S4L programs are designed to ensure that low income, working Houston families receive excellent training in financial literacy, asset building, and college and career development programs. S4L provides these five programs free of charge to qualified families:

• 20-20 Power Workshops are intensive, free, weekly 2-hour workshops in English and Spanish combined with mentoring from Houston professionals. Families set goals and their achievements are benchmarked by the mentors. The primary objective is to increase the family income and net worth each by 20% in a 9 month period.
• ACE (Adult Computer Education) is a supplementary program that teaches families basic computer use as well as Microsoft Word and Excel proficiency. ACE is offered only to families enrolled in our 20-20 Power Workshops.
• SOAR (Summer of Awesome Reading) and STAR (Success Through Active Reading) are reading comprehension programs for 4th through 8th grade students. SOAR is a 3 week program offered during the summer. STAR is offered during the 20-20 Power Workshops.
• Real Life is a 28-hour financial literacy and career/college planning curriculum which incorporates an exciting reality game to help low income high school and college students spend time in their future to realize the importance of making the right decisions today to achieve their goals.
• Neighbor For Neighbor reduces family expenses and builds community relations by families trading skills and talents with one another through a community "time bank."

All of these programs work together to educate and encourage participants to accept personal responsibility for their future.

S4L volunteers mentor, instruct and interact with the working poor. These are proud families who have decided to not take handouts and public assistance. They are hard workers but they need and desire financial literacy and career development planning. Their education and training requires thousands of hours of volunteer time to change the future for families who have been on welfare for generations.

Each family's situation is unique. Most families are single mothers with four children who live on a financial "razor's edge." But with S4L's intense, personal guidance, the families are achieving success, getting better jobs with benefits, completing high school and college and saving money for their future to become financially secure. They are also learning the financial planning concepts to ultimately become financially independent.