Community Partnerships

Homelessness is defined as the situation of an individual, family, or community that is without stable, safe, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate means and ability of acquiring it. Those experiencing homelessness might be living in a place not meant for human habitation, in an emergency shelter, in transitional housing, or are exiting an institution where they temporarily resided.

Community Partners:

• Austin Street Center - Austin Street Center provides safe shelter and meets the basic needs of the most vulnerable homeless. Austin Street Center’s goal is to help clients transition from homelessness to independence. #HelpThemHome.
• The Bridge - Founded in May of 2008, the Bridge’ mission is to empower adults experiencing homelessness in Dallas with the tools to homeless recovery as they move into sustainable housing.
• Mission Oak Cliff - Mission Oak Cliff commits to breaking the cycle of poverty in the community. 

Food insecurity is defined as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of resources—financial and otherwise. The USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food insecurity can lead to poor performance in work and/or school as well as other long-lasting effects.

Community Partners:

• The Stewpot - The Stewpot provides services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness, as well as to housed children, families, and adults who are low- and extremely low income.
• Our Saviour Community Garden - Our Saviour Community Garden is a ministry of Our Saviour Episcopal Church, a TEC Jubilee Ministry, and a project of Gardeners in Community Development, The GICD Center for Growing People.
• Sunny South Community Garden - Sunny South Community Garden was founded by TX State Federation of Garden Clubs. It is located in the heart of Sunny South Dallas, near historic Fair Park.

College access and preparation programs help students navigate the college application landscape, from testing to visits, financial aid, and transitioning into varying college experiences. College access programs are especially important for those schools and communities who do not have adequate resource to help their students navigate the college and university landscape.

Community Partners: 

• Crowned Scholars - Crowned Scholars is a Dallas, TX based proactive non-profit organization whose essential focus is to build the holistic young black man through academic mentoring, intentional conversations, and civic engagement.
• Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas - To build strong girls of courage confidence and character to make the world a better place.
• Wesley-Rankin Community Center - In collaboration with our West Dallas neighbors, Wesley-Rankin Community Center identifies and bridges gaps in education, health and skills development by providing multigenerational program that empower families to access their full potential. 

The arts can have positive impact within different communities and aid how we understand and address social problems. Art-based activities, paired with community-identified needs, serve as an intentional form of engagement with multiple social problems.

Community Partners:

• Legacy Cares - For over 30 years, Legacy Cares has been providing quality mental healthcare, substance abuse treatment, and special care housing services for people challenged with HIV and AIDS.
• Jubilee Park - The mission of Jubilee Park and Community Center is to be a catalyst for community renewal and enrichment to the Jubilee Park Neighborhood, a 62-block area in Southeast Dallas. The majority of families here are working poor who are under served in terms of education and health resources.
• The Senior Source - The Senior Source began in 1961 as the Senior Citizens Foundation of Dallas, providing assistance to older adults in Texas. Today, the Senior Source has served over 27,000 older adults in the greater Dallas area, mobilizing over 3,200 older adult volunteers and educating 37,000.

Environmental injustices are defined as problems with environmental systems and resources that may have emerged as a result of human developed infrastructure and interference. Additional social issues may emerge as a result, which can impact surrounding communities and have long-lasting effects.

Community Partners:

• Greenspace Dallas - The mission of Greenspace Dallas is to collaboratively develop national park quality recreation areas in the Trinity River Corridor while empowering and preparing youth to become future stewards of the environment.
• Restorative Farms - Restorative Farms is a self-sustaining, nonprofit, farm system whose mission is to create a professional, agri-system, principally, in our under-served communities by providing GroBoxes, seedlings, soil, jobs, the knowledge and capacity to grow fresh vegetables.
• Trinity River Audubon Center - Our mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math are subjects essential to success in today’s society. These fields of study have historically lacked diversity. By promoting STEM subjects and interest in jobs related to STEM, it helps the fields produce more diverse and innovative solutions and workforces.

