Annual Report

SAY San Diego partners with youth, adults, families, and communities to reach their full potential.
SAY’s enduring vision is to achieve opportunity, equity, and well-being for all San Diegans.

Message from the CEO and Board President

Dear SAY San Diego Friends and Supporters,

Life now is “so different – more important, more scary” in the words of a mother in one of our programs. So true. As our region re-emerged from the hardships and disruptions of the COVID-19 Pandemic, many families faced escalating everyday costs and elevated levels of family and personal stress. Children fell behind in all aspects of their learning through no fault of their own. Inequities, social isolation, and adverse conditions became more acute. This past year, SAY San Diego not only kept its doors open and stayed responsive and connected to our community, we also expanded our programs and increased our commitments to equity, opportunity, and well-being.

Reuniting: Equity begins when we recognize disparities and work together to remove barriers and increase opportunities for safety, positive health, learning, growth, and life success for each and every child, parent, family, and community member. SAY San Diego unites and uplifts diverse community-based leaders, including youth, parents, residents, neighbors, and partners, to give voice to their ideas and create positive social, educational and health-enhancing change. You will learn about our community leadership initiatives on the following pages, which have raised many diverse voices of our neighbors across San Diego to address their unique needs and concerns and to build a more equitable, responsible, and inclusive community for all.

President and CEO

Restoring: As the headlines sadly tell us, children and teens fell far behind in academic and social learning during the Pandemic. Their lives were turned upside down. Many had to persevere through illness, loss of household income and stability, and being cut-off from school, friends, and developmental activities. On the following pages, you will see the creative ways that SAY San Diego met the socio-emotional, learning and family needs of several thousand children daily. Among many restorative gains, we relaunched in-person early childhood services, before and after school care programs at 42 different sites, and greatly expanded our summer learning programs, serving more than 3,900 students and their families.

Resilience: SAY San Diego was proud to bounce back from COVID-19 shutdowns while expanding many core services, and adding new ones, to meet community needs. We expanded our early home visiting, family strengthening, health navigation, substance abuse prevention, and family resource center services. We began and steadily increased capacity for school-based, on-campus mental health services for students of all ages. We also renewed our San Diego Dads Corps program and expanded participation by more than 300%.

If you are interested in SAY’s work and impact or would like to visit with us, Melanie and I may be reached any time at: nancy@saysandiego.org and 858-715-2410.

Please know that none of SAY San Diego’s impact is possible without you! We are deeply grateful to all who believe in us and who invest in our vision of a brighter future for children, youth, and families. With our warm thanks and very best regards,

Nancy Gannon Hornberger 
President and CEO

Melanie Delgado
President, Board of Directors

SAY SAN DIEGO'S VALUES

Celebrating and advancing equity, diversity and inclusion

Bridging gaps and creating opportunities

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder in partnership

Empowering youth-led, family-led, and community-led solutions

Believing in the integrity of all

Leading with trust and credibility

In 2022, SAY San Diego partnerships and services focused on strengthening the whole child, whole family and whole community, as always. On the following pages, you will learn about a few of the key ways that SAY San Diego continued and broadened its impact as a critical resource for the community, providing services, guidance, voice and better conditions, countywide. The featured initiatives are among the 30+ programs SAY San Diego implements to provide comprehensive resources and stand by its commitments to equity, opportunity, and well-being.

Reuniting and Restoring

SAY ENHANCED THE LIVES OF OVER 30,000 CHILDREN, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS ACROSS SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

In 2022, as San Diego County moved forward from the COVID-19 crisis, SAY San Diego’s programs and initiatives bettered the lives of more than 30,000 children, family members and community members across San Diego County. As an indicator of urgent need, 92% of SAY San Diego’s program participants self-reported incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Given SAY's whole person, whole family, whole community approach, SAY responded to many urgent needs and vulnerabilities across diverse populations.

  • 61% of participants were minors, with the remaining 39% over age 17.
  • 76% of participants self-identified as Black, Indigenous, and/or a Person of Color.
  • Across all participants, more than 20 non-English languages were reported as the primary language spoken in the home.

Over the course of 50+ years, SAY San Diego has served more than 2 million San Diegans.

