to meet their own needs. The SA Hope Center helps individuals and families break the cycle of poverty by addressing their individual barriers and helping them achieve their own goals by building on their strengths. Services include mentoring (case management), job readiness, health and wellness classes, senior services, financial literacy, nutrition, AA, parenting classes, anger management, client-choice food pantry, parenting classes, clothing, pastoral counseling, adult spiritual services, and more!
About Katie and SARAH: Katie Vela, San Antonio native and dedicated nonprofit leader, has served as a director at SARAH since its inception as a standalone agency in 2015. Vela has vast knowledge and experience working across complex systems with diverse stakeholders to enact systems change. Serving as the Director of Operations has prepared Vela to transition into this role, as SARAH continues to grow and expand its impact on our community.
In 2015, the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH) was designated as the lead Continuum of Care (CoC) agency for San Antonio and Bexar County. The SARAH alliance of service providers, board of directors, and people with lived experience of homelessness guide community-wide planning efforts, strategically allocate resources and drive change to provide supportive housing to all. Our goal is to ensure everyone has a place to call home.
About Corazon Ministries: Mark Stoeltje is the new Executive Director for Corazon Ministries. Before coming to Corazon, Mark was the Founder and Executive Director of the SA Clubhouse.Founded in 1999, Corazon Ministries, Inc. (C.M.I.) operates in the heart of downtown San Antonio at Travis Park Church serving our homeless and marginalized neighbors by providing hot meals four times per week, clothing, warm showers, hygiene items, access to primary medical care, optometry and dermatology care, barber haircuts, art therapy, recovery and prayer groups, and Bible study. We serve over 27,000 hot, nutritious meals per year and rely on over 75 enthusiastic volunteers each week to provide unconditional love and life-giving support to our neighbors.
About Endeavors: Juliana Barnes is the Veteran Supportive Services Case Manager at Endeavors San Antonio. Endeavors® is a San Antonio nonprofit that connects vulnerable populations to a wide range of helpful services. Endeavors passionately serves vulnerable people in crisis through our innovative, personalized approach.
Endeavors seeks to provide comprehensive, effective, and innovative services that encourage growth, allowing people to build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. Why? Because we believe that everyone holds the capacity to grow, heal, change, succeed, and affect others positively. Endeavors restores dignity and improves the quality of life for the vulnerable people we serve through the benefits of our programs. Endeavors seeks to unify families and communities torn apart by poverty, unemployment, or neglect by providing real, practical solutions and a path to earned income. Endeavors does this through a wide array of programs and services supporting children, families, veterans and those struggling with mental illness and other significant disabilities.
This week we will have a conversation with COPS/Metro, SA Clergy, and San Antonio District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia, PhD about the upcoming city ballot, Proposition B and how local parishes can get involved with local government and the issues directly effecting local communities.Pub Theology San Antonio is a dialogue group that discusses faith, our community and creating the common good. Bekah Stolhandske McNeel hosting. About our guests:COPS/Metro is a coalition of congregations, schools, and unions coming together so that we can effectively act on behalf of families. COPS/Metro works within each of these institutions to identify a diverse, broad-based leadership that can connect to each other in new ways in order to act effectively on behalf of children, families, and neighborhoods. By learning to work together for the public good, COPS/Metro leaders are able to work with the business community and elected officials to make San Antonio a better place for families.As important as the issues that COPS/Metro address are, the relationships that leaders develop and foster within their institutions and among leaders from the racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse institutions that comprise these organizations are the foundation of broad-based community organizing.
“Badass Women of San Antonio” With Sheryl Sculley and guest host Iris Dimmick from the San Antonio Report. This is part one of a new Pub Theology series highlighting badass women in San Antonio who strive to make our city a better place to live. This week we will discuss the life and career of Sheryl Scully and her influence in our city.
We talked about Sheryl’s new book, the women who influenced her career, her and Iris’ time with Fiesta Cornyation, the City of San Antonio – Municipal Government, and had surprise guests! Pub Theology is a weekly dialogue group that meets to talk about things like faith, our community and creating the common good. All Perspectives are welcome. “Different Brews and Different Views” Hosted by Pastor Gavin Rogers and Bekah McNeel. Please go to our facebook page to learn more about Pub Theology San Antonio or watch past events.
Our next “Badass” series will host women in our community share about ‘Women’s Rights and Birth Justice.” hosted by Bekah Stolhandske McNeel and Erika Stiner next monthAbout this week:
More About this week’s guest: When Sheryl Sculley was recruited to serve as San Antonio’s new city manager in 2005, the organization she inherited was a disorganized mess. City infrastructure was crumbling, strong financial policies and systems were nonexistent, many executive positions were vacant, public satisfaction was low, ethical standards were weak, and public safety union salaries and benefits were outpacing revenues, crowding out other essential city services. Simply put: San Antonio was on the verge of collapse.
Sheryl Sculley is an award-winning city manager who is considered an authority on city management. She gained national attention for dealing with unsustainable benefits for San Antonio’s police and fire unions—and in doing so, steered the city away from a future financial crisis. During her tenure, San Antonio achieved a AAA bond rating and invested billions of dollars into critical infrastructure updates and additions. Prior to serving in San Antonio, Sculley was the assistant city manager in Phoenix and city manager of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Here is our latest Pub Theology with Dr. Simran Jeet Singh. For more information about Pub Theology Online please go to our Facebook Page.
A much needed conversation with Dr. Simran Jeet Singh about having a loving response during times of racialization, misidentification, and hate. We will discuss his new book “Fauja Singh Keeps Going: A True Story of the Oldest Person to Ever Run a Marathon” and how that story can teach us all about dreams, dedication and a beloved communtiy. Thank you to Mayor Ron Nirenberg, G.P and Mummy Singh, and all of our guests who made it a special night.
Pub Theology is hosted by Pastor Gavin Rogers and special host Erika Stiner. Pub Theology is a weekly dialogue group that talks about faith, our community, and creating the common good. “Different Brews and Different Views” All perspectives welcome. #pubtheology #compassion
Simran is a prolific writer and professor who contributes frequently to various news outlets and digital platforms. He has become a consistent expert for reporters and news outlets around the world in television, radio, and print media. Dr. Singh also serves on the board for the Religion Newswriters Association, the premiere organization for religion journalists in the country.
Simran’s academic expertise focuses on the history of religious communities in South Asia, and he has taught at Columbia University and Trinity University on Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, and Sikh traditions. Simran’s recent scholarship and public engagement examines xenophobia, racial profiling and hate violence in post 9/11 America. He is currently working on two books for publication – one explores the intersections of race and religion in modern Islamophobia, and the other historicizes the formation of the Sikh tradition around the earliest memories of its founder, Guru Nanak.
In addition to his academic and media commitments, Simran speaks regularly on a variety of topics related to diversity, inclusion, civil rights, religion, and hate violence. His thought leadership extends to a number of audiences, including educational institutions, religious communities, and public venues like the White House and Pentagon.
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Simran is a diehard Spurs fan and avid marathon runner. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Manhattan, New York, where his wife, Dr. Gunisha Kaur, teaches and works as an anesthesiologist specializing in global health at Weill Cornell Medical College.
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