Since 1965, the Community Council of South Central Texas (CCSCT) has been helping members of communities across the region through initiatives such as Head Start, the Women, Infants, and Children Program, support for Veterans, and disaster relief, to name only a few. Its mission is to empower vulnerable families and individuals in greater South Central and West Texas to achieve self-sufficiency by eliminating barriers through innovative programs and strong community partnerships.
The CCSCT recently celebrated a milestone: sixty years of service since its founding. As part of the celebration, the non-profit organization named its 2025 Hope in Action Heroes, including two organizations—the San Antonio Food Bank and Methodist Health Ministries—and two individuals—Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen and TLU’s Dr. Amy Hart, who serves as New Braunfels campus executive and assistant director of nursing.
Hart has been instrumental to the work of CCSCT by raising awareness through poverty simulations, which the TLU Nursing Department has been undertaking since 2019.
“TLU nursing students in their fourth semester, when they take Community Health theory and clinical, are required to participate,” Hart explained, adding that the simulations, held every spring and fall, started with participants from the Seguin campus, but have since grown to include the New Braunfels and Houston campuses as well. The CCSCT team has volunteered to help with every simulation to date.
This spring, the nursing department undertook its twelfth poverty simulation. “We’ve grown and learned a lot along the way,” Hart said. “Poverty simulations are still one of my favorite parts of the semester. It is always fun for me to see the participants, whether they are students or community partners, experiencing the simulation themselves, connecting the dots and identifying ways they can make a difference in others’ lives.”
Hart said she was truly honored and humbled to be named a Hope in Action Hero. “As a nurse, this seems like the right thing to do—helping others and teaching others, through this simulation, about poverty, and raising awareness so that my nursing students can better support individuals they care for.”
She said she shares the award with many others. “This award is not just me. I have a mighty force of support to help make these (simulations) happen.” She thanked TLU President Debbie Cottrell, Vice President for Academic Affairs Sarah Ferguson, and Director of Nursing Ruth Eby. Hart also thanked her TLU colleagues from the nursing department including Dr. Whitney Bischoff and Robin Briggs, and expressed gratitude to CCSCT Executive Director Bobby Deike and his team for “unwavering support of this legacy that has been created and benefited everyone who has attended.”
The CCSCT serves low-income families and individuals in thirty-one counties in greater South Central and West Texas, as well as counties along the Texas/Mexico Border, bringing help and hope to those in need.