West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing 11.5 Sq. Miles 55 Organizations 13 Schools = 1 Project Draft Eight: June 2011

ACCION Texas ACT Dallas (Advocates for Community Transformation) The ARK Group (Adults Relating to Kids) AVANCE Dallas Brother Bill’s Helping Hand Builders of Hope Dallas Faith Communities Coalition Education Is Freedom Marillac Social Center Mary R. Saner Child Development Center Mercy Street Serve West Dallas Trinity River Mission VMLC Voice of Hope Watermark Community Church Wesley Rankin Community Center West Dallas Community Centers Dallas Independent School District St. Mary of Carmel Catholic School The Heights Preparatory School (Uplift) West Dallas Community School Southern Methodist University University of Texas at Dallas

Contents and Contacts The purpose of the West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing (the Collaborative) is to bring into focus a coordinated array of resources in one clearly defined geographic area. It is a compilation of the work and plans of many of the not-for-profit organizations working in West Dallas. Their mutual intention is that children and their families may grow into engaged citizens, attending great schools and living and working in healthy communities. The plan is a living document and community review and input is encouraged at all times. In addition, the plan is updated bi-annually. Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................3 West Dallas History ................................................................................................5 Demographics .........................................................................................................7 Demographic Narrative ....................................................................................... 10 West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools ............................................. 13 West Dallas Community Collaborative for Housing ............................................ 21 West Dallas Community Collaborative for Jobs .................................................. 22 Next Steps 2011-12 ............................................................................................. 24 Partners and Contributors in West Dallas ........................................................... 25 Faith Communities in West Dallas and Beyond................................................... 27 Organizational Chart....................................................................................... 29-30 Attachments – Program and Event Descriptions The School Zone – West Dallas............................................................... 31 The Metrics Project ................................................................................ 33 Parent Action Groups for Education (PAGE) .......................................... 35 Faith and Community for Education Transformation (FACET) ............... 37 The School Zone Pep Rally for Education ............................................... 38 The Young Developers Project ............................................................... 39 Breakfast for Education .......................................................................... 40 West Dallas Community Celebrations .................................................... 41 75212 Orientation Map ....................................................................................... 42 Contacts Dallas Faith Communities Coalition (DFCC) 4514 Travis, Suite 350 Dallas, TX 75205 (o) 214.269.3340 www.dfcc.us Regina Nippert, Executive Director [email protected] Esmeralda Ortiz, Director of Community Relations [email protected] Michelle Edmond, Faith and Community Advocacy Coordinator [email protected] Shree N. Moffett, Community Engagement Coordinator [email protected] Cameron Mason Vickrey, Faith Community Coordinator [email protected] Ann Drumm, Grant Writer [email protected]

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Executive Summary The West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing (the Collaborative): The vision of the Collaborative is to build a coalition of individuals, businesses, schools, community organizations, faith-based initiatives and faith groups, working in partnership with the public sector and the city of Dallas, to generate visible and sustainable improvements to quality of life in West Dallas. West Dallas - an 11.45 square mile area bounded by downtown to the east, the Trinity River to the north, Loop 12 to the west and I30 to the south - is an area whose residents are determined to transcend the dark history of industrial pollution, racism and inattention and create a bright, thriving future for themselves and their children. The “Backbone Organization” - Dallas Faith Communities Coalition (DFCC): DFCC is the “backbone organization” in the Collaborative partnership – the entity that provides the coordination for successful development and implementation of this comprehensive plan. DFCC was formed in 2004 by former Mayor Laura Miller, and with support from former Mayor Tom Leppert it has become an engine for what scholars call “collective impact.” While DFCC’s partners make extraordinary efforts working in their particular areas of expertise, the insight that has propelled DFCC’s growth is the understanding that individual interventions will not repair a broken system; a collaborative effort is required for comprehensive community regeneration. Three Phases of Change: The Collaborative is a three-part comprehensive plan, with phased implementation, that addresses systemic causes of poverty by developing and implementing strategies in three key areas: quality affordable housing, great schools and good jobs. It is a collaboration among 35+ partners - including West Dallas service organizations, SMU, UTD, DISD, private and charter schools, and the City of Dallas - designed to mobilize $100MM in investments and guide the turnaround of West Dallas by building a community focused on strong schools. Phase I - The Collaborative for Housing (launched 2008): Three organizations – Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity and Builders of Hope, with support as needed from DFCC – have been working since 2006 to deliver affordable housing in West Dallas. Since 2008, the collaborators have been working on a joint project to build or preserve 198 affordable homes, providing shelter and building assets for 300 people. This three-year project was funded in part with $5.6MM in gap financing from The Rees-Jones Foundation. At least $16MM was added to the tax base, 43 slumlord properties were removed, the crime rated dropped in some surrounding blocks by 30% or more, and 150 families are enjoying the benefits of homeownership as they add their skills and gifts to life in West Dallas. Phase II - The Collaborative for Schools (launched 2009): Education is the key strategy for overcoming poverty and is the current focus of the Collaborative’s work. The aim is to create optimum conditions for children’s academic success – by creating “a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can't slip through,” 1 empowering parents to be children’s best advocates, engaging the community to support them, and using metrics to assess the impact of and refine programs. To do this work, DFCC has created three programs and a collaborative structure: • Advocacy for quality education that drives community support for reform (PAGE and FACET); • Community infrastructure that supports education reform (The School Zone – West Dallas); and • Measurement and refinement of community and educational transformation activities (the Metrics Project). Phase III – The Collaborative for Jobs (to be launched 2012-13): The Collaborative’s work in the education sector will remain the partners’ primary focus through at least 2013. Execution of Phase III of the comprehensive plan – creation of livable wage jobs in West Dallas – is expected to begin in 2012-13. 3

A comprehensive land-use plan is often identified as another critical component in the redevelopment of West Dallas. The Collaborative supports the efforts of the City of Dallas, urban planners and local business people in bringing together the various land-use plans now in operation in West Dallas into a single coordinated strategy, while remaining focused on its own work of assuring a comprehensive strategy for the social sector. The School Zone – West Dallas: The School Zone is the structure created by DFCC for collaboration by the schools and 20 nonprofits to provide the resources that support educational achievement. It is informed by the “Promise Neighborhood” approach that considers all aspects of family and community health in addressing education transformation – the most famous being The Harlem Children’s Zone founded by Geoffrey Canada.2 A successful collaboration must have a Backbone Organization, a separate organization with staff “who can plan, manage, and support the initiative through ongoing facilitation, technology and communications support, data collection and reporting, and handling the myriad logistical and administrative details.”3 DFCC is that Backbone Organization in West Dallas, the entity that provides the coordination that its nonprofit partners do not have the staff or resources to provide. DFCC has led the development, and facilitates the ongoing refinement, of the Collaborative strategic plan, the goal of which is to make sure that every West Dallas child graduates from high school prepared for college or a career. DFCC is creating strategic coherence by developing the West Dallas social sector into an entity that identifies itself as working on one project - the creation of an educational system that works for children – with each organization responsible for separate components that work together toward this shared vision. In SY 2011-12 the School Zone nonprofit partners are committing to: • Engage parents by expand access to training about early childhood development and parenting skills and helping them engage with the schools; • Engage students in their own success with leadership training, mentoring, in-school interventions and college readiness; • Engage DISD by focusing on middle school improvement; and • Engage the social sector by building a scaffold of supportive resources in the social sector. Powerful Parent and Community Advocacy – PAGE and FACET: DFCC’s PAGE program organizes and trains parents to be advocates for their children’s educational success, and its FACET program recruits support for them from the faith community. For both programs DFCC is developing an educational curriculum that covers topics such as state, local, and federal players in the school system and their roles; school funding, testing and accountability; parenting skills that promote educational success; parent engagement at school; attributes of successful teachers and learning environments; and school reform history and theories. DFCC expects the parents to formulate an agenda for educational system change and act on it, with support from the community, using an online action alert system by CapWiz that has already been put in use by DFCC. Measuring it All – The Metrics Project: Working with a formal agreement between 20 partners in the Collaborative, DFCC has introduced a tool which will equip the social sector to significantly improve its outcomes both individually and collectively: performance metrics with regular outcomes measurement and a refinement cycle for individual participants and for the group as a whole. Having and using metrics over the next five years will enable measurement, refinement and increases in the effectiveness of the entire West Dallas social sector. It will also serve as a model for measuring the effectiveness of collaborative efforts in other geographic areas of the city. Initial goal setting and identification of outcomes to be delivered by the group is being led by the UTD Institute of Public Affairs. Guidance with the development of metrics and implementation of an electronic dashboard data collection system is being provided by the UTD Institute of Urban Policy Studies.

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West Dallas History4 West Dallas originated as a community on the outskirts of Dallas, founded as a squatters’ settlement in 1886 to serve the labor needs of a local gypsum mine – the Texas Portland Cement Quarry. Housing built to shelter the laborers was shoddy and intended as temporary; however, a few of the homes stood well into the late 1970’s, and their construction set the standard that is still in evidence today. By 1934 newspaper stories cited the “muck and filth of the West Dallas Squatters Camp.” In 1893 West Dallas “school agitators” voted to form the West Dallas Improvement Association for the “general up-building of West Dallas,” founded its first school and approved the construction of a two-story brick structure which closed two years later due to lack of funds. In 1909 the first permanent school, Thomas A. Edison, was opened as a free public school. During the 1940s West Dallas’ population increased fourfold as veterans returned from war and industrial workers immigrated to the area. But as an independent city, the development of West Dallas was not subject to governmental controls such as subdivision, zoning or building codes. A 1948 survey found that only 3.6 percent of households had flush toilets, and just 5.8 percent had bathing facilities with running water. These unsanitary conditions prompted a push for annexation of the area by the city of Dallas (1952), and the Dallas Housing Authority (DHA) began construction of a 3,500 unit public housing complex, the largest concentration of low-rise public housing for families in the United States. Murph Metals (acquired by RSR Corporation in 1971) opened a 63-acre secondary lead smelter processing facility in 1936 at Singleton Boulevard and Westmoreland Road, very close to where the public housing complex was later built. Since few residents could afford the luxury of air conditioning, in the summers they kept doors and windows open to combat the heat, which exposed them to airborne toxins even while they were indoors. During this time concerns increased about the health effects of the lead emissions, particularly on children. The City of Dallas enacted a lead control ordinance in 1968. In the 1960s the smelter released more than 269 tons of lead particles into the air each year. A Dallas Health Department study (1972) found that children living near smelters had a 36% increase in blood lead levels. Numerous enforcement actions and compliance efforts were initiated in the early 1970s.5 The lead smelter permanently ceased operations in 1984, and remedial work to remove lead-contaminated was undertaken. Civil litigation was brought as well, and in the summer of 1985 a $20MM out-of-court settlement was reached between RSR Corp. and Fred Baron, who represented 370 children and 40 property owners who were all affected by the lead emitted from RSR. A second soil removal effort began in 1991, this time directed by EPA, and in May 1993 the Clinton administration declared West Dallas to be the largest lead-contaminated Superfund site in the United States. Residents who had been pushing for decades to solve the problem could finally lay their case to rest on September 28, 1994 when the EPA signed a Preliminary Close-Out Report for the RSR Corp. Superfund site, stating clean-up for all the units had been completed. The EPA signed a Ready For Reuse document in May 2005, declaring the site ready for reuse or redevelopment. The EPA reported that the clean-up resulted directly in lower lead blood levels in children. The community also benefited by having 400 properties, including 300 acres of commercial property, eliminated of contamination. The public housing complex, intended to provide sanitary housing for workers, became the source of the largest and by far most destructive impact on West Dallas over the decades after its construction. The Walker public housing/Section 8 desegregation litigation began in 1985 with a suit by Debra Walker against the city of Mesquite, alleging violation of the 14th Amendment and other civil rights law prohibiting racial discrimination in housing. The suit was subsequently amended to bring in DHA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the City of Dallas and became a class action.

