SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A San Antonio nonprofit that helps young adults earn their high school diplomas is struggling to keep up with demand as city budget cuts squeeze funding for community organizations.<\/p>\n
SA Youth President and CEO Maria Benavidez said the organization received only about 10% of the funding needed this fiscal year to operate its SOAR program, short for \u201cSee Our Achievements Rise.\u201d <\/p>\n
The cut comes as city leaders work to address a $158 million deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in survival mode constantly,\u201d Benavidez said.<\/p>\n
The SOAR program was created in 2021 to serve young adults who are disconnected from school and the workforce.<\/p>\n
Benavidez said about 35,000 people ages 16 to 24 in San Antonio fall into that category.<\/p>\n
The program started small. \u201cWe had 10 students our very first class,\u201d Benavidez said.<\/p>\n
Since then, SOAR has grown significantly. <\/p>\n
The program now serves cohorts of 40 students at a time, with 120 students graduating each year with a high school diploma.<\/p>\n
Benavidez said the program is designed to address more than academics. <\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we knew it, we started to create this wonderful, beautiful program that I think is all-encompassing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s comprehensive, it\u2019s robust. We provide case management, mental health services.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program is free for students, but demand has outpaced available resources. <\/p>\n
SA Youth currently has a waitlist of up to 250 people.<\/p>\n
As funding has declined, Benavidez said she has avoided reducing class sizes. <\/p>\n
Instead, the organization has cut staff. <\/p>\n
After federal American Rescue Plan Act funding through the county ran out, SA Youth\u2019s therapy staff was reduced from four full-time therapists to one part-time therapist working with 40 students at a time.<\/p>\n
Benavidez said the organization is looking to private foundations and individual donors to help fill the gap. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe $10 donors, you know, they add up,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n
Despite the financial pressure, Benavidez said SA Youth does not plan to walk away from the students who need support. <\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will find a way because there is a need and these students need us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Interviews for the January cohort are expected to begin in November. <\/p>\n
To join the waitlist, applicants must live in Bexar County, be between 16 and 24 years old, and have left school with at least one high school credit.<\/p>\n
Read also:<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A San Antonio nonprofit that helps young adults earn their high school diplomas is struggling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,70826,3,366227,6999,452,453],"class_list":["post-868409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-ksatkids","tag-news","tag-sa-youth","tag-san-antonio","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}