Investing in People Who Invest in Youth: How Two Foundation Communities Champions Put Their PD Stipends to Work
The morning of last year's Breakfast of Champions, Lenzie Sanchez was navigating a personal matter. She wasn't planning to attend. Her team hadn't told her anything, they just quietly agreed they'd all dress a little nicer than usual. Then her phone started lighting up. Texts. Videos. Congratulations pouring in from colleagues and part-time staff. She was fielding it all from the sidelines, trying to stay present with family while processing what was unfolding without her.
Miles away, Zarek Gomez sat in the audience, still a little unsure why everyone had insisted he show up looking sharp. Then his name appeared on the screen. "I know it's such a vast organization, and so many people are doing such incredible work," he reflected. "People have been doing this much longer than I have. It was really reassuring."
Neither of them expected the recognition. For Lenzie and Zarek, showing up for youth isn't something you do for applause. It's just the job. But that morning, their peers decided it was worth celebrating.
About Foundation Communities
Foundation Communities is a local, homegrown nonprofit providing affordable homes and free on-site support services for thousands of families with children, veterans, seniors, and individuals with disabilities across 31 apartment communities: 28 in Austin and three in North Texas. At the heart of each community are the Learning Centers, the hub for afterschool and summer programs for youth as well as adult ESL classes. By placing education programs right where residents live, Foundation Communities eliminates the barriers of transportation, cost, and childcare, meeting families exactly where they are.
Lenzie Sanchez, Senior Education Programs Manager, and Zarek Gomez, Teen Youth Program Assistant, are both part of that Learning Center team. Lenzie has been building and supporting afterschool programming for years. She was, in fact, a learning center youth herself, growing up at one of the properties she now manages. Zarek joined the team fresh out of high school, hired by Lenzie, and has grown into a frontline staff member known for the deep trust and rapport he builds with the teens in his care.
Recognized at the Breakfast of Champions
Each year, the Learn All The Time (LATT) Network's Breakfast of Champions honors individuals across the out-of-school time field who are making a meaningful difference in their programs, their organizations, and the broader OST community. Nominations are peer-reviewed and scored based on demonstrated impact.
Last year, through generous funding from the Webber Family Foundation, award recipients also received professional development stipends to invest in their own growth (available this year as well). “When we invest in emerging leaders, we not only prepare for the future; we demonstrate a commitment to excellence. Supporting professional development - whether through a class, training, or credential - helps rising talent build skills and confidence to deepen their impact.”
Lenzie received a Manager/Coordinator Champion Award. Zarek received a Frontline Staff Champion Award. Both were nominated by their teammates, a fact that meant as much to them as the awards themselves.
"The work doesn't happen without my staff and doesn't work without the youth," Lenzie reflected. "We're so used to not being recognized in this field. It's a little confusing when you are. But it's also important."
Lenzie: Leading with Language
Lenzie used her Webber Family Foundation stipend to participate in Leadership Austin's Emerge program. A prestigious, competitive leadership development experience that brings together 50 professionals from across Austin's civic, legal, nonprofit, and community sectors. Spots are limited and application-based. She applied, gathered recommendation letters, and earned one of those spots.
The program cost was shared between her organization and her stipend. Without it, Lenzie had planned to fund her own half personally. The stipend made that easier and affirmed that the investment was worth making.
Inside the Emerge cohort, Lenzie found language for things she had long been doing by instinct. "Giving language to leadership, mentorship, and coaching helped me see the divide between those things — how they overlap and how they're separate," she shared. As a manager overseeing multiple learning centers and dozens of staff, that clarity matters. She does more than running programs, she's building people.
That development translated directly into her work. Lenzie, alongside a colleague and her director, was selected to present at the National AfterSchool Association (NAA) Conference in Washington, D.C., bringing their expertise in developing afterschool staff to a national audience at a moment when the OST field is under a particularly important spotlight.
"This is my path," Lenzie said. "Out-of-school time. I was a learning center youth. This is just the continued step of how it develops and deepens."
Zarek: Credentials That Confirm What You Already Know
Zarek used part of his stipend to obtain his Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) license, a credential that formalized hundreds of hours of hands-on experience he had already accumulated working in a nursing home setting. "Sometimes that space invalidates your work if you don't have the credentials," he explained. "Having the credential says: I'm qualified."
His career goals have since continued to evolve. Originally drawn to direct care, Zarek is now focused on understanding the broader healthcare system, how access works, where the gaps are, and how to help people navigate it. He's intentionally saving the remainder of his stipend for something that builds transferable soft skills, investing thoughtfully in a future he's still defining as he approaches college graduation.
In the meantime, the skills he's sharpened at Foundation Communities, including patience, trust-building, rapport, and the ability to teach, are ones he'll carry wherever he goes. "Patience, not as in being tolerant," he clarified, "but understanding that communities are struggling. When youth are upset, it's not directed towards us."
Wherever he lands next, the youth he's worked alongside will have been part of shaping who he becomes.
A Growing Partnership
Foundation Communities has been a LATT Network partner for about four and a half years, and their engagement is only deepening. Lenzie regularly routes her team to LATT's training bank, tip sheets, and sessions, including a recent training on supporting youth with ADHD that Zarek has already begun putting into practice with notable results.
What's next? More staff participation, a new teen STEM program in development, and a team that's increasingly visible across the OST community, not because they're chasing recognition, but because the work speaks for itself.
"Everybody should be looking out for us," Lenzie said with a smile. "We're coming out with a lot more things."
The Breakfast of Champions stipends were never just about one training or one credential. They were about affirming something the field doesn't say often enough: the people doing this work deserve investment, too. And when you invest in people who invest in youth, the impact doesn't stop with them.