Survivor. Advocate. Author. Speaker. Chip Changer.
Jess is a wife, mother, Catholic social teaching advocate and homelessness chip changer. She leads SOFESA, a relationship-centered organization that has served homeless children and their parents for more than 24 years. Drawing on her personal lived experience, Jess is an award-winning thought-leader on the subject of homelessness and speaks in national forums both secular and religious advancing the truths of human dignity. She has been featured on ABC, EWTN, Relevant Radio, National Catholic Register and Catholic Answers among others. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Deacon Charlie and 2 of their 5 children.
Jess Echeverry is a women and family advocate, speaker, author and leader. She has survived parental divorce and alcoholism, as well as emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Her testimony includes dark times of physical and sexual violence, teenage pregnancy, years of homelessness, abortion, same sex attraction and two attempts at suicide. In 1997 she met the man she would eventually marry; this man would help her create an environment of authentic love that enabled her healing journey, her relationship with Jesus Christ and her eventual forgiveness and love for her attackers. She converted to Catholicism in 2008.
Her husband Charlie is a Permanent Deacon for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Together Deacon Charlie & Jess have 5 children: 2 young adults still at home, 2 young adults out in the world, and 1 lovely soul in Heaven. Jess is the Founder and Executive Director of SOFESA, a 501c(3) non-profit ministry that has been accompanying Southern California homeless families since 1999. Deacon Charlie and Jess have appeared on The Journey Home with Marcus Grodi which aired internationally in February 2021.
Jess has appeared on multiple episode's of EWTN's The Catholic View for Women and BEK TV's Ladies of Another View; radio interviews with Spirit Radio, Guadalupe Radio, Son Rise Morning Show and Incorrupto Radio. You can also hear a portion of her post abortion testimony on Relevant Radio a few times a week in between programming. She has spoken at over 10 Magnificat Ministry Meals, the SENT Ventures Summit, Legatus Summit 2024 and is a facilitator for Tepeyac Leadership Institute on the Feminine Genius.
She has had the opportunity to share her testimony in various events throughout the country including the walk for life in Los Angeles, OneLifeLA. She was a MainStage speaker in 2020 and in 2023. She is the inaugural recipient of the OneLifeLA Service award (2020). She has been featured in podcasts including Catholic Answers, Mamas in Spirit, Homeschooling Saints, Vida Initiative and Living the CALL. She has also participated in the After the Abortion Photography Series by Angela Forker.
She has published her first book, Dazzled: Finding the Key to Perfect Forgiveness, with co-author Patti Maguire Armstrong (Forward by Teresa Tomeo) detailing her life experiences in a way that lifts up and enlightens others who are searching for ways to heal. She is currently working on her second book which shares more about her lived experience of homelessness through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.
Jess is a strong and effective speaker who has been able to, with the help of God's grace, turn those past experiences, and all the healing that she has received along the way, into real, loving help for others.