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The litigation was a complicated process involving multiple appeals. Highlights include6: • •

•

Under the initial 1987 consent decree, HUD and DHA agreed to demolish and replace 2,600 of the 3,500 units and rehabilitate the remaining 900 units. But the consent decree became unworkable because of local and federal government opposition. In 1992 and 1993, the City, HUD, and DHA sought court approval for a 2,000 unit public housing project on the West Dallas site. In order to obtain this approval, the defendants claimed they would not only rehabilitate and revitalize the West Dallas project but do the same for the entire West Dallas neighborhood. The neighborhood revitalization and redevelopment efforts were later dropped because of the expense of such an undertaking, and on plaintiffs’ opposition the 2,000 unit plan was dropped. The 1994 Cisneros Plan would have redeveloped 1,600 units of public housing in the West Dallas project. Plaintiffs opposed this plan in part because of the defendants’ refusal to correct the blighted and hazardous conditions in and around the West Dallas project. The defendants subsequently reduced the number of units proposed for West Dallas to 1,200 units and then to no more than 950 units. Plaintiffs accepted the proposal for 950 units, the level set by the 1987 consent decree. The district court approved this modified version in 1996.

Both the district court and the Fifth Circuit accepted the characterization of the 3,500 unit West Dallas public housing project as "a gigantic monument to segregation and neglect.” The judicial proceedings on the remedy lasted until 1996, and in 2003 and 2004 agreements were reached releasing the City and DHA from the court’s jurisdiction in stages. Ultimately, court orders entered in this case provided the following resources for housing desegregation: • Approximately 9,900 new assisted units made available to Walker class members; • Approximately $22 million for the creation of housing opportunities in non-impacted Dallas communities; • $2 million for a fair housing organization focused on the problems of low income minority families; • Hope VI funding for 950 units in the West Dallas project; • $94 million from the City of Dallas for neighborhood equalization and economic development in the public housing project neighborhoods; and • $10 million for mobility counseling to be used in connection with the Settlement Voucher program. As a result of this litigation, DHA has demolished and replaced units in the Lakewest Development and has worked with private developers and Habitat for Humanity to build hundreds of new owner-occupied homes in an award-winning area now known as Greenleaf Village. 1 2

New York Times Magazine describing The Harlem Children’s Zone, http://www.hcz.org/about-us/about-geoffrey-canada

http://www.hcz.org/ A compelling new article identifies five essential elements for a successful collaboration, including a Backbone Organization. See Collective Impact by John Kania and Mark Kramer, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011, http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/collective_impact. 4 Sources for the history narrative include the Wikipedia article about West Dallas, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Dallas; Revised West Dallas Comprehensive Land Use Study, City of Dallas May 26, 1999, http://www.southerndallas.org/documents/planning/7%20West%20Dallas/West%20Dallas%20Comprehensive%20Land%2 0Use%20study%20Revised%20May%201999.pdf; History of the Dallas Housing Authority, http://www.dhadal.com/Gi/about.html, the Second Five-Year Review Report for the RSR Corporation Superfund Site, U.S. EPA, September 2010, http://www.epa.gov/region6/6sf/texas/rsr/rsr_second_five_year_review618482.pdf; Walker v. HUD, Daniel and Beshara, PC, http://danielbesharalawfirm.com/walkervhud.aspx; and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Public Health Assessment, RSR Corporation, http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/pha.asp?docid=134&pg=1. 5 For a detailed chronology see the EPA 2010 report, Table 1, and the ATSDR narrative, Id. 6 For a detailed chronology see Walker v. HUD, Daniel and Beshara, PC, http://danielbesharalawfirm.com/walkervhud.aspx. 3

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Demographics7 Note: Comparisons are to City of Dallas data unless otherwise indicated. Zip-code level census data for 2010 is not yet available. TABLE 1 West Dallas Community Demographics West City of (some numbers rounded) Dallas Dallas POPULATION8 except where noted Total population 24,063 1.2MM9 Median age 26 33 Age 17 and under 38% 27% Hispanic/African-American 72/25% 46/23% Speak Spanish at home 63.3% 39.5% INCOME8 Per capita income 9,813 24,273 Median household income 27,773 43,066 Households earning less than $15,000 33.2% 14.6% Households earning less than $35,000 60.2% 40.6% Families with children living below poverty level 37.5% 16.8% EDUCATION8 All residents age 25+ who never completed high school 67.1% 30.6% Hispanic residents age 25+ who never completed high school 72.6% 61.9% Residents who are college graduates 2% 27% 10 Pinkston compared to DISD : 2009 graduates who took SAT or ACT 40.5% 64.5% (DISD) 2009 examinees scoring at or above criterion (1100 SAT or 24 ACT) 3.2% 10.5% (DISD) Average SAT for Class of 2009 798 861 (DISD) Class of 2009 completion statistics: Percent of class who earned high school diploma in 4 years 59.6% 67.6% (DISD) Percent who didn’t earn diploma in 4 years and where they went: 40.4% 32.4% (DISD) - Earned GED 1.2% 0.6% (DISD) th - Continued H.S. for 5 year (many will drop out) 18.8% 12.7% (DISD) - Dropped out during those 4 years 20.4% 19.1% (DISD) EMPLOYMENT-RELATED11 except where noted Unemployment rate (not official) counting only those looking for work 12.59% 7.9% Age 16+ employed or in military as % of total population 52.26% 63.12% Age 16+ not employed as % of total population (incl. those not looking) 47.74% 36.88% 12 Employment density (jobs per square mile) 1,649 2,28512 Households not owning at least one car 23%8 10%8 13 except where noted HEALTH Births per 1,000 females age 15-19 63-10014 41.515 (U.S.) Percent of births to mothers under 20 44% 28% (county) Percent of births to unmarried mothers 67% 51% (county) Percent of births to mothers without a high school degree 30% 21% (county) Percent uninsured 60%7 HOUSING (see Table 3 for census tract data)8 Median owner-occupied housing value $46,863 $125,526 Median age of housing units 47 37

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Highland Park

Plano CT 106.02

City of Dallas

982 10.2% 89.8% 61.6% 38.4%

1,324 3.1% 96.9% 27.4% 72.6%

917 17.6% 82.4% 63.8% 36.2%

1,639 0.4% 99.6% 68.2% 31.8%

892 1.2% 98.8% 36.7% 63.3%

537,378 12.6% 87.4% 46.1% 53.9%

$65,800

$58,000

$49,800

$86,200

$55,400

$64,300

$63,800

$125,526

20.2%

74.7%

42.0%

43.9%

51.4%

28.8%

33.6%

30.8%

36.8%

68.2%

54.8%

46.6%

42.7%

31.5%

45.4%

39.9%

La Bajada

1,387 11.9% 88.1% 67.5% 32.5%

Los Altos

CT 106.01

CT 105 incl.

Westmoreland Heights

67.6% 87.2% 92.1% 99.2% 32.4% 12.8% 7.9% 0.8% 0.6% 0.6% 0.6% 0.0% 12.7% 7.4% 5.2% 0.6% 19.1% 4.8% 2.1% 0.2%

CT 101.02

CT 102 incl.

10.5% 41.8% 64.4% 75.4% 861 1054 1165 1203

839 13.3% 86.7% 56.8% 43.2%

CT 43

Housing comparisons in West Dallas census tracts18 Total housing units Vacant housing units Occupied housing units Owner-occupied Renter-occupied Median value of owneroccupied units Selected monthly owner costs as a percentage of household income – housing units with a mortgage paying 35.0% or more Gross rent as a percentage of household income – percent of renters paying 35.0% or more

64.5% 74.8% 78.0% ?17

CT 101.01

TABLE 3

Greenleaf Vill.

2009 graduates who took SAT or ACT 40.5% 2009 examinees scoring at or above criterion (1100 SAT or 24 ACT) 3.2% Average SAT for Class of 2009 798 Class of 2009 completion statistics: Percent of class who earned high school diploma in 4 years 59.6% Percent who didn’t earn diploma and where they went: 40.4% - Earned GED 1.2% - Continued high school for 5th year (many will drop out) 18.8% - Dropped out during those 4 years 20.4%

Richardson

Comparisons of Pinkston to Dallas ISD and other North Texas School Districts16

Dallas

Pinkston

TABLE 2

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19

The starting place for many of these statistics is the report from the J. McDonald Williams Institute, Research Compilation West Dallas (Zip Code 75212), December 2006. Statistics are generally 2005. For a copy contact [email protected]. 8 Most of the Williams Institute statistics have been updated with 2010 estimates from Claritas MarketPlace Pop-Facts: Demographic Snapshot 2010 Reports for zip code 75212 and for the City of Dallas, http://www.claritas.com/sitereports/basic-demographics-report-package.jsp 9 2010 Census, http://factfinder.census.gov 10 Texas Education Agency 2009-10 School Report Card for Pinkston H.S., http://www.dallasisd.org/inside_disd/depts/evalacct/data/aeis.htm, item #6 under 2009-10 Annual Educational Performance Reporting. College-ready scores are defined as 1100 on SAT or 24 on ACT composite. Comparisons are to DISD overall. 11 These rates are calculated from West Dallas census tract and City of Dallas data for ages 16+ reported in the U.S. Census Bureau 2005-2009 American Community Survey 5-Year estimates, Data Profiles for census tracts 43, 101.01, 101.02, 102, 104, 105, 106.01, 106.02, and City of Dallas,

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http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_lang=en&_ts=319995012908&_ds_name=ACS_2009_5YR_G00_&_program. The

unemployment rate reflects persons who are in the labor force but neither employed nor in the military. To calculate a West Dallas unemployment rate, the total number of unemployed for all census tracts was divided by the total number in the labor force in those tracts. The same calculation was made for the City of Dallas. This has the same weakness that the official unemployment rate calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics carries: the rate excludes individuals who are no longer looking for work. The reasons that people do not look for work can include sickness, staying home with children, undocumented status, retirement, or they simply gave up. So another way to evaluate employment is to compare the percentage of all adults who are working (or in the military) to the percentage of adults not working (the jobless rate). To calculate a percentage of adults employed in West Dallas, the total number of employed residents in all census tracts was divided by the number of total residents in those tracts. (None were reported as serving in the military.) To calculate a percentage of unemployed adults, the total number of those in the labor force but unemployed was added to the total number of those not in the labor force, and that sum was divided by the number of total residents. The same calculation was made for City of Dallas numbers. Whether you look at the unemployment rate that only takes into account those looking for work, or whether you look at the total percentage of adults in the population who are not employed, in both cases West Dallas percentages are significantly higher than those for the City of Dallas. This doesn’t indicate that there are greater numbers of people in West Dallas who choose to stay out of the labor force. Dr. Bray at UT Dallas points out that it’s highly unlikely that the jobless rate in West Dallas represents a large number of people who are unemployed by choice, such as retires or stay-at-home mothers who elect not to work, as you expect to find in higher income areas in the city. (Official unemployment rates are available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/lau/data.htm. A rate for West Dallas is not available, so ACS data was used for a more accurate comparison between West Dallas and the city as a whole.) 12 Mayor’s Southern Dallas Task Force, Dallas Office of Economic Development, Area #7 fact sheet, http://www.southerndallas.org/documents/factsheets/7_West%20Dallas.pdf 13 2008 data provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services, Center for Health Statistics on 3/30/11. Comparisons are to Dallas County data. 14 Dallas/Fort Worth Teen Birth Rates by ZIP Code, University of Texas School of Public Health, citing Texas Depart of State Health Services, Bureau of Vital Statistics, 2008, provided by request. 63-100 is one of four defined ranges. 15 Comparison data is U.S. average. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, April 6, 2010 press release, http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2010/r100406.htm. 16 District data from Texas Education Agency 2009-10 Academic Excellence Indicator System, http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2010/index.html. 17 Footnote on Highland Park ISD 2009-10 District profile explains, “Data for this item were statistically improbable or were reported outside a reasonable range.” 18 U.S. Census Bureau 2005-2009 American Community Survey 5-Year estimates, Data Profiles for census tracts 43, 101.01, 101.02, 102, 105, 106.01, 106.02, and City of Dallas, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_lang=en&_ts=319995012908&_ds_name=ACS_2009_5YR_G 00_&_program. Maps are available on that site for each of the census tracts. Census tract 104 is not included in this report because there are only 106 households, but data for that tract is available on the website. Please note the high margins of error that accompany the census tract level ACS statistics. Please see p. 39 for a census tract map. 19 This is the Claritas 2010 estimate. American Community Survey estimate, which is the same report that the census tract median values are found, is $129,500. See link in previous footnote.

