Sharing Herself: A Leader by Example : * All of Orange County Will Be the Poorer Without Jean Forbath at the Head of SOS

For 21 years, Jean Forbath and Share Our Selves have been synonymous. Now Forbath, 61, plans to leave her role as executive director to make way for the agency’s first professional (read that “paid”) manager. SOS, now one of Orange County’s largest charities, has a strong foundation, but Forbath’s energy and moral leadership will be missed.

Forbath and her husband, Frank, founded SOS in response to an appeal by the nation’s Catholic bishops for church parishioners to “wage war on misery.” Focusing first on migrant workers, SOS later developed emergency food, clothing and cash programs, as well as medical and dental services for thousands of people every year.

But the road wasn’t always smooth. Forbath found herself at the center of a storm last year when SOS was evicted from Costa Mesa’s Rea Community Center because of neighborhood protests. The publicity surrounding the eviction brought SOS needed money, however, and it was able to purchase a building of its own on Superior Avenue in the city’s semi-industrial area. It reopened last December.

Forbath says SOS has fallen well short of the lofty goals set for it so long ago, but she is proud of its accomplishments. As a front-seat witness to the county’s stunning change in demographics, Forbath has helped make more visible the problems of Orange County’s poor, and all the while her respect for their struggles has grown. Sometimes, her family says, she gets disheartened when she can’t help someone. But her disposition is naturally sunny, and she never lapses into resigned immobility. Her motto is, “The way we treat people is the way we treat God.”

Forbath will continue as an SOS volunteer. But, in stepping down from her leadership role, she is haunted by a question: “Do I have the right to stop?” It’s a measure of this woman’s generosity that, after two decades of selfless commitment to SOS, she would entertain that thought.