Shawna Fellenz with AZCEND Kristy Morgan With Candle Wishes Foundation and Jennifer Kiernan with Saving Amy
At AZCEND, they know that there are people who are isolated, who are hungry, who are living on the streets. They provide help and hope so people can get back on their feet and they don’t have to face their crisis alone.
AZCEND offers the convenience of a one-stop environment to address a myriad of individual and family basic needs. Their mission is to change lives by nourishing minds and bodies to create a connected, thriving community.
AZCEND has provided basic needs services for over 50 years. As they have grown, they have added wrap around services to not only address the immediate crisis, but also to provide support to reach a higher level of stability and prevent a future crisis. Case management, financial coaching and early literacy equip families and communities and provide long lasting outcomes.
AZCEND strengthens individuals, families and communities through food boxes; parenting, health and literacy classes; rent and utility assistance; senior nutrition; meals on wheels; homeless services; and other comprehensive programs and resources.
They want to do more than simply help people maintain their current situation – they want to provide people with the tools they need to change their lives for the better. Last year, over 17,000 people benefited from their services.
Shawna Fellenz has over 25 years of experience with social service and community action programming —including grant writing, program design, development and implementation, data collection, compliance and reporting.
She has a BA in Sociology and has continued her education with training in resiliency, trauma informed cared, mental health first aid, nonprofit management, leadership, and communication across barriers.
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Candle Wishes throws birthday parties and gives birthday presents for underprivileged and homeless children in our community.
Dr. Kristy Morgan is, first and foremost, a servant leader at heart. As the Arizona Director of The Candle Wishes Foundation, Dr Morgan has dedicated herself to making sure underprivileged and homeless children in her community have the ability to celebrate their birthdays no matter their circumstances.
As a business owner, COO and Vice President of an Integrated Medical Practice, she has spent the last 16 years helping patients live a healthier, pain free life. One of her many other passions has been in the world of Real Estate where she incorporates a strong hearted team approach to building a successful business and channels that into helping families through investing and home ownership.
She is committed to leaving a positive impact on her patients, clients, family and friends and is determined to create a legacy that can be passed on for generations.
Follow Candle Wishes on Facebook.
Saving Amy was founded with a mission to empower individuals and families transitioning out of homelessness by transforming lives through mentoring, teaching life skills, educational advancement, and financial stability through employment. 
Amy’s story represents the impact that community can have on changing lives and ending the cycle of homelessness.
Jennifer Kiernan is Saving Amy’s Founder and Executive Director and has been with Saving Amy since the day it was born. She has a heart for helping others. She works closely with our Saving Amy community in every aspect of the day to day operations.
Jennifer sees her role as bringing volunteers and families in need together to coalesce the Saving Amy vision; ‘A world where all people come together as one community; empowering each other to experience life changing ways of living through inner transformation, compassion and love’. She brings people together to work as a team, each individual adding their own unique strengths, to implement strategies and programs to reach the shared goal of breaking the cycle of homelessness.
Jennifer has a practice where she leads groups and meets with people one on one to help guide them into living a life of purpose and joy. Many of the people she works with become volunteers for Saving Amy. Most importantly she is a mom of four amazing children, three young adults, and one teenager, who each know they have a call to change the world in their own unique way.
Jennifer believes we are all called to make a difference in the world. She states, “I have a front-row seat to the generosity and kindness of humankind. The Saving Amy community is an example of what can be accomplished when we come together for the collective good of all people. Love and compassion is the way we change the world.”
