PHOENIX, Ariz. (March 12, 2015) – Richard Saldivar, the Arizona/Texas principal of TERIS, has joined the board of directors of New Pathways for Youth. His service is the latest step in the legal-services firm’s increasing commitment to New Pathways for Youth, St. Mary’s Food Bank and other community-service organizations in the Phoenix and Austin metropolitan areas.
New Pathways for Youth, a non-profit organization based in Phoenix, aims to empower young people to fulfill their potential through mentoring and life skills development. New Pathways offers a variety of programs that provide mentors for high-risk youths who need help graduating from high school and high-achieving students in lower-income schools who hope to attend college. New Pathways also operates an after-school program in Phoenix’s impoverished Garfield Park neighborhood.
TERIS has sponsored New Pathways for Youth for the past four years, providing financial support and free document-printing services.
New Pathways for Youth’s approach is a proven success, Saldivar said.
“I believe in the principles developed by New Pathways for Youth for high-risk children dealing with drug abuse, domestic abuse, imprisoned parents and other issues,” Saldivar said. “New Pathways for Youth has a proven process and method in place to help these kids change their lives from within themselves and succeed. I joined the board to make a bigger impact on the organization and, ultimately, on the kids.”
Christy McClendon, president and chief executive officer of New Pathways for Youth, said TERIS has filled the organization’s need to print training manuals for mentors and applications and other materials for youths and their families, who often lack access to computers and the Internet. New Pathways for Youth has some 500 mentors serving more than 500 youths a year, and it has served more than 5,500 youths since its founding 26 years ago, she said.
Saldivar’s experience and leadership have been extremely important to New Pathways for Youth, McClendon said. “He has helped us build a strong, sustainable program,” she said. “TERIS helps provide the essentials that go to the heart of what we do.”
TERIS also works closely with Phoenix-based St. Mary’s Food Bank, the world’s first food bank and one of the largest in the United States. TERIS’s Phoenix office launched the “Object to Hunger” Food Drive in the fall of 2013, challenging members of the legal profession in the Phoenix area to raise contributions of food and funds for St. Mary’s Food Bank. In its first two years, “Object to Hunger” raised more than 114,000 meals during what is normally a slow time of year for much-needed donations, said Ernie Ortiz, food drive manager for St. Mary’s Food Bank.
“We were really excited when we could work with TERIS,” Ortiz said. “We had done food drives with law firms here and there, but anytime you can get a community together, it is a lot more successful. Richard and his group really focused on this drive.”
St. Mary’s Food Bank’s Kids Café program also supplies hot meals and weekend supplies of non-perishable food to children participating in New Pathways for Youths’ after-school program, making a strong connection between two organizations that are part of TERIS’s community commitment.
Saldivar is the father of two adult children and lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. He has 19 years of experience in litigation and business consulting. He co-founded and heads the Phoenix office of TERIS, which serves corporate legal teams and law firms across the United States and internationally. TERIS, founded in 1996 and headquartered in Phoenix, provides electronic discovery, information governance, computer forensics and other litigation support services.
TERIS is committed to community involvement, partnering with non-profit organizations to make a positive impact in the communities where its employees live and work. TERIS also has conducted community outreach projects in the Austin and Phoenix areas with Hope4JD, an Austin-based non-profit that provides support and education for children with brain injuries; the Gold ‘n Gavel Auction, which benefits students and programs at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law; and Lump Busters, a Phoenix-based non-profit whose annual Golfing for a Cure event helps raise funds for brain tumor and cancer research.
For more information about New Pathways for Youth, visit www.npfy.org.
For more information about Mary’s Food Bank, visit www.firstfoodbank.org.
For more information about TERIS, visit www.teris.com.
Contact information:
Matt Kalina, Marketing with a Flair
602-374-4923 │ matt@marketingwithaflair