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Demographic Narrative Despite enormous gains made in the past 10 years, in every category measured West Dallas is still one of the most challenged communities in the city. Population and Income: West Dallas’ demographics show a community whose median age is younger than that of the city as a whole, with a large percentage of its population age 17 and under. Most residents are Hispanic, with about a quarter African-American. Many residents speak Spanish in the home. Both household and per capita incomes are substantially lower in West Dallas, with consequent negative impacts on children. More than a third of families with children live below the poverty level. Although pockets of middle-income homeowners are found in West Dallas, it is the areas of extreme poverty that stand out, particularly in the DHA Lakewest Development (once the largest public housing development in the country) and the community west of Westmoreland Road. Employment: The unemployment rate as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (which we mimicked in calculating a West Dallas unemployment rate – see footnote 10) excludes those individuals who are not looking for work. As the footnote explains, there are many reasons people may not look for work, and particularly in low-income areas like West Dallas, one cannot assume that people are out of the job market by choice. Whether you compare the unemployment rates based only on those in the labor force, or the number of people not working as a percentage of the population, this much is clear: the percentage of West Dallas residents without jobs is significantly higher than in the city as a whole. Almost one-fourth of West Dallas households do not own a car and rely on carpooling or public transportation. Also notable is the lower employment density (number of jobs per square mile) in West Dallas. Over half of employed West Dallas residents are categorized as having “blue collar” occupations, and almost a quarter as working in “service and farm” occupations.20 Service occupations, according to the Williams Institute (and probably many blue collar jobs as well) are frequently characterized by low wages, a lack of benefits, and low advancement potential.21 Education: Ten public schools serve the area. Currently, two (Environmental Science, Lanier) are rated Exemplary, two (de Zavala and Martinez) are rated Recognized, and the rest are rated Academically Acceptable.22 Despite these ratings, the performance of many students at middle and high school levels remains poor. Dropout rates are difficult to calculate; here we draw conclusions from TEA report cards. 52.1% of Pinkston’s class of 2008 either completed high school or earned a GED within five years of starting, yielding a 47.9% dropout rate if you assume that students who are counted as continuing for a sixth year don’t finish. The four-year combined completion and GED rate for the Class of 2009 is 60.8%. The extent to which that class’ dropout rate is reduced from 39.2% after the fourth year depends on the number of students who complete school or earn a GED in the fifth year (information not yet available). These completion rates are low compared to DISD as a whole. In SY 2007-08 Pinkston earned an Academically Unacceptable rating for the fourth consecutive year23. After a great deal of commitment and hard work by the principal and students in SY 200809, Pinkston earned an Academically Acceptable rating14. Still, the number of students scoring high enough on the SAT or ACT to indicate college readiness rose from 0% in the class of 2008 to only 3.2% in the class of 2009 (that’s 3.2% of the 40.5% of the class members who took the tests, not 3.2% of the entire class24). Even though the class of 2009 improved on Pinkston’s average SAT score (798 compared to 756 for the class of 2008), that average is well below the 1100 score that Texas Education Agency deems the minimum indication of collegereadiness.25 The organization Children at Risk ranks Pinkston at the bottom of its rankings of high schools in the Dallas area (183 of 183) and statewide (1141 of 1145).26 Student performance is clearly challenged by the impact of living conditions in West Dallas. Poverty impacts children’s ability to learn. West Dallas’ rates of births to teen mothers, unmarried mothers and mothers without a high school degree are above national and county averages. Parents’ best efforts are hampered by their own lack of education: two-thirds of adults over 25 overall, and almost three-quarters of Hispanic adults over 25, never completed high school. Poor performance in high school has its roots in pre-K, where students come to school knowing 2-4,000 fewer words than their affluent peers.27 10

The economic impact to West Dallas of its ongoing educational failure boggles the mind. Using a conservative delta of a $25,000/year wage differential between a college graduate and a high school dropout, 2,000 dropouts in 10 years have cost West Dallas $50,000,000 in lost wages and community investment. Drive any street in West Dallas and the impact of this loss is immediately visible. The only way to reverse this incredible West Dallas brain drain and truly realize the area’s full potential is to create conditions that drive improvement in education so that every West Dallas child enters young adulthood prepared for college or a career. Shelter: There are about 7,000 households in West Dallas (more or less, depending on data source28.) According to the Mayor’s Southern Dallas Task Force fact sheet, renters account for about 40% of the occupied housing units, owner-occupied are about 45%, and about 15% of housing units sit vacant. 29 However, owneroccupied and renter-occupied rates vary among different census tracts (see Table 3). The high rate of renteroccupied housing persists in Census Tract 102, despite the demolition of many federally-subsidized apartments and their replacement with single-family homes in Greenleaf Village. Housing values vary significantly between census tracts and between owner- and renter-occupied homes, with the highest values in Census Tract 102, where Greenleaf Village is located (see Table 3). Generally, renteroccupied homes are older and in poorer condition, which is reflected in substantially lower value.30 Five of the West Dallas census tracts reflect owner-occupancy rates that exceed that for the city of Dallas as a whole. Still, with median household income at $27,773, many West Dallas households don’t earn enough to purchase a home in their neighborhood or anywhere else, and the percentage of owners and renters spending more than 35% of household income on mortgage or rent is troubling. Public Health: Most West Dallas residents seek healthcare at Parkland Hospital (a public health facility), the Parkland community-based clinic in West Dallas, or Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic, a federally qualified health center. At Los Barrios Unidos 93% of the patients are Hispanic and 70% of patients are uninsured. Although still high, the uninsured rate has come down as the clinic has helped residents enroll in Medicaid and CHIP. In 2010 the clinic served 26,000 patients, about half of those West Dallas and Oak Cliff residents. According to statistics provided by the clinic, the West Dallas death rates exceeded Dallas County and Texas rates for heart disease, cirrhosis, homicide, kidney disease, diabetes, and HIV. West Dallas death rates from stroke, cancer, and suicides were less than Dallas County and Texas averages.31 Recreation: There are 1,323 acres of vacant land within its boundaries32, but only a handful of municipal parks and school playgrounds provide recreational opportunities in West Dallas. The Trinity River forms part of the northern and eastern boundaries of West Dallas, and while relatively little has been done to develop this natural resource for recreation, the Trinity River Corridor Project is expected to change that. The largest urban redevelopment project of its kind in the world, the project is slated to add whitewater rafting, a chain of lakes for boating and canoeing, and a link to West Dallas greenbelt that includes the Mercy Street Field of Dreams and the newly renovated Mattie Nash Recreational Center, bringing tourist dollars, outside investment and economic development by creating an outdoor recreation destination. Public Infrastructure: West Dallas is approved for a $100MM bond investment from the City of Dallas (2006). Funds are earmarked for developing bridges, roadway improvements and parks and recreational facilities. U.S. Interstate Highway 30 forms the southern border of West Dallas and Loop 12 is its western boundary; however, development along these two major road corridors is limited with the exception of the Pinnacle Park development in Oak Cliff and West Dallas along both sides of I-30. Two other major road arteries connect West Dallas with the rest of the city across the river and with other destinations to the West. They are sources of congestion and high speed traffic, but offer little in the way of retail development as travelers drive through West Dallas on their way to work or home. The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge over the Trinity River will connect West Dallas to Downtown via the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2011, after which the existing Continental Street Bridge is to be renovated for use as a pedestrian bridge.33 Construction of a second nearby bridge over the Trinity, the Margaret McDermott Bridge on I-30, is planned (part of the bond fund package). 11

Threat of Gentrification: The long-term impact from development as a result of the new bridges will likely be significant. Assorted investors have acquired over 70 acres of land near the two bridges for future development. The threat of gentrification looms large, both in reality and in the minds of community residents. The edges of West Dallas bordering the Trinity River are poised for rapid and sweeping transition. Investor and community response to the coming of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, in conjunction with millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements and the work of the Trinity Trust, may soon transform the area. West Dallas will transition from a group of sleepy neighborhoods surrounded by one of the largest American metropolitan areas to either a vibrant community of contrasts - blue collar workers living alongside doctors and lawyers, and small tire stores sharing street frontage with new upscale restaurants - or one where families who have called it home for over 100 years will slowly but surely be pushed out. When development lending opens up again, high-rise condos almost certainly will begin to line the river while a few blocks in, families will continue to raise children in 800-square-foot wooden houses on modest urban lots. Experience in other cities has shown that, without concerted effort to resist gentrification and maintain a mixed economy, disparities between two such different groups of homeowners can become extreme and relations volatile. Although the beginnings of a recovery are underway, the effects of years of disinvestment and decay are far from corrected. It is particularly challenging to consider how to bring about necessary improvements to the quality of life for everyone in West Dallas while managing the growth and development that is certainly coming. Developers are further challenged by the tremendous economic inequities found in West Dallas, and the bright light that development shines on the fact that so many West Dallas residents live with far fewer economic and physical resources than many Dallas residents in other communities. 20

Claritas MarketPlace Pop-Facts: Demographic Snapshot 2010 Report. J. McDonald Williams Institute, Research Compilation West Dallas (Zip Code 75212), December 2006, p. 7. 22 2010 District Accountability Summary, http://www.dallasisd.org/inside_disd/depts/evalacct/data/aeis.htm, item #1C under 2009-10 Annual Educational Performance Reporting. 23 See annual accountability ratings summaries at http://www.dallasisd.org/inside_disd/depts/evalacct/data/aeis.htm. 24 See AEIS Glossary, http://www.dallasisd.org/inside_disd/depts/evalacct/data/aeis.htm, under SAT/ACT Results. 25 Despite the addition of the writing portion of the SAT, the criterion score continues to be based on mathematics and critical reading only. Id. 26 Children At Risk April 2011 rankings, http://childrenatrisk.org/research/school-rankings/. 27 Personal communication from Gabe P. Allen Elementary Principal Connie Hovseth. See also “Students’ vocabularies shown tied to incomes” by Eileen FitzGerald, The News-Times, February 11, 2002, accessed on the National Urban Alliance website, http://www.nuatc.org/articles/pdf/newstimes11feb02.pdf. 28 Sum of occupied households in American Community Survey census tract data in Table 3 is about 7,400. Mayor’s Southern Dallas Task Force, Dallas Office of Economic Development, Area #7 fact sheet, citing 2007 data, says 6,628, http://www.southerndallas.org/documents/factsheets/7_West%20Dallas.pdf. Claritas 2010 estimate is 6,300. 29 Area #7 fact sheet 30 Personal communication April 1, 2011 from Jane Massey, PhD, Associate Director of Research and Evaluation, citing 2010 data from Dallas County Appraisal District for census tracts 101.01, 101.02, and 102. 31 Personal communication March 30, 2011 from Joleen Bagwell, Director of Development and Marketing for Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic, citing Texas Department of State Health Services data for 2006/2007. 32 Area #7 fact sheet 33 The Trinity Trust website, http://www.discoverthetrinity.org/facts 21

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The Collaborative for Schools There are a number of very good public schools serving the lower grades in West Dallas. Three of the seven public elementary schools (Sydney Lanier, Eladio R. Martinez and Lorenzo deZavala) are rated Exemplary or Recognized, and there is an Exemplary magnet middle school, The Dallas Environmental Science Academy. Two high quality faith-based K-8 private schools, St. Mary of Carmel School and West Dallas Community School, and a new charter school, The Heights Preparatory School, operated by an exemplary charter management organization (Uplift Education), also serve the West Dallas community. A second middle school, Thomas Edison, is rated Academically Acceptable. A newly opened DCCCD facility, El Centro College West Dallas, rounds out educational options for adults.

