family

Denise Perez is barely a teenager, yet her life is already full of adult sized challenges. Every day she watches her mom try to cope with depression, her older sister, a teenager as well, dropped out of high school and is already the mother of two.  She shares a small bedroom with five other family members in a small house in a rough section of San Antonio. There aren’t many people who wouldn’t forgive Denise for giving up hope. But, Erin Mankus is not one of those people. Erin has been Denise’s “Big Sister” for the past six years through Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas.

As the President and Founder of LostNMissing, Inc., Cynthia Caron volunteers 12 hours each day to guide families of missing people as soon as their loved one goes missing. She seamlessly handles all the media, marketing and posting of information. Cynthia works directly with law enforcement, acting as a representative for the families. She also notifies the public of the missing person through the community by social networking. By stepping in and handling the media relations, this allows the families to focus on recovering their loved ones.

Ms. Lailah A. Muwwakkil is the Director and Founder of L’ S O A R the acronym originally stood for Ladies-Striving, Overturning, Achieving, Receiving, Reward because she was originally working with female foster youth via Sacramento County’s Sacramento Assessment Center. When they asked her to also service their young men the acronym L’ S O A R also became known as, Leaders-Striving, Overturning, Achieving, Receiving, Rewarding.