Community Partners:

• Mercy Street - Mercy Street exists to cultivate mutually transforming relationships with inner-city youth through Christian mentorship. 
• Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas - Girl Scouts create the world they want to live in and strive to make it better every single day. They explore their strengths, take on new challenges, and can always be themselves, regardless of background or ability. Supported by adult volunteers and mentors right here in our community, as well as millions of alums around the globe, Girl Scouts lead the way as they discover who they are and how they can make the future a brighter place.
• The West Dallas STEM School - The mission is to engage students in an inclusive and interdisciplinary STEM environment to develop academic, social, and life skills; health and wealth awareness; and cultural literacy that will prepare them for higher learning and global careers.

Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. Immigration and refugee support involve helping refugees and displaced people with access to resources, education, transitional programs, and support programs.

Community Partners:

• Dallas Furniture Bank - Providing furniture to families transitioning from homelessness; restoring normalcy and independence.
• Heart House - Their mission is to use education as a catalyst to combat poverty and promote equity for the most vulnerable in our city: refugee children.
• Intensive English Program - The Intensive English Program (IEP) at SMU offers enrollment to students and professionals, who are not matriculated into a degree program at SMU or other U.S. universities as well as to conditionally admitted SMU international students. IEP is intended to teach academic English skills for students to be ready for full matriculation into a degree-seeking program.
• Trusted World - Trusted World provides the best resources, at no cost, to organizations and individuals working on someone else’s behalf.

Community wellbeing is the combination of social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political conditions identified by individuals and their communities as essential for them to flourish and fulfill their potential. Wellbeing includes access to proper mental health resources, health education, and holistic support programs.

Community Partners:

• Bishop Arts Theater - The mission is to engage and cultivate a vibrant arts community by welcoming emerging artists and developing equitable, multigenerational programming for the community, where learning and social impact are invited and celebrated.
• Brother Bill’s Helping Hands - Brother Bill's Helping Hand ministers to the Dallas community by ensuring the essentials of life, empowering through learning, and enriching relationships through faith, family, fitness, and finance.
• Genesis Women's Shelter & Support - To provide safety, shelter and support for women and children who have experienced domestic violence, and to raise awareness regarding its cause, prevalence and impact.
• Legacy Counseling Center - Legacy’s mission is to provide affordable and quality mental health care, substance abuse treatment, housing services, and education to people who are impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Poverty is defined a lack of income and resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods, such as food, clothing, clean water and proper shelter. Poverty has many detrimental outcomes for children in particular— hunger and malnutrition, ill-health, limited or a lack of access to education and other basic services.

Community Partners:

• After8toEducate - Our mission is to improve life outcomes and promote self-sufficiency by giving unsheltered high school students a safe place and offering education as a pathway out of homelessness and poverty.
• Behind Every Door - We exist to see the fullness of the Kingdom of God transform lives in underserved neighborhoods.
• Vogel Alcove - The mission of Vogel Alcove is to help young children and families overcome the lasting and traumatic effects of homelessness. It is our vision that every child in our community has a home, a self-sufficient family, and a foundation for success in school and in life.

Childhood literacy refers to the development of skills students need in order to transition from learning to read, to reading to learn. It is important for students to stay on-grade level from an early time in order to ensure later success in education.

Community Partners:

• Readers 2 Leaders - We develop and grow the reading skills of underserved Dallas children ages 3-12 so that they succeed in school and graduate prepared to live productive lives.
• Reading Partners - Reading Partners is a national nonprofit that mobilizes communities to provide students with the proven, individualized reading support they need to read at grade level by fourth grade.
• Voice of Hope - Voice of Hope Ministries exists to extend the love of Jesus Christ by nurturing and training children through Biblical teaching, Christian character models, life skills coaching and educational support.

Community rebuilding increases sustainable access to resources across communities that have been impacted by natural disaster or other forms of disruption. Community rebuilding prioritizes working alongside residents to understand their needs to create a thriving community environment.

Community Partners:

• Empowering the Masses - Empowering community by advancing determinants to success for citizens through resource disbursement, vocational training, core skills development and advocacy promotion.
• Frazier Revitalization - Frazier Revitalization's mission is to be a catalyst for the revitalization and transformation of the Frazier neighborhood by coordinating, supporting, and assisting in economic and cultural development.
• Rebuilding Together North Texas - The mission of Rebuilding Together North Texas is to “Repair Homes, Revitalize Communities, Rebuild Lives.