Starbucks brews donation, partnership with nonprofit

Felicia Frazar The Seguin Gazette

A group of Starbucks employees served up more than coffee to the a local nonprofit on Tuesday.

Representatives from the Seguin shop presented Guadalupe County Children’s Advocacy Center Executive Director Christy Williams with a $1,000 donation from the Starbucks Foundation.

“It is from Starbucks Corporation, they put aside money to help out the neighborhoods and support the communities,” Starbucks Seguin store manager Andrea Bryan as she presented the donation and a certificate to Williams.

Store managers and baristas have the opportunity to nominate a local nonprofit organization to receive funding from the foundation.

“This is the one I choose,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to help for over a year. I’ve been trying to (make) donations, but with COVID we’ve been kind of struggling. I really wanted to reach out. It is really a big part of the community in what they do. I feel like it is not like something people talk about very often. So really, it’s putting them out there on the map and helping support them.”

The Children’s Advocacy Center received one of about 1,300 grants totaling $2 million that were distributed across the country by the foundation, Bryan said.

“Seguin is such a small community and I’m so glad it was chosen,” she said.

Bryan was passionate about the work the advocacy center does and wants bring about more awareness for the organization.

“I choose this organization because it is a very personal subject,” she said. “I think if I when I was younger and they had organizations like this in my community, things could have been a little bit different. It is so important that children’s voices are heard and that mothers are heard all throughout.”

The Guadalupe County Children’s Advocacy Center offers a safe, comforting place for children to visit and talk about crimes they’ve witnessed or endured, Williams said.

“We provide forensic interviews for children so they can talk to somebody who is trained in speaking to children in a developmentally appropriate way, so they can talk to us about what they’ve seen or heard or felt or experienced,” Williams said. “They can minimize the number of times they have to talk about it by coming in here, talking to somebody like us instead of somebody with a gun and a badge. All of their (the police) questions get answered, but they get to do it in a place like this.”

The center provides many services including counseling for clients, resources for families, education on identifying abuse and prevention for the community, Williams said.

This past year as many businesses and organizations shut down, the advocacy center continued to see clients, however it wasn’t the typical cases they were used to seeing, Williams said.

“Pre-pandemic a majority of our kids were child sexual abuse allegations. During the pandemic it was 9-1-1 generated types of call — broken bones, drug-endangered kids, kids who had witnessed domestic violence and things of that nature really increased,” she said.

There was a brief time where the number of cases declined due to the amount of eyes children had focused on them, but it returned to pre-pandemic levels shortly thereafter, Williams said.

One particular type of case the center sees the most dropped off, with very few if any reports made, which worried Williams and her staff.

“We’re not seeing any sexual abuse cases for a window of time and that was really unnerving for us,” she said. “Because having done this work for as long as we have — we’ve been open since 2004 — that has been what we have seen day in and day out. So not to have those didn’t tell us it wasn’t happening, it told us kids weren’t getting to people who could help them and report that.”

The non-profit is run off donations and grants. With the coronavirus pandemic halting fundraisers, the Children’s Advocacy Center board had to figure out new ways for raising the funds. Organizers came up with Champions For Courageous Children’s campaign with a goal of $100,000 — the amount needed to help keep the center operational.

The campaign fell shy by its deadline, but the non-profits efforts continue, so donations like Starbucks are more than welcome, Williams said.

“When we get community partners to support us and when we get that recognition from them and from their national level partners, it is amazing the work that can be done,” she said. “You just got us $1,000 closer to our end goal which is amazing. That’s how we keep this place going, that is how we are able to provide the services we provide to everybody that comes through the doors.”

The Guadalupe County Children’s Advocacy Center accepts donations of supplies, time and money all year long, Williams said.

Donors who are interested can set up recurring payments or make a one-time donation through the center’s website gccac.net or mail donations to the center at 265 Wetz, Seguin, TX 78155.

The center has a list of supplies and a link to its Amazon wish list on its website, as well as information for those who are interested in volunteering their time.

Volunteers help make a difference at the center, Williams said.

“We desperately need volunteers to come and play with the kids because this place is different without volunteers and I don’t like that kind of different,” she said. “They (are) bringing a calming presence to the building.”

Bryan and her staff were very interested in helping out where they can.

“We’ll get your name out here. We’re affiliated with the San Antonio district, so I can set up something monthly,” Bryan said. “We can get partners to sign up monthly to volunteer. It is so important what you guys do for our community. I just want to get you out there and heard. We’re always here to support you guys, anything you need.”

Felicia Frazar is the managing editor of the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail her at felicia.frazar@seguingazette.com 

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