"We moved here during the pandemic with many of the kid-friendly locations shut down, including libraries and recreation leagues, and [the region] didn’t feel very welcoming, but we always feel welcome here [at SAY’s Military Family Resource Center], and my daughter looks forward to coming every week!"
– Parent Quote

During 2022, SAY’s Child and Youth Development programs reopened sites that closed completely during the COVID-19 shutdowns, reenabling staff to serve children from infancy through grade 8 safely and in person. These programs encompass early childhood services, preschools, and before and after school care at 42 different sites, as well as greatly expanded summer learning programs, serving more than 3,900 students and their families.

SAY served approximately 3,900 youth in need of child care, preschool and before and/or after school care.

Key Partners/Funders

SAY’s robust Child and Youth Development programs are supported with a combination of resources, including state funding received through the San Diego Unified School District, grants from the San Diego Foundation, other private partners, and revenues from the parents/families of children who participate in SAY’s childcare and extended learning programs.

"We LOVE the SAY [before/after school care] staff at Curie [Elementary School]! They are amazing, and my sons enjoy going there!"
– Parent Quote

Resilience

SAY expanded mental health and social-emotional programs for school-aged youth.

Through the work of SAY San Diego staff and student leaders at Canyon Hills High School, more than 1,100 students were educated about mental health stigma and learned about ways to seek support for themselves and their peers, when needed. The group conducted a student survey to identify mental health concerns, before developing educational materials to help teachers better meet their students’ needs. The central event, Flourish: Supporting Each Other & Ourselves, featured an art and video exhibit, a live guest speaker, and a wellness session on healthy coping skills.

Key Partners/Funders:

SAY’s work at Canyon Hills was funded by:

San Diego Unified School District
San Diego Foundation
County of San Diego- Childhood Obesity Initiative
Master Gardener Association of San Diego County
Directing Change

"Thank you for having this event. It really helped to normalize some of the mental health issues I experience."
– Student Quote

SAY San Diego’s new initiative for school-based mental health services, conducted in partnership with San Diego Unified School District schools, has expanded therapeutic services for youth from two high schools and five middle schools to an additional 27 elementary schools. School based services such as these greatly increase access to free, high quality mental health care - for instance, in just four months, recently, 80 youth were enrolled in one-on-one therapy.

Key Partner/Funder:

SAY’s school-based mental health services are carried out in partnership with the San Diego Unified School District.

In another focused effort, over 500 youth from kindergarten through high school benefitted from peer group socio-emotional learning (SEL) activities implemented by SAY San Diego at several local public school sites. SAY’s staff used two modalities: Second Step and Girl’s Circle/Boy’s Council. Second Step is an evidence-based curriculum that was provided to 415 elementary school youth in the classroom to build empathy and healthy peer relationships. Alternatively, a smaller, more intimate group experience was employed with nine Girl's Circle groups and six Boy’s Council groups. Each group met for eight weeks, engaging a total of 126 youth of various ages in learning about targeted SEL topics to build a foundation for social-emotional health at a key time in life.

Key Partners/Funders:

SAY’s school-based Family Resource Center/Healthy Start programs are funded by:

San Diego Unified School District
San Diego Foundation
County of San Diego - Childhood Obesity Initiative
Prevent Child Abuse California, California Family Resource Association

"The amount of support that SAY has provided lifted a weight off me. [My case manager] has been a pillar of light, helping me see I am not alone and easing my feeling of hopelessness. All her help motivated me to now do my part to take action in my life. Honestly, the reason I have been insistent on keeping my kids at Field [Elementary School] is because of SAY."
– Parent Quote

Responding

SAY amplified prevention and advocacy to combat substance abuse.

Health Advocacy

The teen vaping crisis is still top-of-mind. Through the work of the San Diego Smoke-Free Project, convened and facilitated by SAY San Diego and many like-minded community partners, multiple seminars and webinars were delivered to San Diego City Council members and staff underscoring the dangers of vaping and flavored tobacco for youth in particular. These educational and advocacy efforts informed the passage of the Stop Adolescent Addiction to Flavored E-Cigarettes (SAAFE) Act by a 7-2 vote! SAY is proud to have played a part in enacting new laws to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco, saving countless teens from the dangers of early addiction.

Key Partner/Funder:

The San Diego Smoke-Free Project is primarily funded by the California Department of Public Health, Tobacco Control Branch.

SAY is proud to have played a part in enacting new laws to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco, saving countless teens from the dangers of early addiction.

