Founder's Story
Dr. Juan Sánchez grew up in one of the poorest barrios in a South Texas border town where life was full of challenges. Shaped by his experiences as a young migrant worker, he grew up determined to make the most of his life and to access any opportunity to help him achieve his dreams. His tenacity and relentless drive to do something significant ultimately took him to Harvard University, where he was among the first Latinos to receive his doctorate from the School of Education.
Dr. Sánchez returned to his hometown to lead La Esperanza Home for Boys, a residential center for at-risk youth. La Esperanza is now a Southwest Key program. Through this experience he realized that children can’t be treated in isolation; to truly make a difference in their lives, families must be empowered in the process and the impact of poverty and discrimination must be addressed. Dr. Sánchez began developing program models that had not been seen before: they were culturally-specific, they addressed underlying problems, and they were always combined with uncompromising system-reform efforts. He took his models across the country, sought new growth opportunities along the way and Southwest Key was born.
History of Southwest Key Programs
In 1987, Dr. Sánchez and his small team of five set up shop in a basement in San Antonio, Texas. Decades later, that small team has grown to a workforce of over 1,000 and expanded to serve youth in multiple states and cities across the country.
Southwest Key Programs is a nationally accredited nonprofit organization funded primarily by private grants and government contracts. The organization's initial focus was working with adolescents, mostly youth of color, who were involved with the juvenile justice system--still a central component of the Southwest Key's work today. Dr. Sanchez and his team pioneered and replicated "alternatives to incarceration" programs for youth based on their belief that young people are best served in their own communities with the involvement of their families.
In the 1990s, Southwest Key opened shelters for unaccompanied minors: immigrant children who come to this country without a parent or guardian in search of their families and a better life. These programs were created to reunify immigrant children with their families while providing shelter and services in a nurturing and therapeutic environment. Southwest Key is the largest provider of shelter services to unaccompanied minors in the United States and has won numerous awards for leadership in this area.
In 1999, Southwest Key opened its first Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP), schools for students who have not succeeded in traditional school environments. Through the operation of 5 of these schools in counties throughout Texas, Southwest Key has been able to help prevent thousands of students from dropping out of school by providing them with individualized education and counseling.
In partnership with the local Austin community, Southwest Key opened El Centro de Familia in 2007. Southwest Key’s national headquarters is located at this center, along with the East Austin College Prep Academy, a tuition-free charter middle school open to 6-8 graders in 2011. All services at El Centro are coordinated through the East Austin Children's Promise initiative, which provides wraparound programs that support families, rebuild community and provide after-school activities for young people.
Southwest Key Enterprises, Our For-Profit Subsidiaries
In 2007, Southwest Key Programs implemented a new model to help diversify its sources of revenue, generate a sustainable future for the organization and create jobs. Southwest Key Programs formed Southwest Key Enterprises, Inc., a for-profit holding company with a portfolio of several small businesses, including:
• Southwest Key Workforce Development, LLC
• Southwest Key Maintenance, LLC
• Southwest Key Café del Sol, LLC
• Southwest Key Properties, LLC
• Southwest Key Green Energy & Construction, LLC
• Southwest Key Youth & Family Services, LLC
• Youth Transportation Services, LLC
Accreditation and Data Collection
Southwest Key is nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation, which places a demand on our organization to continue to achieve the highest standards of quality in service delivery, operations and governance. Each employee plays a role in ensuring Southwest Key maintains its accreditation by supporting our efforts to collect data and utilize technology.
Guiding Principles
Southwest Key is an organization unique in character, philosophy and spirit. We can only de¬liver services of the highest quality to our clients and their families if our employees are dedicated to caring for our clients and are enthusiastic about our organization. It is our desire to create a successful organization by encouraging individual creativity as well as a commitment to teamwork. We are committed to building a strong, transparent organization serving the needs of our cli¬ents to the best of our abilities. No matter where we do the work, or what kind of work we do, there is a single set of principles we turn to again and again to guide our service delivery and help us make change happen.
• Multicultural Competence: Effective services must be culturally relevant and delivered by persons knowledgeable of cultural, language and ethnic differences.
• Community Based Services: A safe, supportive community is critical to the success of young people. Our services connect youth and their families to their communities and build upon the strengths that exist within the community.
• Strength Based Practices: Our programs build upon the strengths of a young person in order to raise their motivation for treatment and activate their sense of personal responsibility.
• Family Centered Services: Families play a critical role in the treatment process. Treatment is not isolated to youth, but extended to families to enable them to support the youth's growth.
• High Quality Services: We provide the highest quality of service by consistently going above and beyond the requirements of our contracts. Staff members are encouraged to be creative and innovative in order to meet the needs of youth and families.