In the Pinkston High School Class of 2009, only about 1.3% of graduates’ SAT scores indicated readiness for college. In the Class of 2008, it was 0%.

The challenging situation at the middle and high school levels is somewhat mitigated by several excellent educational support institutions in West Dallas. Mercy Street works within DISD to provide more than 500 students with mentors from 4th grade through graduation. AVANCE, Voice of Hope, Wesley Rankin Community Center, VMLC and Trinity River Mission provide parent training, mentoring, after school and/or summer programming. Despite these success stories, access to excellent educational choices for all families at all grade levels is unquestionably an enormous challenge in West Dallas. In addition, the unmet human needs in West Dallas severely impede children’s ability to achieve educational success. Children who come to school after having slept in a car or on someone's sofa, or who are hungry, in need of medical care, unsupported by parents who are not engaged in their child's education, and who have little expectation for their own academic achievement present very challenging learning conditions. When asked about the challenges they face, again and again teachers and school leaders share that they can handle the academics, or could if students’ outside needs were not so overwhelming. This is a civil rights issue, it is a moral issue, and in so far as West Dallas redevelopment is concerned, it is clear that the absence of quality free public education for all students at all grade levels will seriously undermine development efforts. Conversely, neighborhoods which are strong supporters of schools make it much more likely that significant educational transformation will occur. Never before in the history of Dallas have so many issues and opportunities converged around the question of school improvement. There is heightened public awareness of the magnitude of the issue and the impact of low performing schools on the health of the region, especially at the high school level. The Collaborative provides a platform for school transformation grounded in community regeneration. Since 2008 it has incorporated and magnified the work of local community organizations that are committed to education transformation and applying a “whole community approach” to public education transformation. The ABC’s of Education for West Dallas: The Collaborative for Schools was designed by a team of educators, community residents and not-for-profits, with input from dozens of volunteers and residents. The development team conducted extensive research regarding successful educational turnaround in other cities across the United States, identified components that supported those successful turnarounds, and adopted a plan to address a variety of issues with visible impact over a 3-5 year period and significant transformation at the middle and high school level within 5-8 years, as measured by “Commended” student performance on standardized tests. That plan, the Collaborative for Schools, has a five-part strategy which we call “The ABCs of Education in West Dallas,” designed to support transformation of education options and students’ lives. Four of these five components are staffed and operated by DFCC (see the Attachments section for stand-alone flyers about each of them): 13

1. Advocate for quality education that drives community support for reform a. Parent Action Groups for Education (PAGE) – 120+ parents in training as first educators and best advocates for their children’s academic success b. Faith and Community for Education Transformation (FACET) – 15+ faith and community groups being trained to work with parent advocates for school system transformation 2. Build community infrastructure to support education reform a. The School Zone - West Dallas (TSZ) 20 non-profit organizations across the full spectrum of community resources participating in this effort are focused on significantly moving the dial on two issues in SY 2010-11 and SY2011-12: improving access to quality 0-5 school readiness training for mothers and pre-K children, and remediation and college readiness for students in their middle and high school years. 3. Choose: Support great school choices. Great charter schools including the new Uplift Education campus, The Heights Preparatory School, and excellent parochial schools such as West Dallas Community School and St. Mary of Carmel School prove to parents that children can succeed academically. They model best practices, such as student engagement and principal empowerment, that foster excellent education, and can serve as laboratories for innovation. (DFCC staff members support the partnerships but do not serve as staff at the schools. A DFCC staff member serves on the board at The Heights.) a. Uplift Education (The Heights Preparatory Academy) b. St. Mary of Carmel School c. West Dallas Community School 4. Demonstrate: Measurement and refinement of community and educational transformation activities a. The Metrics Project – 20 participating not-for-profits developing outcomes measures for their own organizations and for their collective impact on education transformation b. UTD and SMU measuring individual and collaborative impact 5. Engage students in their own success via service learning opportunities at all grade levels, internships in the upper grades, and programs that teach character development and college mindedness in all grades. a. The Young Developers Project – 10-12 teens participating in community design each summer The goals of this strategy are to: • Close the achievement gap between West Dallas students and their affluent peers; • Close the opportunity gap with excellent choices for high quality school for all families; • Open the door for great partnerships with DISD through parent and community advocacy such that all students in West Dallas graduate ready for college and careers. The long-term measure of success will be a variety of excellent educational choices for parents, with all students on track for college readiness (as evidenced by “Commended” test scores). The School Zone-West Dallas (TSZ): TSZ, a key strategy of the Collaborative for Schools, is DFCC’s response to the need for supportive resources that create the healthy communities that help to drive the transformation of struggling neighborhood schools. TSZ is a partnership between DFCC, 13 West Dallas Schools - including 10 DISD schools, two private schools, and one charter school - and 20 not-for-profit organizations. TSZ is designed to overcome “the gravitational pull of disorganization and dysfunction” that keeps children in poor communities trapped in poverty by focusing resources primarily on elementary school children and their families, the point where chances for long-term success are highest. As coordinator of TSZ, DFCC is making sure that TSZ’s safety net is tightly woven and covers all of West Dallas with: − − − −

a long-term strategic plan for education transformation with resources deployed according to that plan; gaps in family and community supports identified and filled; information communicated among providers to facilitate effective and efficient services; programs that are cross-marketed so that parents who seek out one particular resource are told about other resources available to them; and 14

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a program to measure the impact of these efforts and ensure that lessons learned from that process inform ongoing operations.

DFCC leads the strategic planning and facilitates coordination, filling in of gaps, Best Practices research, networking, measurement and analysis that its partners do not have time or funds to provide. In April of 2011, the participants in TSZ completed a six weeks strategic planning effort in preparation for undertaking the metrics development work described elsewhere in this document. Out of that strategic planning effort came a focus on two critical components that the group felt could be impacted significantly in 18 months’ time, as well as several longer term areas of intentional focus. The short term areas of focus are: −

Access to quality 0-5 school readiness training for mothers and pre-K children: all participating agencies will focus their energy and resources on access to and delivery of high-quality parenting training and early-childhood development. Presently three participating organizations have direct roles – ARK, AVANCE, Vickery Meadow Learning Center and Wesley Rankin (Mi Escuelita). For descriptions of each, see the end of this section. These organizations currently offer high-quality effective training. Their training will be further validated and enriched by the participation of professors, students and researchers at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU. In addition, participating housers, medical resource and food providers, etc. will inquire as to their customers’ participation in parent training and early-childhood programs and will recommend their resources. In addition, West Dallas Community Centers, Trinity River Mission and others will make space available during the day for parenting and early-childhood classes, as their spaces are vacant until after school hours.

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Remediation and college readiness for students in their middle and high school years: Education Is Freedom, Mercy Street, Trinity River Mission and Voice of Hope will take the lead in this focus area. Their respective programs are described at the end of this section. As with access to quality parent and early-childhood training, other providers participating in TSZ will inquire as to their customers’ participation in these programs and will recommend their resources.

TSZ is also addressing new, critical needs that are developing as the State of Texas prepares to impose draconian budget cuts in its education funding. In SY 2010-11 and SY 2011-12, TSZ’s key program activities will include: -

Parents to Volunteers (P2V): In SY 2011-12, principals expect to lose all their teachers’ aides. These staff members provide essential safety and security by patrolling hallways, performing cafeteria duty, and supervising campus grounds and carpool lanes before and after school. Principals will be required to pull teachers out of classrooms and reduce time devoted to teaching in order to fill these roles. This is unacceptable. In order to help maintain time on task in West Dallas classrooms, TSZ is recruiting a parent corps of up to 160 volunteers per week deployed at all eight West Dallas elementary schools to partially fill unstaffed roles. Many of these volunteers will be parents recruited from DFCC’s Parent Action Groups for Education (PAGE) program, which is conducting trainings to help parents become engaged and effective partners in their children’s education. By August the first volunteers will be recruited, trained and ready to serve during SY 2011-12. This program is being developed in partnership with DISD with the intention of using it as a model in other similarly impacted communities.

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The Tutor Corps: Budget cuts will also substantially increase class sizes (by 50% or even more), decreasing teachers’ time for individual attention and creating a more challenging environment for slow and quick learners alike. TSZ is creating a Tutor Corps to address this need. DFCC staff members are working with TSZ participants, and are reaching out to the Dallas faith community, SMU, UTD, Dallas Baptist University and El Centro College to recruit and train skilled college student tutors with a goal of securing 10 tutors for each of the eight elementary schools. The Tutor Corps, coordinated with DISD senior staff and individual principals, will also be in place for SY 2011-12.

