About Us

The History

The Eastside Promise Neighborhood is home to 17,955 people readily striving in the face of serious socio-economic conditions. It is an area rich in San Antonio’s history with more than 50 churches, many of them serving African-American populations, 296 private businesses, several social service organizations and six schools.

Traditionally known as the heart of the African-American community and in the ‘50s as an area of segregated housing, schools and businesses, San Antonio’s Eastside Promise Neighborhood is still home to a heavy concentration of the city’s African-Americans. The area is now majority Hispanic with population numbers reaching 67.5 percent, according to 2009 U.S. Census data.

The 3.5 mile-area is bounded by Interstate 37 to the west, Fort Sam Houston to the north; AT&T Center Parkway to the east and East Commerce Street to the south.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education named the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County the recipient of a Promise Neighborhood planning grant, one of two federal grants awarded in Texas and only 21 throughout the country. The $312,000 one-year grant funded the creation of a plan to revitalize San Antonio's east side.

Community members, stakeholders and community experts began groundbreaking work for Eastside Promise Neighborhood.  To create the proposal to become a Promise Neighborhood implementation site, the team conducted: needs assessment, asset inventory, focus groups, segmentation analysis, regression analysis, review of scholarly literature, community conversation forums, block parties, and provider forums. The result: Eastside Promise Neighborhood leaders submitted an application for a five-year implementation grant and learned in December 2011 that San Antonio was selected as one of five implementation sites in the country.

Mission

The Eastside Promise Neighborhood will unite institutional and resident stakeholders to leverage and strengthen the resources and assets of the neighborhood to address its core barriers so that chidlren and their families are inspired to stay, grow, graduate... and stay.