A Latino White House “Champion of Change” Works the Other Side of Silicon Valley

By Giovanni Rodriguez, Forbes

It’s a hot Thursday afternoon, and I am walking the streets in the South First Street section of San Jose.  I should be afraid.  There’s been a spike in gang-related murder — six in the past week — and the streets I am walking are among the meanest.  Yet I am not afraid.  I am walking with Pastor Danny Sanchez, a 2011 White House Champion of Change.  But it’s not his White House cred that’s lending me comfort.  I am thinking about the 200-300 fist fights he endured before he became a minister in a world I like to call “the other side of Silicon Valley.”

Danny, of course, is a different kind of pastor.  His ministry is the street.  Working in collaboration with San Jose government agencies, Danny has patched together a number of services that help fill some of the most critical gaps in the infrastructure that serves both the haves and have nots in Silicon Valley.

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