Juan Sanchez Receives Award for Leadership of Southwest Key

Juan Sanchez, founder and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer for the renowned Austin, Texas-based youth orga­ni­za­tion South­west Key, received an award for best non­prof­it leader dur­ing Austin Busi­ness Journal’s Best CEO awards par­ty on Sep­tem­ber 27.

A pan­el of busi­ness lead­ers capped a months-long eval­u­a­tion process that con­sid­ered orga­ni­za­tions’ rev­enue and com­pa­ny cul­ture. Sanchez was one of six busi­ness and non­prof­it lead­ers recognized.

“Austin is a won­der­ful place,” Sanchez said dur­ing his accep­tance speech. ​“But there are pock­ets in our city, there are areas in our city, that have a lot of chal­lenges and they need some work.”

Sanchez found­ed South­west Key in 1987 in East Austin, one of the city’s poor­est areas. It now has loca­tions in Texas and in five oth­er states, and its pro­grams range from immi­grant shel­ters and res­i­den­tial treat­ment facil­i­ties to alter­na­tives-to-deten­tion and edu­ca­tion pro­grams. Those pro­grams serve more than 6,000 youth and fam­i­lies daily.

“We’re, in essence, try­ing to make kids dreams come true,” Sanchez said. ​“We want these kids to have big dreams for themselves.”