Hannah Dowd knew she wanted to work with children however, the career she has now is not

what she originally envisioned.

At first, Dowd went to college to become a teacher but during her first internship at a Title 1
school, a school in which most of the children enrolled are from low income families, showed
her that what she really wanted to do was going into something that helped underprivileged
children.

“They were just super high-need and it broke my heart how much they didn’t have, like they
didn’t have enough books for all the kids and it was just not the education I had grown up with. I
knew I wanted to go into something that helped with that discrepancy. I didn't necessarily know
that I would go into the nonprofit side of it. I thought I would go into the policy side of it.”

In her sophomore year of college at Arizona State University, Dowd joined the Swift Youth
Foundation, a non profit organization that focuses on helping underprivileged youth in the
community who do not have enough resources, are in Title 1 schools, and foster care facilities.

The goal of Swift Youth is to provide them with services that they wouldn't otherwise have
through after school programs and peer mentorship.

With the help of the Swift Youth Club at ASU, Dowd got involved with their after school
program which quickly became a part of her weekly routine and was where she fell in love with
Swift youth.

“It was just so fun but so meaningful at the same time,” Dowd said.

In a study done by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, data shows that 26 percent of children in
Arizona live in poverty; that is above the national average. These children have been forced to
live on an income that is lower than the federal poverty rate.

“Poverty and financial stress can impede children’s cognitive development and their ability to
learn. It can contribute to behavioral, social, and emotional problems and poor health,” wrote the
Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Joanne Sumner, Co-Executive Director of Swift Youth, was recently retired and looking to work
with children when she learned about Swift Youth. Sumner said that after learning about Swift
and their mission she wanted to get more involved and help achieve their goals in the future.
Michael Evans, ASU graduate and previous assistant director at Swift Youth said he worked with
Swift Youth because he believed that the work they were doing was going to help young children
and teens reach their full potential.

Dowd continued to work with Swift throughout her sophomore year and about half of her junior
year before she got a job with Swift as their program coordinator, where she worked for the
remainder of her college experience. This enabled her to be able to actually go into the school
working with Swift and facilitate the programs.

After she graduated, Dowd joined Swift Youth Full time as their program specialist and then was
promoted to program director about a year later.

Dowd said that she decided to stay with Swift Youth because it was obvious how much the staff
and volunteers cared about the kids and how much fun the kids were having.

“I didn’t really encounter anything like that. I had other internships and I volunteered at other
non-profits and there was nothing like the culture at Swift.”

Sources:

Hannah Dowd, Program Specialist of Swift Youth Foundation

Linkedin: hannah-dowd-6425911b4
Email: hannah@swiftyouth.org
Phone: (480) 443-5645

Jo Sumner, Co-executive Director of Swift Youth Foundation

Email: josumner@campswift.org

Michael Evans, Previous Assistant Director of Swift Youth Foundation

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelevans1986/

Websites:
https://www.swiftyouth.org

arizona's-a-terrible-place-for-underprivileged-kids-new-study-finds-7555749

https://www.aecf.org/work/kids-count