The First 5 Riverside County Children & Families Commission has named Helena Lopez, CEO of A Greater Hope (AGH), as its 2024 Champion for Children based on recommendations by the Advisory Committee.
Under Ms. Lopez’ leadership, more than 6,000 children have found loving homes through AGH since 2002. The organization serves the Inland Empire including Banning. Ms. Lopez strategically opened the Banning location in 2015 to address the deep social and health inequities experienced by populations in living in areas around the San Gorgonio pass.
Ms. Lopez’ work is built on a commitment to advocacy nurtured by her mother, who opened three group homes for teenage foster youth when Helena was still a child. While she grew up to earn her Juris Doctorate from Loyola Marymount University and practice real estate law in the Bay area, it was her long-standing passion to support the child welfare system that brought her to AGH in 2002.
In addition to offering supervised visitation, foster and adoption services through AGH, Ms. Lopez has guided the organization to take the innovative approach in ensuring Black and Biracial youth in the child welfare system receive appropriate hair and skin care. This includes her development of a guide for naturally curly and textured care and planning educational events for staff, foster parents and other caregivers to nurture the unique hair care needs of foster children. She also entered AGH as a partner agency in the First 5 Riverside County Family Resource Center Network.
“At A Greater Hope we ask how can we help the family, and then we ask how can we help the greater community. It is about working together in partnership. We have lots of ideas, and we ask how can we make those real. And if we can’t make those real, how do we work with other partners. I stand with you in this partnership of being an advocate for our youth and our families. Thank you so much to First 5 and Riverside County,” Ms. Lopez said.
As this year’s Champion for Children, $1,000 will be awarded in Ms. Lopez’ name to sponsor a community event of her choice.