TSZ, which is being incubated at DFCC, is designed to be spun off as a separate 501(c)(3) organization that will assume leadership of the transformation effort. After the initial work of expanding the Collaborative for Schools is completed in early 2012, TSZ will be guided by a Zone Council representing specific community 15

resources and needs, with members carefully selected for their change management skills, interest in school reform, political fortitude and/or knowledge of West Dallas. The Zone Council will: • Help to foster school and community culture focused on education and innovation; • Create a political and social platform for implementation of best practices; and • Advocate on behalf of West Dallas schools with DISD, the City and the State. Powerful Parent and Community Advocacy – PAGE and FACET: Parents are a child’s most powerful champion, but many parents in West Dallas lack the skills to be effective advocates for their children’s educational success. Many West Dallas parents do not speak English, and a large percentage are single mothers. Few are equipped with the skills needed to engage as advocates, and very few have ever entered a voting booth or considered that they might influence public policy. Yet parents with school age children are natural advocates and with the proper tools, they can have a huge impact. They are a vast untapped resource for education transformation. When parents do become engaged as advocates, they are tenacious and effective, and a parent’s involvement in a child’s education is directly linked to that child’s success. DFCC created Parent Action Groups for Education (PAGE) to equip parents as effective advocates for their children’s academic success and key partners in driving education transformation. There are several high quality programs in Dallas that train parents to be involved in their child’s education, and DFCC is supportive of all of them. PAGE has an additional objective – beyond engaging in a child’s studies and classroom activities, both of which are vitally important, PAGE equips parents to change the educational system. In 2010, PAGE began in five West Dallas public schools where parents are now meeting in groups ranging from 4-5 parents to 30-40 depending upon the location and event. The program will expand to 150 parents in six groups in SY 2011-12. After learning to work together as a cohesive force, parents are trained to understand the educational system and the issues found in urban public schools across America. They then focus on Dallas and their own neighborhood schools as they develop a data-driven advocacy agenda and move to action. Already, parents in training are attending school board meetings and addressing significant issues like the Reduction in Force strategy at DISD, where they are advocating for reductions based on performance, not tenure. Additional advocacy for the agenda developed by PAGE participants is provided by faith community members in West Dallas and citywide through Faith and Community for Education Transformation (FACET). FACET is modeled after Prepare the Future, a web-based advocacy initiative founded by Dr. David Hornbeck, former Superintendent of Schools in Philadelphia. FACET’s key strategy is the creation of “Action Groups” to build a powerful public voice in support of education. An Action Group is an in-person and online community of friends who share common values and who commit to become informed by attending monthly FACET training sessions. (FACET captains may attend PAGE training with West Dallas parents, to foster transformational relationships). Together with West Dallas parents and educators FACET members develop an action agenda in support of educational improvements, and they take an action each month by sending a preloaded, preaddressed email to which they add their own comments. Action group members also make one visit each year to an elected official and will have the opportunity to participate in a multi-faith service on the steps of the state capitol. Each advocate is asked to pay $20 per year to support the cost of the program. Fifteen faith communities from West Dallas and the city at large are now forming Action Groups. DFCC will enlist 25-30 congregations in FACET by the end of 2011. (After a theater screening of “Waiting for Superman” – www.waitingforsuperman.com - several individuals also formed Action Groups.) The anticipated result will be mobilization of over 5,000 voters - represented in monthly emails from all of them and periodic phone calls and personal visits to elected officials - united in their determination to transform education in West Dallas and across the city. Community celebration: Following HCZ’s model, DFCC also uses community events and celebrations as vehicles to promote a sense of community pride and shared purpose and to break down communication barriers between ethnic groups. These events are opportunities to weave the social safety net a bit more tightly by promoting the resources available to West Dallas residents. 16

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Dia de la Familia: This annual spring event includes a 2K family fun run/walk, activities for kids and information for parents from social services organizations, Dallas’ police and fire departments, and governmental assistance programs like Medicaid and WIC. DFCC staff members coordinate the logistics in partnership with other community leaders. 200-250 people participate annually.

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Pep Rally for Education: This autumn event promotes TSZ and builds enthusiasm for the new school year. All TSZ partners have booths and information for parents about resources to stabilize families and help children succeed academically. Yvonne Durant, Chief Academic Advisor at DISD, spoke in both English and Spanish, and about 750 people – both Hispanic and African-American – attended in 2010.

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La Posada: This Christmas procession is a tradition organized by the Anita Martinez Recreation Center, Wesley Rankin Community Center and Trinity River Mission. Since becoming involved, DFCC has provided toys and assisted with coordination responsibilities. 350-400 people attend annually.

Measuring it all – The Metrics Project: The resources of the social sector, applied collaboratively, could literally change the academic trajectories of 6,300 students. But DFCC’s social sector partners have had limited access to rigorous measurement tools by which they could quantify the success of their day-to-day work. In response to this challenge, DFCC has been working for 18 months with local university partners and a few of the members of the Collaborative to develop a strategy to design and use metrics to enable the social sector to quantify the impact of its work and significantly improve its outcomes. The result of those conversations, The Metrics Project, is joint effort between DFCC, the UTD Institute of Urban Policy Studies and the UTD Institute of Public Affairs. DFCC is in discussion with the SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development to add its research resources to the project. Launched in February 2011 with all of The School Zone nonprofit partners, The Metrics Project will generate individual and common metrics and measure outcomes and impact, especially the collective ability to “move the dial” regarding causal factors of poverty, beginning with the transformation of the educational system in West Dallas. The Metrics Project will increase the capacity of participating organizations to improve results for their customers by developing a much more precise understanding of their own capacity, their customers’ needs, and the impact of the programs offered on those needs. One of the primary outcomes after the nonprofits have done their own work will be to improve their ability to engage West Dallas residents and empower them to drive changes as opposed to being powerless consumers. By equipping its School Zone partner organizations with metrics and the ability to measure and refine outcomes, DFCC expects The Metrics Project to increase their organizational capacity by 25% and to increase their cost effectiveness by 15%, the equivalent of a $3-7MM infusion of capital into the West Dallas community. Partners in This Effort: DFCC and 20 additional on-the-ground partners are joined in this effort, including: ACCION Texas - The mission of ACCION Texas-Louisiana is to provide credit and service to small businesses that do not have access to loans from commercial sources, and to provide leadership and service to the micro lending field on a national level. Established in 1994 in San Antonio, ACCION has helped Texas entrepreneurs strengthen their businesses, stabilize and increase their incomes, create employment, and contribute to the economic revitalization of their communities. ACT Dallas (Advocates for Community Transformation) – ACT is an inner-city justice ministry whose vision is for Dallas citizens to experience the transforming presence of Jesus Christ through collaborative efforts to establish stable, safe environments, free from injustice and oppression. The ARKGroup (Adults Relating to Kids) - In collaboration with the UT School of Public Health, ARK developed an evidence-based program that enables parents and teachers to provide the social/cultural environment essential to academic success. “ARK for Parents” and “ARK for Teachers” provide strategies that employ consequences and anger management tools that help adults learn to discipline while showing value to children, assisting adults to relate to children in caring, supportive ways that build self-esteem, foster trust and improve communication.

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AVANCE Dallas – AVANCE strives to improve the educational outcome of North Texas Hispanic students by seeking a major paradigm shift in parenting through greater parent education and parent involvement. AVANCE Dallas has served over 12,000 parents and children at its 25 sites. In West Dallas, AVANCE currently has sites at Gabe P. Allen and Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard. Brother Bill’s Helping Hand –Brother Bill's Helping Hand enriches the lives of men, women, and children in the community of West Dallas by empowerment through learning, encouragement through relationships, and ensuring the essentials of life. The organization offers a volunteer staffed community clinic for adults, free minigrocery store, job training for women, English and computer classes, children's activities, and healthy living programs. Builders of Hope – The mission of Builders of Hope CDC is to transform Dallas urban areas by building strong families and healthy, safe neighborhoods through discipleship, community pride, and development of quality affordable housing. Current programs include affordable housing, homebuyer education and counseling, family support services, workforce development for ex-offenders and community mobilization. Education Is Freedom – Education is Freedom (EIF) was founded in 2002 with the vision that every young person deserves the opportunity for a higher education. Today, EIF is a dedicated team providing comprehensive college planning services and producing life-changing results. Its life cycle model spans from a pilot program in Dallas ISD middle schools that recognizes and promotes academic excellence to an intensive high school program in Dallas ISD high schools to college integration services for EIF graduates now enrolled in college. The EIF program aims to promote high school completion among urban students, create a college-going culture across each school community, equip students with the necessary tools to overcome barriers to college success, assist students in navigating and completing the college entrance and funding processes, and to empower parents and guardians to become active participants in their students’ success. Marillac Social Center – Programs include its Seniors Program (offers breakfast and lunch to seniors 55+) and Family Assistance Services (provides financial assistance for rent, utilities, etc.). Marillac Social Center also houses a food pantry that provides low-income West Dallas residents with groceries to feed their families. While providing this help to the community, it also focuses on empowerment and promotes self-sufficiency. Mary R. Saner Child Development Center – Operated by Catholic Charities of Dallas, the center provides families with a quality early childhood program in a safe, nurturing environment. It gives children ages 6 weeks to 5 years the opportunity to grow socially, physically and cognitively in a happy and caring place. Mercy Street –Mercy Street addresses the educational situation in West Dallas by pairing public school students in the fourth grade and up with adults from churches around the city that serve as mentors to the students. Committed mentors remain consistently with students from fourth grade through twelfth grade. Mercy Street hosts weekly Bible clubs, runs several sports leagues, and takes kids to various summer camps. Mercy Street also provides quality work readiness training through two small businesses - bicycle repair and landscaping services. St. Mary of Carmel Catholic School – St. Mary of Carmel is a K-8 parochial school that takes a holistic approach to the development of its students in a faith filled Catholic environment that promotes spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, and physical growth. The school’s high level of achievement is reflected by the accomplishments of its students and graduates, many of whom go on to enjoy successful academic careers at Dallas’ finest private schools. Serve West Dallas – A non-profit organization dedicated to connecting volunteers with Christian ministry efforts in the 75212 zip code area (West Dallas). Through their interactive website, volunteers are able to locate an area they are interested in volunteering in and sign up electronically. Churches, organizations, and individuals are encouraged to do so by visiting the website. Trinity River Mission (TRM) – TRM is a volunteer–based community learning center committed to building a foundation to support high school graduation and post-secondary studies by promoting literacy, language proficiency, and academic achievement. West Dallas parents and their children may volunteer at least 60 hours per family per year in exchange for school supplies, school uniforms, and Christmas gifts. This program serves as an outlet for passionate parents to give back to the TRM and the local community. 18

Uplift Education – Uplift is dedicated to operating schools that provide a quality education by raising and continually maintaining high expectations for its students and staff. Uplift’s high standards are reflected in the high status accorded its operations by the Texas Education Agency. In late-summer 2010, Uplift opened the first two grades of what will become a K-8 charter school in West Dallas where it is providing volunteer leadership for comprehensive transformation of education in West Dallas. VMLC – A non-profit organization whose mission statement is “Changing Lives Through Literacy”. VMLC was founded in 1997 by the members of Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church to address the critical need for English literacy classes for adults in the Vickery Meadow area of Dallas. Today, they not only serve the Vickery Meadow area, but have also opened a satellite location in West Dallas to address the much needed ESL classes within the community there as well. VMLC also offers a free Early Childhood Education Program for the young children of its adult daytime students. Voice of Hope – A Christian community center that provides academic support, strong character models, and family support to the children of West Dallas. The center offers after-school and summer programs for all K-12 students as well as mentoring programs targeted specifically at teenage males. Voice of Hope also distributes food through its food pantry to the families to West Dallas Students and hosts a weekly bible study for widows and seniors. Watermark Community Church – Watermark Community Church is deeply engaged in West Dallas through its school partnership (with C.F. Carr Elementary), mentoring of over 200 children through Mercy Street, volunteer support for several of the faith-based ministries and partnership in multi-faith coalitions seeking to bring economic and educational justice to West Dallas. They are also committed to community restoration (restoring homes through its 2nd Saturday ministry and in partnership with W. Dallas churches), assisting with legal work (through ACT), as well as exploring economic development and job creation opportunities through 2S Land Care and HIS Bridgebuilders. Every year more than 600 Watermark volunteers give of their time and financial resources in partnership with schools, food and medical resource providers, community clean-ups and wherever willing hands are needed. Watermark’s commitment to service is built upon its commitment to community and relies upon building true partnerships rather than simply giving generously. Wesley Rankin Community Center – WDCC is a private, not-for profit organization founded in 1932 to provide children, youth and the West Dallas community with a positive environment for learning and development. Our signature program, Success in Life After-school Academic and Enrichment Program is composed of 7 major focus areas: Cultural Expressions; Imagine Me a Millionaire Financial Literacy; W.A.R- We All Read; It Takes a Village Teen Initiative; World Explorers Health, Sports, Science and Nutrition; Positive Directions Drug Prevention; and Truancy Intervention. Annually, we provide more than 600 participants ages 6-17 with 25+ hours per week of out of school time programming; while increasing their levels of creativity, self-esteem, and personal achievement. We are also open during the summer, spring and other breaks for children who may have no place to go when schools are closed. The current structure is comprised of four sites: Bataan, J. McMillan, Hampton Road and Zaragosa Elementary School. For more information visit www.Westdallas.org or call 214-760-8353. West Dallas Community Centers – An organization with several facilities in West Dallas that offers local youth a wide variety of classes that supplement school education as well as teach life skills such as sewing, financial literacy, nutrition, computer literacy, fashion, and grooming. Youth can also access ESL classes, take classes to earn a GED, and receive assistance in locating employment. West Dallas Community School – Founded in 1995, the West Dallas Community School is K-8 private school that provides students with a classical Christian education, drawing on the rich heritage of Western civilization and encouraging students to develop a worldview that integrates Christian faith into all area of learning. The school believes that students should be respected as unique individuals and strives to help its students realize their highest potential spiritually, intellectually, physically, socially, and creatively.

