Westchester resident Jess Echeverry is using her story and her deep compassion for people that are suffering to run her nonprofit SOFESA. For more than 20 years, Echeverry has helped people and families experiencing homelessness gain hope and services so they can begin making powerful choices about their future.
As the homeless crisis has continued to grow in L.A., Echeverry has been hard at work researching, learning from other programs and visiting cities across the country to create a better model of care for the community she serves. She believes building relationships, education and empowering communities is key to creating change.
This month, SOFESA will launch its first major donor campaign and Echeverry is eager to connect with local groups to share her nonprofit’s mission via webinars and speaking engagements.
Read below to learn more about Echeverry and SOFESA in this month’s nonprofit Q&A!
Q. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
A. I was born and raised in South Florida. I experienced seven years of homelessness, including being in group homes, shelters, other people’s houses and a drug/prostitution house. I had three children during that time, but only had custody of one of them. Dirt poor and surviving as a single mom on welfare, I met my husband, and he became for me the healthy, stable relationship I needed to heal and make different decisions for myself.
My husband was offered a job transfer, and we moved to Los Angeles in 1999. We rented apartments in Santa Monica and West L.A., but we finally found our permanent home here in Westchester in 2002. My husband and I have five children total: two adults out in the world, two young adults still living at home and one beautiful soul in heaven. My husband began his sales and marketing career as a copier salesman. He has worked for AOL, Disney, Univision and others, but in 2014 he began his own strategic consulting firm (blackbrown.us) that helps businesses understand and value minority voices and interests in the consumer marketplace. I have been a stay-at-home wife and mother, who also home schools. I started a small group of volunteers going out and befriending the homeless almost as soon as we landed in California in 1999. Our group was originally called Sore Feet Saviors.
Q. Your organization is now called SOFESA. What can you share about your nonprofit and its mission?
A. Our small volunteer group grew and eventually, many people wanted to help us by donating items for us to distribute to our friends on the streets. In 2006, we encountered a homeless mother and her 9-month-old baby living in the alley of a local hotel. When we heard her story, we felt so moved to help her and others like her that we decided to formalize and apply for nonprofit status. It was at that time that the board decided to take the first two letters of our original name and create a new name for this new mission: SoFeSa. We started by throwing a Christmas party for the handful of families we learned about through this mother’s story. Our goal has always been to provide moments for our families to escape “survival mode” and feel loved and cared for, even if just for a moment.
What differentiates SOFESA from other nonprofits is our foundational principles and model of care. SOFESA’s foundational principle is one: humans are sacred. At the center of homelessness is a person, not a house and people deserve dignity and healing. They are not problems to be solved. Everything we do and say is found within this principle–the person first. Two: relationships are vital. We encounter people where they are, and we journey in relationship with them. We are genuinely interested in who the person is and being a healthy relationship for them that they can trust and rely on. Three: you’re the answer. We believe that every single person is touched or impacted by homelessness. We also believe that the two most important voices in homelessness are the housed and the unhoused–everyone living in the local community. But the voices we hear most are from the media and government. SOFESA believes that every voice in the local community is important and should be valued and heard. There is a huge disconnect between the housed and the unhoused. SOFESA helps to create what we call the “middle ground,” a safe place for everyone in the community to connect to help improve the community for all who live there.
Q. In your opinion, what is something most people would be surprised to learn about homelessness?
A. The lived experiences of those suffering. Learning about how the person got to where they are in order to help them and allow them to help you. Then there’s the numbers. The true numbers that reflect the experiences of homeless people. I know that when we give our webinar, people are shocked at the data and the truth about the homeless. No, they are not all mentally disordered, or drug addicted. No, they do not want to be where they are. As a local community, we need much better education on the lived experiences of those suffering homelessness, but also of those who have healed as well.
Q. What are some of the challenges you face running a volunteer nonprofit?
A. For 24 years, we have been 100 percent volunteer-run. No one, not even I, has ever taken a salary. But the need for our model of care and what SOFESA has to offer is so great now, that we have hired people to help us grow and expand our services. We now have a Mission Coordinator, Property Manager and Family Advocates. Our Family Advocates are people who have experienced homelessness and are ready to give back to others. They engage and encounter other families in need.
Q. What is the most rewarding part of running SOFESA?
A. The most rewarding aspect for me personally with SOFESA is meeting the new families. Embracing them with unconditional love and support and watching, over time, their true healing. It is the relationship for me, always has been.
Our success isn’t measured on paper. Our success is measured in the hearts of the people we encounter and walk with.
Q. What are some of your goals for this year?
A. We are kicking off our first major donor campaign this month. We run solely on grants and donations. We have one property so far housing families. We want to build out two more units for families in need of permanent housing.
We are also raising funds to keep our Emergency Outreach Program up and running for families in critical need that are literally on the street. We provide motel nights, food, clothing, bill payments and gas to help stabilize them so our relationship with them can begin. We then make sure they are fully connected and receiving all of the aid and resources they can get.
Q. How can the Westchester/Playa community support your efforts?
A. There are many ways to support our efforts: join our webinars, learn about the lived experiences of the homeless. Donate funds so we can build more housing for our families. Donate land/property. We are looking for single-family residential lots to permanently house families. Volunteer at our events. Share our social channels with your following and friends.
Learn more at sofesa.org.
Photo: SOFESA founder, Jess Echeverry, poses in Westchester Park.
Photo by Robert Higgins.
