Executive Director Fatima Soares to Retire in 2019

Coastside Hope Executive Director Fatima Soares retires.
Soares served Coastsiders for 41 years, including 12 years as Executive Director.

Coastside Hope announced today that its Executive Director Fatima Soares has decided to retire in March 2019. Coastside Hope offers basic life necessities to low-income clients, who include the working poor, homeless, seniors living below the poverty level, the disabled and families and individuals in crisis on the San Mateo County mid-coast.

Soares emigrated from the Azores at 15, speaking only her native Portuguese. She soon learned both English and Spanish and took a job washing dishes. In 1977, she began working at Coastside Hope as a secretary. After obtaining her BA in Social Work from San Francisco State University, Fatima became a social worker at Coastside Hope, and in 2007 she assumed the Executive Director role. In her free time she volunteers at other local non-profits, dedicating herself to community service. In recognition of her lifetime of service to the community, Soares was inducted into the San Mateo County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2014 alongside Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

“I’m very grateful for my adopted country, they’ve given me a lot of support and I try to give back as much as I can because it opened a lot of opportunities for me,” Soares told the San Mateo Daily Journal last year.

“No one should be forced to choose between buying groceries, paying for prescriptions or keeping a roof over their head,” Soares said. “Coastside Hope will continue to provide assistance with dignity and hope to neighbors facing these impossible decisions.”

The Coastside Hope Board has approved a search committee and is in the process of recruiting Soares’s successor. Board President Beth Easter is optimistic about the future, saying, “We will greatly miss Fatima’s vision, leadership and passion, but with our dedicated staff and volunteers, together with strong support from the community, we look forward to continue helping our Coastside neighbors in need.”

For further information, as well as to provide recommendations to the search committee, please contact the Coastside Hope Board of Directors at board@coastsidehope.org.