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Participating institutions in the Collaborative for Schools include: DISD – DISD operates 10 public schools in the area. Principals from all seven elementary schools are fully engaged in the Collaborative for Schools and serve in leadership roles throughout the project. Where there are Outreach Coordinators or PTA/PTOs, they are engaged as well in helping the Collaborative for Schools reach out and connect with parents and community members. SMU and the Simmons School of Education and Human Development – Simmons is leading the SMU partnership in West Dallas, assisting with community engagement efforts, and providing a source of research and evaluation for the various efforts. Additional partnerships at SMU includeStudent Affairs (work study tutors), Campus Leadership (200+ volunteers for school facility improvements), Student Recruiting (“College Mindedness” events), Cox School of Business (proposed school leader business acumen training), Lyle School of Engineering (assistance with building a cell phone communication network), and Student Leadership (elected officers, fraternities and sororities, and student volunteers who help with the annual West Dallas Pep Rally for Education prior to the SMU/TCU football game and host a campus visit with lunch, a tour and a football game for all interested children and parents immediately following the pep rally). UTD Institute of Urban Policy Studies and UTD Institute of Public Affairs – DFCC is developing a partnership with both of these institutions to develop a fully developed strategic plan for collaboration between all of the participating agencies (the UTD Institute of Public Affairs), set objectives and metrics, develop measurement standards and document evidence of change over a five-year period (the UTD Institute of Urban Policy Studies). Additional community resources that support families and businesses include: Anita Martinez Recreation Center, City of Dallas – The Anita Martinez Recreation Center is operated through the City of Dallas and offers a variety of programs to the surrounding community. There is an after-school tutoring program, a summer camp for neighborhood children, and workout facilities available to community members. It is also a central location where many information sessions are held. El Centro College West Dallas Campus – El Centro College is an urban institution preparing students to live, to work, and to be of service in a diverse, global society. A great addition to the West Dallas Community, El Centro is committed to goals that consist of Student Success, Employee Success, Economic and Workforce Development, Community Development, Business and Fiscal Affairs, and Organizational Effectiveness. The West Campus offers students beginning coursework toward many of the over 40 associate degrees and/or certificates offered at El Centro. Lakewest YMCA – One of the twenty-three branches of the Dallas YMCA. The YMCA strives to put Christian values into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all. The YMCA wishes to install values into kids, strengthen families, and promote safe community environments.

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The Collaborative for Housing As the neighborhood regeneration process takes hold, particularly as Edison and Pinkston become better schools and development along the Trinity River begins to take shape, home prices will inevitably rise. If lowincome residents are to remain in the area they now call home, their place must be carefully secured. Primary Goals • Replace vacant lots, blighted homes and derelict multi-family properties with 700+ new homes (498 completed, 300 were completed by Habitat for Humanity before the Collaborative began), meeting housing needs of a variety of individuals and families • Remove duplexes and multi-family developments that contribute to crime and decay and replace them with single family or multifamily units as appropriate Objectives and Plan Details • Place all five year tax delinquent parcels in hands of not-for-profit and for-profit builders (underway) • Buy out slum lord portfolios (accomplished first major acquisition December 2008) • Build effective homeowner/neighborhood associations with established political clout • Create neighborhoods capable of attracting and sustaining private development • Provide support for mixed-income, higher density housing near downtown • Provide job training and entrepreneurship in construction-related fields for youth and re-entry Partners in This Effort: In 2008 DFCC successfully spearheaded a request for a $5.6MM grant from The ReesJones Foundation for multiple types of affordable housing development. Partners in this effort are: Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity – A non-profit, Christian ministry that builds quality affordable homes in partnership with families and communities. Serving as a catalyst for community revitalization, Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity has been homebuilding since 1986 and has built over 850 homes available to families who meet specific income criteria and are willing to be involved in the construction of their home. As of 2010, Habitat had completed 199 new homes in West Dallas - 113 Greenleaf I/II homes and 86 scattered site homes. Builders of Hope – A non-profit that provides quality affordable housing in an effort to assist with the revitalization of West Dallas and the development of a safe and healthy community. Formerly part of the Voice of Hope Ministries, Builders of Hope also works to improve the living condition and value of existing homes in West Dallas, offers homebuyer education and counseling, provides family support services, and promotes community mobilization. DFCC – DFCC’s role has been to help conceptualize and secure partial funding including: • Negotiating the acquisition of a 43-unit slum lord property portfolio (completed); and • Securing a $5.6MM grant from The Rees-Jones Foundation for Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity, Builders of Hope and DFCC (DFCC received $300,000 over three years). Additional organizations in West Dallas that also provide affordable housing are: Dallas Housing Authority –DHA aids residents in obtaining houses they are proud to call homes. DHA built Lake West Village, which consists of 50 single-family homes, attracted retail to the West Dallas Area, and have partnered with the YMCA, Head Start, the Dallas Police Department, and Parkland hospital to open the Lakewest MutiPurpose Center. In addition, DHA was a critical partner in the development of Greenleaf Village I&II which provide more than 400 new single-family homeownership opportunities to modest income families. The majority of these homes were built by Habitat for Humanity and KB Homes. Vecinos Unidos – A community housing development organization assisting residents in West Dallas to develop neighborhoods that provide quality affordable housing and economic opportunities for residents. In addition to constructing homes and attracting businesses to West Dallas, the organization also offers residents education and assistance with regard to credit, loans, budgeting, and general homeownership. 21

The Collaborative for Jobs (2012) Along with quality housing and education, the presence of good jobs within or near the neighborhood is a vital component of successful community regeneration. For community residents to be active in the schools, to be engaged politically, and to be the eyes and ears of the neighborhood, they must be in the neighborhood, not spending 5-10 hours every week commuting (the average commute is currently 35-45 minutes each way). Commercial development is the backbone of nearby jobs in most inner cities. The commercial real estate picture in West Dallas has changed dramatically from the old days of two third-rate groceries selling overpriced low-quality meats and vegetables and a derelict, largely abandoned shopping center. Positive developments include: • Well-functioning West Dallas Chamber of Commerce • Several new nearby big box stores, including Lowes and Wal-Mart - and two new hotels • New development - Belmont Hotel and Cafe, Jack’s Backyard, O’Reilly’s, Hanley-Henman Art Gallery • Proposed West Dallas Recreation and Sports District (Mayor’s Southern Dallas Task Force: Team 7) Mercy Street Field of Dreams, Nash Davis Community Center Renovation, Texas Rangers Little League Field, and hike/bike trails linking to the Trinity • Municipal Management Districts proposed for West Dallas Investments, INCAP • Municipal Site Designation from the City of Dallas Environmental Department • Employment centers at Lone Star Business Park, Goodwill Industries, DHA, DISD, the Post Office and numerous manufacturing and trucking companies Transportation infrastructure is also a critical component of successful economic development. West Dallas has already benefitted or will soon benefit from the following infrastructure improvements: • Singleton Completion and Streetscape Enhancements • Inwood / Hampton Bridge 2009; • Wycliff / Sylvan Bridge - 2011 • Margaret Hunt Hill / Calatrava Bridge – 2011 • Beckley / Canada – on hold until pedestrian/bicycle friendly plan is developed • Sylvan Avenue redevelopment – Union Pacific line to I-30, tying into Coombs Creek trail • Comprehensive hike and bike trail connecting Mercy Street Field of Dreams, the Trinity Water Sports Complex and the Continental Bridge (pedestrians only 2011) Primary Goal: Offer a variety of means of generating income from entrepreneurship and artistic endeavors to traditional employment opportunities that provide a living wage for teens and adults. Long-term Success Measures: • Mass transit options in place for access to employment • Sufficient job training and neighborhood small business incubator • New neighborhood-serving retail (restaurants, grocery and drug stores) and offices Economic Development Objectives: • Work with Builders of Hope, Operation Oasis to continue re-entry job training programs • Increase neighborhood and community-serving retail and attract a branch bank • Increase the effectiveness of the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce • Support the development of the Trinity River Recreational District – a sports complex and leisure and recreation uses centered around the recreational district (may include a resort hotel with indoor water parks and establishing a significant outdoor music and arts festival) • Attract manufacturing-related jobs as well as “Green Development” jobs • Provide day care and after-school programs for working parents

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Next Steps 2011-12 The work of the Collaborative as a whole will require a cultural shift of enormous proportions and may be a generation in its completion. However, it has already accomplished a major slumlord clean-up resulting in new homes for 150 families and has set for itself the goal of significant and measurable improvement to the educational infrastructure within seven years (the time it will take an accomplished West Dallas fifth grader to reach graduation). Next steps include: • Move The School Zone – West Dallas from a loosely knit collection of 20-30 members to a tightly crafted set of collaborators with common goals and objectives and a focus on the most important challenge – quality education (well underway); • Develop a shared and collaborative strategy for “cradle to college” resources for all West Dallas families with specific outcomes expectations for all: o Develop and implement a set of critical performance metrics for all 20 organizations; o Develop and implement metrics to measure how each of the 20 organizations - from after school programs to housing - will move the dial on education transformation; o Begin outcomes evaluation of 20 individual programs and their collective impact; o Identify lessons learned in order to refine ongoing operations; • Develop and implement a plan to cross-market resources offered and boost cross-enrollment to assure no single obstacle is able to short-circuit a child’s educational success; • Institute an electronic dashboard and feedback loop to assure programs and resources accurately reflect community strengths and needs and adequately respond to community objectives; • Mitigate the impact of DISD budget cuts: o Develop a parent corps, P2V of at least 20 parents per elementary school (160 parents) o Develop a Tutor Corps of 10 tutors per elementary school (80 tutors), and • Continue to strengthen DFCC’s core management, staff and operating systems as the backbone organization for TSZ.