Youth Public Health Advocacy and Partnerships

With SAY’s help, freshmen at Clairemont High School learned about the gateway effects of drug use through a recently launched curriculum entitled Sugar to Heroin. The North City Prevention Coalition (NCPC), convened by SAY San Diego, organized a series of expert speakers and student resources. The program culminated by featuring 70 student poster presentations where students highlighted what they had learned. The event garnered significant news media coverage, and the top projects were exhibited at the San Diego Unified School District’s Annual Career Technical Showcase. The Sugar to Heroin program also earned the Outstanding Prevention Program Award at the 2022 DEA Red Ribbon Awards Ceremony!

Key Partner/Funder:

North City Prevention Coalition (NCPC) – a main feature of SAY’s alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention work – is funded by County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services.

SAY San Diego secured five community partnerships to help spread the message of the dangers of smoking and vaping, thanks to The Collective, a youth coalition that advocates for LGBTQ+ substance use prevention, facilitated by SAY staff. By partnering with the San Diego LGBT Community Center, TransFamily Support Services, San Diego LGBTQ+ Latine Coalition, North County LGBTQ Resource Center, and San Diego Pride, The Collective reached an estimated 900 people across 12 events last year.

Key Partner/Funder:

The Collective, convened by SAY San Diego, is funded by California Department of Public Health, Tobacco Control Branch.

"The Collective is a powerhouse. We support movements that help protect those of us who are more vulnerable, and we provide a safe arena to find and understand resources and make meaningful connections. The community building we've been doing has been incredibly impactful. I've met countless resilient, strong, beautiful people who form a community that feels like home."
– Youth Advocate Quote

Responding with Urgency

"Thank you for the Narcan. We used it in the center once, and I know of at least 4 or 5 of our youth that we gave the Narcan to, who used it on the streets to save someone."
– Community Partner Quote

With opioid overdoses and fentanyl poisoning on the rise locally, SAY took quick action to respond with urgency by training educators, parents and other members of the community about how to spot potential risks and identify fentanyl poisoning before it's too late. The training included instructions on how to use a lifesaving Naxalone (Narcan®) kit as a risk-free intervention. SAY’s Central Region Prevention Coalition received and distributed more than 280 Narcan® kits in partnership with the State of California - Health and Human Services Agency.

Key Partner/Funder:

The Central Region Prevention Coalition – a main feature of SAY’s alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention work - is primarily funded by County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services.

Reaching

SAY increased direct distribution of resources to ensure greater positive impact on those in vulnerable circumstances.

SAY San Diego’s Economic Empowerment program enables people to gain greater financial security. In 2022, SAY grew the program through a special partnership with Your Safe Place–A Family Justice Center. Here, SAY began to provide free financial education to victims of domestic and family violence, elder abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. Overall, 88% of participants completed education modules and activities with survey results showing improved savings management and overall financial well-being.

Key Partner/Funder:

SAY’s Economic Empowerment program is primarily funded by California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention.

SAY San Diego renewed and expanded its San Diego Dads Corps program in 2022 with a focus on parenting skills, healthy relationships, and financial support for nearly 200 fathers. SAY engaged residents of The Lighthouse Community, a drug rehabilitation facility and treatment center, providing these fathers with guidance and hope during a pivotal time. Participating fathers were offered parenting education, skill-building, employment resources, and more. More than 70% of participants graduated from the program and many reported increased confidence and skills related to parenting, improved communication and respect for their partners and/or co-parents of their children, as well as spending more quality time with their children.

“Programs like Dads Corps helped me keep my child and get me to a stable place [to live], and I’m grateful.”     - Parent Quote

Key Partner/Funder:

SAY’s Dads Corps program is primarily funded by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

SAY San Diego delivered direct financial assistance to families to enable them to overcome financial obstacles and offset expenses such as rent, groceries, transportation, and other day-to-day necessities. These disbursements were typically a few hundred dollars each in one-time emergency assistance to help families through a tough time, or a temporary hardship. In many cases, this assistance helped avert deeper crises, including hunger and homelessness. The after-effects of the COVID-19 crisis are still profoundly felt by many families struggling to return to a new form of “life as usual” and SAY San Diego is here to lend a hand. 

Key Partners/Funders:

Thanks to the Hervey Family Fund at San Diego Foundation, Rice Family Foundation, PwC Charitable Foundation, and San Diego Chinese Women’s Association.

"I recently  got a 60-day notice to move because my landlord sold the property. SAY San Diego provided me with assistance with my deposit to move into a new place and on Christmas with gift cards for presents for the kids. Now that's awesome! I appreciate all the help, and I'm so very grateful to have this opportunity."
– Parent Quote

Financials

Funders & Donors

Thank you to all our partners.

