Jesse Leon is a San Diego based, bilingual author, consultant, and public speaker with a focus on vulnerable communities’ access to quality mental health care, substance abuse services, and housing.
Jesse’s traumatic experiences, chronicled in his memoir, I’m Not Broken, fuel his advocacy and inform the work of his consulting practice.
This memoir is a raw and unfiltered window to the path from brutalized, despairing child to accomplished adult.
Hope is actionable.
Jesse believes that authentic storytelling is future-building.
Self love, self care, community-building, and hope are ways to journey through life, not buzzwords.
“I want my words to be a breath of hope and an instrument of refuge for many who have experienced similar traumas so that they do not feel as alone as I felt for many years.”
Jesse Leon
Let’s Talk About Hope
A social impact consultant focused on the needs of our communities’ most vulnerable populations, Jesse Leon has taken a compassionate and studied approach to addressing mental health, substance abuse, and housing.
In his first book, I’m Not Broken, Jesse recounts his personal history of brutal abuse and subsequent addiction which shattered his sense of self and identity.
He reveals his resilience. Through education, support, and faith, Jesse shows how we can suffer and survive, how we may be beaten but not broken.
How do you want to talk about Hope?
My message of Hope is about action and personal agency. We can put those into context together with your mission. However we engage, we will build a connection to my story that makes a difference.
Guest Lecture
Panel Discussion
Interview
Book Signing
Motivational Speaker
Executive Coaching
Social Impact Consulting
Connect with My Story
“A book detailing Mr. Leon’s battles against unparalleled circumstances, from poverty to addiction to assault, can be at once a critical look at the ways in which we fail young people in our communities and also a story of how, by the grace of God, we find in our midst a man like Jesse Leon, making sacrifices so that others might not suffer.”
—Tarell Alvin McCraney, Academy Award winning screenwriter for Moonlight
Read
Jesse's Op-Ed in the San Diego Union Tribune on Fentanyl:
“America’s fentanyl problem isn’t as bad as you think. It’s much worse.”
Jesse's Op-Ed in the LA Times on access to mental health:
“When my life came apart, I struggled to find the therapy I needed.”
Watch
Ford Foundation’s Center for Social Justice
People En Español (In Spanish)
Communities United for Racial Youth Justice
Hell Has An Exit Podcast with Bryan Alzate
Warwicks Bookstore with Ruben Navarrette
Adventures by the Book Fireside Chat #4
Adventures by the Book Fireside Chat #3