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WEST DALLAS COMMUNITY ORGANIZATONS ACCION Texas www.acciontexas.org ACT http://actdallas.org/ AVANCE Dallas - http://www.avance-dallas.org/ Brother Bill’s Helping Hand - http://www.bbhh.org/ Builders of Hope - http://www.buildersofhopecdc.com/ Children’s Medical Center Dallas Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity - http://www.dallas-habitat.org/ Dallas Faith Communities Coalition – http://www.dfcc.us Dallas Healthy Start – Parkland Hospital Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center - http://www.dallasprc.com/ Deharo-Saldivar Health Center - COPC Education Is Freedom - http://www.educationisfreedom.com/ Girls Inc. Goodwill Industries HIS BridgeBuilders Lakewest Y – www.lakewestymca.org/ La Voz del Anciano Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic – www.losbarriosunidos.org Marillac Social Center - http://www.catholiccharitiesdallas.org Mary Saner Child Development Center - www.catholiccharitiesdallas.org/Saner Mercy Street - http://www.mercystreetdallas.org/ MetroCare Services Parkland Community Health Plan Serve West Dallas - http://www.servewestdallas.org/ Smile Builders Dental Center The ARK Group (Adults Relating to Kids) - http://www.childrenscenter.com/ The Childcare Group The Senior Source Trinity River Mission - http://www.trinityrivermission.org/ Vecinos Unidos Vickery Meadow Learning Center - www.vmlc.org Voice of Hope - http://www.voiceofhope.org/ Wesley Rankin Community Center - http://www.wesleyrankin.org/ West Dallas Chamber of Commerce - http://www.westdallaschamber.com/ West Dallas Community Centers - http://www.westdallas.org/ West Dallas Youth and Family Clinic Westmoreland Heights N’hood Association http://www.whna-dallas.org/Default.aspx World Vision of North Texas YoungLife West Dallas YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas

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√

√

√

M M M M M

√ √

√ √

M

√

FACET

Organization

PAGE

presence in West Dallas; not all are participants in the Collaborative. Check mark indicates participation in named activity; M indicates member of The School Zone; S indicates supporter of The School Zone.

Collaborative for Housing

TABLE 4: Organizations that are either based in West Dallas or have a significant

Education Task Force School Zone/ Metrics Project

Partners and Contributors in West Dallas

√

√

M

S

√ √

M M M

√

M

√

M

√ √ √

√

M M M M M

√ √

√

CHURCHES Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos – www.stteresita.org St. Mary of Carmel Catholic Church Watermark Community Church – www.watermark.org West Dallas Community Church – www.wditx.org

S M

PUBLIC ENTITIES

Anita Martinez Recreation Center Dallas Housing Authority - http://www.dhadal.com/ Dallas Police Department Dallas Urban Land Bank Dallas West Branch Library Jaycee Zaragoza Recreation Center Mattie Nash Myrtle Davis Recreation Center West Dallas Business Assistance Center West Dallas Community Court West Dallas Multipurpose Center

√

S S

√ √

DISD SCHOOLS

Dallas Independent School District - http://www.dallasisd.org/ Gabe Allen Elementary CF Carr Elementary George W. Carver Learning Center Lorenzo de Zavala Elementary Amelia Earhart Elementary Sidney Lanier Vanguard Elementary Eladio R. Martinez Learning Center Thomas Edison Middle School Dallas Environmental Science Academy (DESA) L. G. Pinkston High School

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

St. Mary of Carmel Catholic School - www.smcschool.org/ Uplift Education (The Heights Preparatory School) www.uplifteducation.org/ West Dallas Community School - www.wdcschool.org/

√ √ √

M M M

SMU: Simmons School of Education, Lyle School of Engineering, Meadows School of the Arts UTD Institute of Public Affairs and UTD Institute of Urban Policy Studies

√

S

DCCD El Centro College W. Dallas Campus - www.elcentrocollege.edu/westcampus/

√

Bracewell & Giuliani LULAC The Real Estate Council The Spectrum Place The Teaching Trust West Dallas Investments

√ √

PRIVATE, PAROCHIAL AND CHARTER SCHOOLS

UNIVERSITIES

DALLAS COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT (DCCCD) OTHER PARTICIPANTS

√ √ √

S

√ √ √

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√

S S

√

FACET

PAGE

Collaborative for Housing Education Task Force School Zone/ Metrics Project

Organization

Faith Communities in West Dallas and Beyond Without addressing the spiritual needs of the community, any comprehensive plan would be incomplete. The spiritual gifts of the West Dallas community are of tremendous value to the rebuilding effort (more than 60 faith groups meet throughout West Dallas). Work with the faith community also affords the Collaborative an effective tool to engage individuals and their communities in the relational aspect of community rebuilding. By coming together in small groups, in safe settings, people from across different economic, political and social spectrums form close bonds, develop real understanding of each other’s strengths and challenges, and make effective use of their combined resources. In the spirit of partnership and mutual care, the Collaborative supports the following activities: • Prayerful support of all faith community activities in West Dallas and elsewhere • Support for the development of service opportunities and relationships for all faiths West Dallas faith communities have a vital role to play in the completion of the work of the Collaborative. Their participation adds vital information regarding the resources and needs of the West Dallas community in all its many aspects. Their leaders add credibility and strength. Among the faith communities in West Dallas, the following are directly involved in one of more components: • • • • •

• • • • •

Bill Harrod Memorial Baptist Church Dallas West Church of Christ New Pilgrim Rest MBC New Bible Way Warren Chapel AME Church

West Mt. Horeb Missionary Baptist Church Greater Mt. Hebron Baptist Church Greater Mt. Olive Baptist Church Jesus Ministry West Dallas Community Church

In addition, the following faith communities are active contributors to life and community in West Dallas: • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • •

Baptiste Bibleway Church of God in Christ Dallas West Church of Christ Greater Tried Stone Baptist Church Homeland Street Missionary Baptist Church New Mount Calvary Baptist Church St. Mark AME Zion Church Luz Bethel Baptist Church Macedonia Baptist Church

New Hope Church New Morning Star Baptist Church Progressive Missionary Baptist Church Puget Street Christian Church Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church St. Marks Methodist Church St. Theresa Catholic Church The Great Shepherd House Victory Cathedral COGIC

The partners in the Collaborative are sustained by many, many faith communities including: Builders of Hope • • • • • •

Mercy Street

Highland Park Presbyterian Church Irving Bible Church Jesus Ministry Oak Cliff Bible fellowship Park Cities Presbyterian Watermark Church

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Brother Bill’s Helping Hand • •

Park Cities Baptist Church Watermark Church

Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic •

North Dallas Shared Ministries

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First Baptist Church Dallas Friendship West Baptist Church Grace Bible Church Highland Park Presbyterian Church Highland Park United Methodist Church Irving Bible Church New St Peters Presbyterian Church Northwest Bible Church Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Park Cities Presbyterian Church These Are They The Village Church Watermark Church

Merrillac Social Center •

Wesley Rankin Community Center

Catholic Charities

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Serve West Dallas • Highland Park Presbyterian Church St. Mary of Carmel School • •

St. Rita Catholic Church St. Monica Catholic Church

Trinity River Mission • •

Lover’s Lane United Methodist Church Sun Creek United Methodist Church

Vickery Meadow Learning Center •

Temple Emanu-El

Voice of Hope • • • • • • • •

Custer Road United Methodist Church First UMC Dallas First UMC Duncanville First UMC Irving First UMC Richardson First UMC Rockwall Highland Park United Methodist Church Lover’s Lane United Methodist Church New World United Methodist Church Northaven United Methodist Church Spring Valley United Methodist Church St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church Suncreek United Methodist Church University Park United Methodist Church Walnut Hill United Methodist Church

West Dallas Community Centers

Coppell Bible Fellowship Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration Highland Park Presbyterian Church North Dallas Community Bible Fellowship New St. Peter’s Presbyterian Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Park Cities Presbyterian Church Watermark Church

•

West Dallas Community Church

Westmorland Heights •

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Dallas West Church of Christ

KEY:

WEST DALLAS COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE FOR SCHOOLS, JOBS & HOUSING Organization Chart

DFCC – a 501(c)(3) organization, source of funds for all Dallas Faith Communities Coalition (DFCC) collaborative activities governed by DFCC Board of Directors Governing body with agreement among participants but no convened separate legal structure (yet), member nonprofits fund their The West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing own activities only (WDCC or the “collaborative”): An informal coalition of organizations – nonprofits, DISD, charter and private schools, SMU WDCC initiative and DFCC (the Backbone Organization) created

THREE PHASED INITIATIVES

Described in the plan, The West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing (the “Collaborative”)

Collaborative for Housing (2008-2009) • DFCC • Builders of Hope • Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity • City of Dallas Urban Land Bank

Collaborative for Schools (2009 and Ongoing) • 20 NFP Partners • 10 Public Schools • 3 Private or HighPerforming Charter Schools • SMU and UTD See next page for details

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Collaborative for Jobs (Launch 2012-13)

Governing body with agreement among participants but no separate legal structure (yet), member nonprofits fund their own activities only DFCC – a 501(c)(3) organization, source of funds for all collaborative activities School Zone strategy

The Collaborative for Schools: 3 Major Strategies

DFCC strategy Advisory group

Education Task Force: DFCC, nonprofits, SMU, UTD, DISD, charter & private schools

The School Zone-West Dallas leadership group: DFCC (Backbone Organization) and nonprofit leaders

Strategy 1: Promise Neighborhood model The School Zone-West Dallas (TSZ): DFCC (Backbone Organization) plus 20 nonprofits and SMU

DFCC

Strategy 2: The Metrics Project UTD, DFCC and nonprofits measure impact of all activity in the Collaborative for Schools

PAGE Leadership Team: DFCC and PAGE participant leaders

Strategy 3: Community Organizing PAGE parent advocacy & FACET faith community advocacy

Engage parents by expanding access to training about early childhood development and parenting skills, and training them to engage as advocates within the schools and at the District and State level; Engage students in their own success with leadership training, mentoring, in-school interventions and college readiness; Engage DISD by meeting principals’ needs at the elementary school level and focusing on middle school improvement through mentoring and early college readiness; and Engage the social sector by building a scaffold of supportive resources.

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FACET Steering Committee: DFCC and FACET team leaders

The School Zone – West Dallas It is difficult, often impossible, to raise healthy children in a disintegrated community. Without local institutions that draw families and young people together around common interests and activities…even the most heroic child-rearing is likely to fail. Conversely, by gathering and organizing members of the community around activities of common interest — particularly the healthy development of children — even the most devastating conditions can be reversed. - Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc.: Growth Plan FY 2001-2009 The Issue: In the 11.5 square mile area that comprises West Dallas, poverty and unemployment are more than double that of the city of Dallas. Fewer than 50% of residents have a high school diploma. Ten public schools serve the area; five are or have been rated Exemplary or Recognized, but the academic performance of many students at middle and high school levels remains poor. In SY 2009-10 no graduating student at Pinkston High School (the only West Dallas high school) scored high enough on the SAT to indicate readiness for college. Background: In 2009, the West Dallas Education Task Force – a joint effort between community- based organizations and faith groups, West Dallas principals, DISD, DCCCD, SMU, other educators, the Dallas business community and concerned citizens engaged in education reform at the local and national level - committed to a collaborative transformation initiative built upon open dialogue, volunteerism and community engagement. A set of strategies was developed by the Task Force and is now known as the Collaborative for Schools (part two of the three part West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing). The Collaborative calls for the formation of a special “Zone” where resources are focused in a collaborative and coordinated way to achieve education transformation. The Response: The School Zone - West Dallas (TSZ) is a partnership between 13 West Dallas Schools, including 10 DISD schools, two private schools, one charter school and 20 not-for-profit organizations, coordinated by Dallas Faith Communities Coalition (DFCC), with the goal of ensuring that all West Dallas children receive the “cradle to career” resources they need to graduate from high school ready for college. The organizations have jointly committed to provide their resources to children and families of West Dallas in a way that supports the healthy communities that are needed to drive education transformation and remove impediments to student performance. By focusing resources primarily on elementary school children and their families, TSZ organizations intervene at the point where chances for long-term success are highest. The anticipated result is improved academic performance as students and educators are able to focus on learning rather than the students’ social service needs. TSZ also addresses the persistent and pervasive educational issues that plague families and educators throughout Dallas; provides resources and partnership for ongoing DISD efforts; supports implementation of best practices learned from other school turnaround efforts; and helps to build an entrepreneurial culture that develops new solutions and positions Dallas and DISD as thought leaders in the school reform movement. In February of 2011, TSZ partners began a 12-month process to develop metrics and measure their individual and collective impact on the quality of life in West Dallas, beginning with education. The Metrics Project will increase the capacity of TSZ partners to improve results for those served, and by engaging West Dallas residents, it will empower them to drive changes, especially in education. TSZ was initially funded by The Rees-Jones Foundation, followed by support from The Boone Family Foundation and Texas Capital Bank in 2010.

