Poverty vs. Self-Sufficiency: A San Diego Grantmakers Member-led Program
The Leichtag Foundation and United Way of San Diego County co-funded the Self-Sufficiency Standard 2014 update and co-sponsored the Center on Policy Initiatives’ recent Making Ends Meet report, which quantifies the harsh financial reality that 38% of San Diego households live on incomes above official poverty measures, but below self-sufficiency.
In May 2014, the Leichtag Foundation and United Way of San Diego County led a free workshop with experts on this subject who provided an overview of the report findings and facilitated a discussion about how to help direct the region’s philanthropic resources to close the gap between income and expenses.
The free workshop provided tools to help with:
- Financial education
- Program evaluation
- Fundraising
- Advocacy
The speakers included:
- Peter Brownell, PhD, Research Director, Center on Policy Initiatives (San Diego)
- Jenny Chung Mejia, Senior Consultant, Insight Center for Community Economic Development (Oakland)
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.