SOS Founder Forbath Will Soon Step Down

COSTA MESA —  Jean Forbath, who in two decades helped mold Share Our Selves into one of Orange County’s largest and most influential charities, said Monday that she will soon step down as its executive director.

Forbath, 61, founded the Costa Mesa-based organization in 1971 and has presided without pay over an all-volunteer staff of hundreds. She said she has become tired of the relentless pace of running the agency and that she is resigning in part so that she will have more time for her private life.

She said her decision was also prompted by the need to put a more professional structure in place at the organization, which, she said, originally grew from a religious commitment to alleviating poverty.

“I’ve come to the realization that for SOS to continue on, there have to be certain structures in place; it can no longer be dependent on personality,” she said.

Forbath, described by many as a crusader and visionary, took SOS to a leading position among the county’s charity providers. The agency provides emergency food, clothing, shelter and financial assistance to an average of 300 needy families daily. A free medical clinic sees nearly 1,200 patients a month, and the dental clinic averages close to 150 patients monthly.

But SOS has collected criticism as well. In recent years, the agency’s relationship with city officials has been uneasy. Neighbors have complained that it has grown too large for the community and that it attracts transients and crime.

Forbath and the agency, refusing to back down on their intention to serve those who need it most, repeatedly clashed with city officials. In one encounter, SOS supporters saw the city’s attempt to enact an unprecedented measure to withhold funds to agencies that serve illegal aliens as an attack on Forbath and SOS. The measure was never enacted, and has since been proscribed by federal policy.

The most traumatic events for the agency, however, came last year when, as the result of a series of controversial votes, the Costa Mesa City Council ordered the agency to move from its longtime home at the city-managed Rea Community Center because of the number of complaints from neighbors about its clientele.

The agency eventually raised enough money to buy its own building a few miles from its old home. That building is on Superior Avenue in a semi-industrial area of the city.

Costa Mesa City Councilman Peter F. Buffa, who was mayor during much of those difficult times, voted to oust SOS from the community center. But he said Monday that there was never any personal antagonism between him and Forbath.

“It was a question of policies,” Buffa said during a break in the council meeting Monday evening. “Sometimes it was rough going, but we were able to work all of that out and improve services in the city. Every group should have an advocate as committed as Jean.”

Many of Forbath’s friends said her decision will give her an opportunity to chart a new course.

In a recent letter to volunteers announcing her decision, Forbath says: “We are such a big organization now, with tremendous financial and organizational responsibilities that we need someone with better administrative abilities than I, but hopefully someone who has the same vision that we all possess. This person will . . . also have responsibility for the (medical) clinic administration as well. It is at least a 40-hour-a-week job.”

Forbath said she will remain at the helm until a successor is chosen, and plans to stay on the SOS board of directors.

The board has written a job description for her successor, but it has no candidates yet, nor has it established a salary, Forbath said.

Forbath’s colleagues at SOS said they are saddened by her decision but that they expect her to continue playing a role at the agency.

“Just knowing she is not going to be there in the same capacity is hard,” said Jack Glaser, president of the SOS board of directors. “But the reality is she is not going to be around forever, and acting as if she is would be a mistake. She’s been talking about it for some time, so it is really more of a postponed thing. Nobody sees this as a turning away from SOS.”

Forbath has become a sought-after expert on the county’s poor, testifying before city councils, county supervisors and congressional committees on welfare issues and indigent health care. Many county social providers said her exit as the primary voice for SOS will leave a void.

“It’s because of people like her that we have such a good relationship with community-based organizations,” said Lawrence Leaman, director of the county Social Services Agency.

Leaman said he and Forbath started their relationship as adversaries nine years ago, when he was put in charge of county social services. Forbath, he said, saw the welfare system as too complex and impersonal.

“Although we still disagree on some things, we have developed a relationship of mutual respect and trust,” he said. “We’ve worked as a team on a lot of things like clients and referrals. It will indeed be a loss.”

Rusty Kennedy, director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, of which Forbath is the chairwoman, said SOS has come to epitomize the kind of private “point of light” that the government has increasingly been looking to to help solve social problems.

“There’s not a more hard working or more dedicated person, and it will be a great loss not to have her there,” Kennedy said. “She and those who joined with her have built a wonderful, caring nonprofit program that has come to be depended on by many people.”

Kennedy said that although it is natural that SOS enter a new phase, he is sad about it nonetheless.

“I think it’s sad that it will become more like a professional organization--not because professional organizations are bad things--but there was something about SOS as a volunteer organization that made such a strong statement; that you had an organization of its size and stature and everyone was a volunteer was something special.”

Forbath said that the organization will strive to maintain its focus on volunteers.

“Part of the (executive director’s) job description is that this person is it--we will hire no one else,” she wrote in the letter to her volunteers. “If he or she finds things overwhelming, he/she will have to find someone to help, not someone to pay.”

Forbath said she intends to remain a presence in the county. Besides remaining on the board at SOS, she will continue to serve on the board of directors of the Santa Ana-based Poverty Law Agency.

Her term as chairwoman of the Human Relations Commission expires in August, and she said she does not know whether she will remain on that board.

“I will continue to stay involved in the community, speaking out on issues, fund raising,” she said. “And I might even have time to clean my house now.”