ABOUT US

The Focus on Family Foundation was developed in 2014 in memory of Wendell W. Echols a long-time community activist in Del Paso Heights. Mr. Echols was the mentor of founder Jackie Rose. Mr. Echols taught her important lessons about hard work, self-respect and serving others. He was always there to listen and offer encouragement. He was a great teacher and role model to many. He strongly believed in giving back to the community.

The mission of The Focus on Family Foundation is to empower families with the tools needed to build and sustain a self-sufficient quality of life.

During the past 20 years, my life’s commitment has been to improve the quality of life for the families of the Phoenix Park neighborhood.

Phoenix Park was formerly Franklin Villa until 2003,when the name was changed to shed its “history of destruction”. The neighborhood was filled with crime, gang violence, drug activity and their related vices. I remember attending funerals on a weekly basis of young African-American youth. I then made a personal commitment to making sure that the families, especially the children, became educated of a better way of life.

I recall the day that the foundation representatives came to the then Franklin Villa community. I was determined to describe how our community deserved an empowerment center. I knew that they were looking at other sites but I needed to convince them to choose the Franklin Villa site when they initially had another site in mind. I had worked hard to form relationships family by family. I wanted the families to recognize that they could change their lives and their children’s lives if they took advantage of the opportunities that the center had to offer. I explained to them that they just had to make changes in their lives and the empowerment center is helping them to do that. It was also important to me that the families felt valued, a partner in everything we bring to the center.