We recently connected with Antonio Mateo Garcia and have shared our conversation below.

Antonio Mateo, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In the beginning, HELP was a community project to support the local LGBTQ Youth in Boston who were experiencing homelessness and housing instability by giving them care packages that included hygiene products, seasonal items, blankets, and items to put a smile on their face, as someone who has lived experienced with homelessness; the project was initially called Packs, same as today. I know firsthand how this experience and attempting to reach out for help can make you feel dehumanized, unseen, and not cared for, more so if you are a person of color or LGBTQ and not many services are catering to this community, I wanted to make a change and I was daydreaming during class one day and thought about how I could make HELP, which stands for Helping Everyone Live Prosperously become an actual organization that could reach more people who need support.
HELP is making sure that those who reach out for support are not facing restrictions, barriers, and discrimination; We allow everyone to choose the clothing they want to wear that makes them feel like their true authentic selves and our care packages can be customized for folks to be able to choose out what they need and want they want.
I want to emphasize ‘what they want’ here because I believe that everyone deserves to feel seen, comfortable, and humanized during this process just because you’re asking for help doesn’t mean you aren’t a human being, this is often felt by so many people accessing services while experiencing homelessness and I’m here to make sure they never feel that way when they are here with HELP.

Antonio Mateo, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I received my bachelor’s in business management with minors in accounting and entrepreneurship, when it came to my master’s, I decided to go for nonprofit management as it aligned best with my hopes for HELP and my future goals to support the community. I graduated Summa cum laude, it’s the of the highest Latin honors which im pretty proud to be a part of as a Latinx trans man, it’s important that youth see themselves in others and I definitely want to be that for the youth we support. Recently, I started opening up my community closet (Attire for Change) for donations and set up a sort of shopping experience for folks at Boston Pride, who are proud partners of HELP! Those attending Pride were able to receive two bags for free, when those were full it was all suggested donations to be able to keep HELP going, we had a range of sizes and clothing, and youth and young adults were able to shop through them and even try them on and see how they fit in a provided private changing tent and mirror.
My hope in the future is to have a permanent office space where I can meet with future organizations who will support us in making sure that our community closet and care packages can meet the diverse needs of Youth in Boston whether that be items such as Narcan and Test strips, binders and bras, cultural inclusive hair and skin products and menstrual products, on top of the already basic essentials.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think my resilience lies in the fact I grew up with a difficult childhood and I saw many of the challenges my mother and other family members faced dealing with racism, poverty, and mental health struggles. I never wanted anyone else to feel the way I had during different points in my childhood. I’ve always felt it to be my purpose to help others because that’s what community is, supporting others’ prosperity as they would yours, so I continue to hold that drive and passion in making sure people have their basic needs met and more, to move from surviving to thriving and to bring joy into people’s lives, let them know that they are seen, cared for and will be able to get through difficult times in their life.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Yeah, one hard lesson I had to learn was that I cannot truly help every single person in the world nor can I make everyone happy. I think it’s natural for all those who find their purpose in life was to help others that we wish we could help everyone, and make everyone happy but the reality is that we can’t and it was something that I had to learn on my own, despite being told this by family, friends, and colleagues. I know now that I can’t get to every single person but I can make sure that every single person I am able to support is getting the fullest of what HELP has to offer and I know now that I will be someone within the community that is laying down pathways for others to find community, be supported, support others and find more joy with themselves and within life, knowing that at least here, with HELP, they can be their true authentic selves.

Contact Info:

• Website: helpbyamg.org
• Instagram: @antonio.mateo96
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antonio.mateo.garcia.professional
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/antonio-garcia-civ
• Twitter: @helpbyamg
• Other: https://linktr.ee/helpbyamg

Image Credits
Blu Xu Michelle Bracco Amanda Rodriguez