Ep. 20: South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless - Katie Vela, Executive Director

What this episode covers

When Katie Vela ’14 was completing her Master in Public Administration degree at UTSA in 2014, she never thought she would end up leading one of the most impactful non-profits in San Antonio a few years later. In October of 2020, Vela was named executive director of the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH) and launched a movement to end youth homelessness—the #WESAY Movement to House all Youth and young adults. Vela’s path to SARAH wasn’t straightforward. As a student at UTSA, she wasn’t sure what her career path should be. “I knew kind of broadly that I wanted to help the community, but I wasn't sure in what way,” Vela said. She credits the MPA program with connecting her to opportunities she otherwise wouldn’t know about. Vela has worked for SARAH since its founding in 2015. She says the time has flown by and she loves the impactful, meaningful work she gets to be a part of. A rewarding connection between Vela’s work at SARAH and her education at UTSA is that UTSA is a part of SARAH’s stakeholder and planning groups. The university has partnered with SARAH to launch a rapid rehousing program to support youth and young adults with a history of foster care who are pursuing post-secondary education and are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

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