Jesse Chang loves to create things. One of his more recent creations is the educational garden at Marguerita Elementary School, which he started along with members of the community through Catalyst San Gabriel Valley, a non-profit organization that aims to help support youths, families, and schools in the Valley.
Chang is the Executive Director at Catalyst San Gabriel Valley, which he became involved in when it was still Kingdom Causes Alhambra. He grew up on the East Coast, went to college for an art degree, then moved to Los Angeles to attend seminary. Through his work in a local congregation, he felt led to do more in the local community, which ultimately led to taking part in what was then Kingdom Causes Alhambra.
Catalyst SGV is driven by three initiatives tackling family homelessness, healthy relationships training for youth 12-19, and adopting schools who need more support, including designing and creating gardens and greenspace for their campuses. These programs are called HOPE (Homeless and Parent Engagement) Project, Project RISE, and Adopt-a-School, respectively.
The organization does its best to get the community involved, but it isn’t always easy. “We have to be respectful of people’s privacy and confidentiality, so it’s not always easy to just have volunteers show up at an event or meet up,” Chang disclosed.
One of their biggest efforts throughout the year is an annual Thanksgiving food drive, where volunteers gather to make shelf-stable food in ziploc bags to help provide breakfasts and lunches for students who can’t access meals on school campus due to the weeklong break. These meal kits go to benefit students at all AUSD schools.
“Alhambra is where this all started. My predecessor actually created the first collaborative network in Alhambra amongst local congregations, police, and AUSD. Over the last 12 years I had to make it my own and have expanded it beyond Alhambra and expanded our network,” said Chang.
Catalyst SGV started as Kingdom Causes Alhambra in 2005, born from a network of faith leaders in the city who wanted to show their love for Alhambra in practical ways. It manifested as support for underserved youths, families, and schools in the San Gabriel Valley. In 2018, Catalyst SGV became its own separate 501(c)3 non-profit organization, guided by Chang’s understanding of what was needed in the community and his vision for what could be achieved.
“We’re still figuring out how we can get our community to engage tangibly with our work in the community,” Chang said. “Often those most in need remain hidden in our community, and we work to build trust and partnerships with our families and those in our community who want to help.”
In 2023, Catalyst SGV raised over $65,000 with its Back to School fundraiser, donated over 750 HOPE meals to families during the holiday season, supported 106 families with essential needs like housing support and clothing, provided 24 mini-grants to local school teachers for classroom enrichment, started the Marguerita School Garden, and much more.
For this year, Catalyst has three goals: develop staff to serve more youth, families and schools; deepen its community partnerships; and secure new sources of funding.
Chang wants the Alhambra community to know that in addition to Catalyst SGV’s regular initiatives, “We can customize support and involvement as well, so we are open to creative ideas by our wonderful community, so please feel free to reach out.”