$1 Million or More

County of San Diego

  • Behavioral Health Services 
  • Child Welfare Services 
  • Childhood Obesity Initiative  
  • Community Action Partnership 
  • Office of the District Attorney 
  • Probation Department 

First 5 Commission of San Diego

San Diego Unified School District

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

  • Administration for Children and Families 
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 

$250,000 – $999,999

San Diego Foundation

Sierra Health Foundation

State of California

  • Office of Health Equity, Department of Public Health
  • Tobacco Control Branch, Department of Public Health
  • Office of Child Abuse Prevention, Department of Social Services

$100,000 – $249,999

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Prevent Child Abuse California, California Family Resource Association

$35,000 – $99,999

Price Philanthropies Foundation

United Healthcare

Walter J. and Betty C. Zable Foundation

$10,000 – $34,999

Alliance Healthcare Foundation

K. Andrew Achterkirchen

Health Net

The Hervey Family Fund at San Diego Foundation

Northrop Grumman

The Patriots Connection Fund at Rancho Santa Fe Foundation

The PwC Charitable Foundation

The Rauch Family Foundation

Rice Family Foundation

Ron & Guadalupe Cohn Family Foundation

$1,000 – $9,999

AARP
Accriva Diagnostics, Inc.
Aetna Foundation
Aldrich CPAs and Advisors LLP
Alliant Educational Foundation
Andrew Puricelli
Anonymous Donor Advised Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Aryaka Networks Inc.
Avalon Bay Communities
Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies
BOKS Reebok Foundation
Callan Capital
Carole & Jerry Turk
Dave Kern
The Dhokia Family
Directing Change
Dr. Seuss Foundation at San Diego Foundation
Eric & Susan Ehrenfeld
Futures Unbound
Illumina, Inc.
James Carter
Jeffrey McCulloch
Jeremy Simmons
Jessica Stanek
Kaiser Permanente
Konnie Dadmun
Laird Norton Family Foundation
Marsh McLennan Agency
Michael Ehrenfeld Company
Nancy & Steve Hornberger
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
San Diego Gas & Electric
Sara Hyzer
Sharp Health Plan
Sibus Law Group, APC
Theresa Carter
Trisha Monteleon
USE Credit Union
Wayne Stromberg
Western Alliance Community Foundation
WD-40 Company Foundation at San Diego Foundation

Funded Collaborative Partnerships

Partners4Wellness
San Diego Wellness Collaborative
SBCS
Vista Community Clinic

Above is a partial list of contributors that includes those who provided gifts, grants, contracts and funded partnerships of $1,000 or more to SAY San Diego between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.

Board of Directors

Melanie Delgado, President
Children’s Advocacy Institute

LaDreda Lewis, Immediate Past President
Francis Parker School

Theresa Carter, 1st Vice President
Community Member

Sara Hyzer, 2nd Vice President
WD-40 Company

Anila Dhokia, Treasurer
Illumina, Inc.

Dhalia Balmir, Secretary
Balmir Inclusive

David Kern, Board Member
WD-40 Company

Allen Maxwell, Board Member
Omni2Max

Trisha Monteleon, Board Member
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Linda Newell, Board Member
Soroptimist International of La Mesa

Barbara Ryan, Board Member
Rady Children’s Hospital of San Diego (retired)

Janie Wardlow, Board Member
San Diego Unified School District, Elementary School Principal (retired)

Nancy Gannon Hornberger, CEO
SAY San Diego

Ways to Support SAY San Diego

Ways To Support SAY San Diego

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PARTNERSHIPS

  • Talk to your company’s CSR representative about aligning SAY San Diego with your professional community for service projects and giving.
  • Generous corporate partners support SAY San Diego with grants, fundraising events, in-kind donation drives, and volunteering to share their time and talents.

GIVE!

  • Every contribution enables SAY San Diego to positively impact the community through direct services, prevention, advocacy, and outreach.
  • There are many ways to give, including grants, corporate and individual giving, employer match programs, and legacy gifts.
  • Donate Now!

Raise Awareness & Advocate

  • Spread the word about SAY San Diego’s programs and impact.
  • Join SAY San Diego on its mission to collaborate with local communities.
  • Follow and share SAY San Diego on social media.

For more information, please email: development@saysandiego.org