In 2015, Alma Velez worked full-time as a medical assistant at a doctor’s office. She was done raising her two children, a son and a daughter, who were now adults. Her plan was to sell her Austin home and move in with her elderly parents so she could help care for them.
That plan abruptly changed and illustrated why she is called “The Fixer.”
On July 3, 2015 she received a 1 a.m. phone call from her brother. He told her that she needed to go rescue his six grandchildren. The children’s mother was experiencing a crisis and was no longer capable of caring for them. In the middle of the night, Velez borrowed a seven-passenger van and rushed over to pick up the children. She was able to take three of them home with her that night, and the other three came to live with her two weeks later. The kids were 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 years old.
“All I thought about was the safety of the kids,” Velez said. “My main concern was that they needed safety and needed to know that they were going to be ok. They needed to know that I wasn’t going to leave them.”
Velez also wanted to do everything she could to make sure that the siblings did not get separated from each other.
“I would never want to see my nieces and nephew get split up because once you get into the system that’s what normally happens,” Velez said.
From that night forward, Velez has been the caretaker of those kids. She served as their foster parent, then licensed foster parent and finally became their legal guardian in 2021. Valez is their great aunt and they call her NaNa.
“It was amazing to get to know each one of them and to learn what they enjoy and what they want to do. I was just so open to all of it.” she said.
Immediately after taking the kids in, Velez realized that she would need to find an after-school program for them to attend while she was still at work. She did her research and discovered By the Hand Club for Kids, the faith-based after-school program strategically situated in one of the city’s most under-resourced communities. The organization serves more than 1,700 kids from Cabrini-Green, Altgeld-Murray, Austin, North Austin and Englewood. At the club, students eat dinner, attend bible study, get homework and reading help and participate in enrichment activities.
“When I found By the Hand I was like, ‘this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’” Velez said. “By the Hand helped with opening them up, making them feel that they were safe and letting them know that they could trust again. It gave these kids hope. They started to believe that anything was possible.”
In 2019, after four years of watching the kids grow and thrive at By the Hand, Velez decided that she wanted to get more involved with the organization. She was eager to leave the medical field and pursue her true passion: working with children. After attending a By the Hand career fair and submitting an application, Velez was hired as a front desk coordinator at the club’s Moving Everest Austin location – the same location where the kids attended the after-school program.
She eventually was promoted to the role of team leader and then cohort liaison. When By the Hand opened its newest site in North Austin in April 2023, Velez became that location’s cultural communication manager. Although the kids at the club know her as Ms. Alma, she’s widely known in the club’s community by her nickname: “The Fixer.”
In her role, Velez helps local families with an array of services so their children can focus on what matters most: academic achievements.
“My job is to know my community, know where I can get the resources and send them out to the resources,” Velez said.
On any given day, she can be found helping a single mom find an affordable apartment, tracking down winter boots for a student in need, connecting families to local food pantries, helping families move into their first homes, translating a bill or doctor’s notes for a parent — and so many other services that are beyond the traditional scope of an after-school program.
“The family unit is core to the Latino culture, so it is impossible for us to help students thrive academically and spiritually without making sure their families at home are thriving too,” Valez said. “By The Hand represents safety and opportunity for so many families, and I’m blessed to help them on their path, just as By The Hand helped me on mine.”
In April 2024, Velez was the recipient of The By The Hand Club Power of One award, which recognizes the power that one person has to change lives that create a ripple effect of good to change this world and eternity.
Yasenia Roman, site director at By the Hand’s North Austin site, said she first met Velez in 2015, after she became a foster parent and enrolled her kids in the after-school program. Roman was working at the club’s Moving Everest/Austin location at the time.
“She has got a heart of a hero,” Roman said. “She’s definitely one who rescues – and that’s what she did for those kids. She is the kind of person who wants people to feel safe and loved.”
Roman said that Velez serves as a support system for the parents in her current role as cultural communication manager.
“There is no task she will say no to,” Roman said. “She will figure it out and make it happen. That’s why she’s able to fix anything. She’s very hands on.”
Today, Velez’s children are thriving. Khovya, the eldest, is 20 and attending Texas A&M University-Commerce. Chakola, who is wrapping up 9th grade, was the class salutatorian at Moving Everest and attends Culver Girls Academy in Indiana, partially paid for by the coveted Daniel Murphy Scholarship. Dame’nique is an 8th grader at Moving Everest, valedictorian of her class, and has also earned the Daniel Murphy Scholarship. She will be attending Culver Girls Academy in Indiana in the fall alongside her sister. The other children are equally driven and continue to excel at By The Hand.
“I truly believe it was God’s plan that they landed with me,” Velez said. “My love for the children is unconditional. I knew that I was probably going to go through some struggles but I didn’t give up. I stood strong and this is the outcome of it.”