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Major Goals • Build on three years of intense activity that has generated a strong core of not-for-profits and educators; • Build a critical mass of informed, empowered adults who are engaged in educational success; • Intervene early and progressively with strong parenting skills and early childhood education, powerful education support programs in elementary school, healthy homes, work-readiness, solid healthcare, and cross enrollment between providers to assure coverage for the multiple needs families encounter; and • Carefully evaluate effectiveness, strengthen effective programs and phase out ineffective ones. Primary Outcomes • A network of public and private schools with an enriched level of parent and community engagement, equipped with high levels of individual autonomy and freedom to innovate as conditions in West Dallas require; • Every school in West Dallas rated “Recognized” or “Exemplary” by the Texas Education Agency and every West Dallas high school graduate ready for college; • A “self-reinforcing community of families building a common future through their own efforts.”34 Success To Date • Program development and expansion • Growing leadership team • Strong backbone organization (DFCC) • 20 organizations offering a full array of interventions, programs and resources to modest income families • Newly implemented component to evaluate objective data (all 20 organizations participating, being developed by UTD and SMU and funded by The Boone Foundation) Next Steps 2011 • Focus on families with children aged 0-12 (adding older children as the initiative progresses); • Move The School Zone – West Dallas from a loosely knit collection of members to a tightly crafted set of collaborators with common goals and objectives and a focus on the most important challenge – quality education; • Develop and implement a set of critical metrics; • Begin evaluation of individual programs and collective impact; • Cross-market resources offered and boost cross-enrollment to assure no single obstacle is able to shortcircuit a child’s educational success; • Institute a feedback loop to assure programs and resources accurately reflect community strengths and needs and adequately respond to community objectives; and • Continue to strengthen the backbone organization’s core management, staff and operating systems. 34

Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc.: Growth Plan FY2001-2009; Fall 2003 Update

To learn more about DFCC, please visit our website at www.dfcc.us or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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The Metrics Project When the fabric of community is destroyed, things that middle class communities take for granted — like working schools, useable playgrounds, decent housing, support from religious institutions, functioning civic organizations and safe streets — are nonexistent, or so marginal that they are ineffective. When this occurs in poor communities, the gravitational pull of disorganization and dysfunction is so strong on already fragile families that only a small fraction of the children in these neighborhoods can escape. While these exceptional youths are labeled “resilient” or are justly celebrated as “beating the odds,” the vast majority of children fail in school, have troubled home lives and do not reach their full potential. - Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc.: Growth Plan FY 2001-2009 The Issue: In the 11 square mile area that comprises West Dallas, poverty and unemployment are more than double that of the city of Dallas. Fewer than 50% of residents have a high school diploma. Ten public schools serve the area; five are or have been rated Exemplary or Recognized, but the academic performance of many students at middle and high school levels remains poor. In SY 2009-10 no graduating student at Pinkston High School (the only West Dallas high school) scored high enough on the SAT to indicate readiness for college. The social sector can and should have a tremendous impact on this issue. Their resources, applied collaboratively, could literally change the academic trajectories of 6,300 students. The challenge to be addressed is the lack of a coordinated strategy and limited access to rigorous measurement tools in the day-today work of the West Dallas social sector. Dallas Faith Communities Coalition (DFCC) has introduced a collaborative strategy to focus on the most important challenge – quality education - and add one specific tool, access to which will equip the social sector to significantly improve its outcomes individually and collectively. That tool is performance metrics with regular outcomes measurement and a refinement cycle for individual participants and for the group as a whole. Background: In 2009, the West Dallas Education Task Force – a joint effort between community-based organizations and faith groups, West Dallas principals, DISD, DCCCD, SMU, other educators, the Dallas business community and concerned citizens engaged in education reform at the local and national level - committed to a collaborative transformation initiative built upon open dialogue, volunteerism and community engagement. A set of strategies was developed by the Task Force and is now known as the Collaborative for Schools (part two of the three part West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing). The Collaborative calls for the formation of a special “Zone” where resources are focused in a collaborative and coordinated way to achieve education transformation. The Response: The School Zone - West Dallas (TSZ) is a key component of the Collaborative for Schools. It is a partnership between 13 West Dallas Schools, including 10 DISD schools, two private schools, one charter school and 20 not-for-profit organizations, coordinated by DFCC and funded initially by The Rees-Jones Foundation. The organizations have jointly committed to provide their resources to children and families of West Dallas in a way that supports the healthy communities that are needed to drive education transformation. They are working together to address issues that inhibit student performance through five key strategies. The Metrics Project is one of these five strategies. The Metrics Project builds capacity for the participants in TSZ through the development of metrics for each organization and for the Collaborative as a whole. While the immediate outcome is establishing and using metrics (Phase One and Two), having and using metrics over the next five years (Phase Three) will enable measurement of and increases in the effectiveness of the West Dallas social sector as it works together to 33

alleviate three critical causes of poverty: lack of decent affordable housing, lack of quality educational opportunities and absence of living wage jobs. Initial goal setting and outcomes to be delivered by the group will be led by the UTD Institute of Public Affairs. Metrics will be developed and measurement will be completed by the UT Dallas Institute of Urban Policy Studies. DFCC is in conversation with the SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development to measure outcomes of the collaborative work on improving student performance, in particular, the increases in their scores on state standardized tests. The Metrics Project began in February 2011. Phase One, which will be completed by April 2011, is the development of a strategic plan for the entire Collaborative. Phase Two is the establishment of metrics and the first round of measurement and evaluation, which will be completed in December 2011. In Phase One and Two, metrics and measurements of the collaborative effort will focus on the effect of the Collaborative for Education. Major Goals • Define issues to be addressed re: number of people involved, their quality of life, the economic and social impact for West Dallas and the impact upon the region at large; • Establish metrics and identify anticipated outcomes that respond to these highly defined issues; • Measure specific outcomes and their impact on the issue(s) being addressed (effectiveness); • Identify effective strategies and revise ineffective ones, with funds allocated accordingly (efficiency); • Identify and correct gaps and overlaps in resources provided to the West Dallas community; • Communicate measured impact to donors and investors; and • Increase leverage and impact of donor and investor funds. Primary Outcomes • Participating organizations will increase their use of Quality of Life (QOL) metrics from 10% of participating organizations to 75% by December 2011; through the Collaborative, they will increase community participation in QOL queries from 1% to 5% by December 2011; • Participating organizations will increase their ownership of the Collaborative and commitment to its educational outcomes by 50% as measured by pre- and post-participation surveys by May 2011; • 100% of participating organizations will increase their capacity for self-assessment, leading to program refinement as measured by pre- and post-participation surveys by August 2011; and • Participating organizations will increase their use of program metrics (individual and shared) from 5% to 75% as measured by number of participating organizations using formal metrics by December 2011. Success to Date • 18 months of preparation – DFCC working with UTD and SMU to develop the project and prepare for launch; • Project launched in February 2011 with meetings with all participating partners to introduce the project and begin development by each partner of its organization’s mission, vision and values statements; Next Steps • Establishment of a strategic plan for the project (April 2011); • First round of measurement and evaluation (December 2011). To learn more about DFCC, please visit our website at www.dfcc.us or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Parent Action Groups for Education The Issue: Parents are a child’s most powerful champion, but parents in West Dallas lack the skills to be effective advocates for their children’s educational success. In West Dallas as in most low-income communities, children are often raised by single parents (typically mothers). Many of them do not speak English, few are equipped with the skills needed to engage as powerful advocates, and very few have ever entered a voting booth or considered that they might be able to influence public policy. Yet parents with school age children are natural advocates and with the proper tools, they can have a huge impact. Parents at schools everywhere are members of the PTA and are actively involved in their children’s education. They are a vast untapped resource for education transformation. When parents do become engaged as advocates, they are tenacious and effective, and most importantly, a parent’s involvement in his or her child’s education is directly linked to that child’s success, especially in the early grades. In West Dallas parents face cultural and language barriers that keep them from actively participating in their children’s school. They are very young – in 2009 11% of births were to teens, 68% were to unmarried mothers and 55% of births were to mothers who didn’t finish high school. In any given year there are 70-100 high school students who become pregnant and carry a child to term, some of them for the second or third time. West Dallas parents face tremendous hurdles in becoming advocates; to improve educational outcomes for all West Dallas children, parents must be provided the tools to become key partners in driving change. The lack of access to a quality education is a civil rights issue, it is a moral issue, and in so far as West Dallas redevelopment is concerned, it is clear that the absence of quality free public education for all students at all grade levels seriously undermines all other community redevelopment efforts. The Response: In 2009, the West Dallas Education Task Force – a joint effort between community-based organizations and faith groups, West Dallas principals, DISD, DCCCD, SMU, other educators, the Dallas business community and concerned citizens engaged in education reform at the local and national level - committed to a collaborative transformation initiative built upon open dialogue, volunteerism and community engagement. A set of strategies for education transformation was developed by the Task Force and is now known as the Collaborative for Schools (part two of the three part West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing). One of the key components of the Collaborative is powerful parent and community advocacy. Empowering Parents: To empower parents to become effective advocates for their children’s academic success, DFCC created Parent Action Groups for Education (PAGE), a grassroots advocacy movement that prepares parents to lead the drive for excellent public schools. There are several high quality programs in Dallas that train parents to be involved in their child’s education, and DFCC is supportive of all of them. PAGE has an additional objective – beyond engaging in a child’s educational success, PAGE equips parents to change the educational system. We believe that there is no greater proponent for change than an engaged parent and that in fact, without them the substantive change that is required to get us back on track will not happen. Funded by The Boone Family Foundation, PAGE trains and engages parents, teachers, outreach coordinators and PTA/PTO members utilizing a curriculum with community-building and advocacy development infused throughout with basic organizing. DFCC developed this curriculum in response to parent topic requests. It has borrowed successful strategies from programs in other cities, basing it on the work of researchers and organizations around the country, such as Teaching for Change’s Tellin’ Stories Project in D.C. and the Harvard Family Research Project, while assuring that it addresses issues specific to West Dallas, many of which are shared city wide. PAGE began in four West Dallas public schools in 2010. 100-150 parents are now meeting monthly in the four PAGE groups, and the program will expand through 2012 until all elementary and middle schools have action groups (projected to be 200-300 parents). 35

The first semester of a newly-formed PAGE group is focused on community and communication building. Crosscultural or cross-neighborhood community relationships in West Dallas are often fractured or nonexistent, and parents often feel disconnected from their schools as well as from each other. Among many low-income parents, stronger communication and relational skills have been identified as a major need before larger-scale advocacy efforts can be pursued. After learning to work together as a cohesive force, parents are trained to understand the educational system and the issues found in urban public schools across America. They then focus on Dallas schools and their own neighborhood schools as they develop an advocacy agenda and move to action. Already, parents in training are attending school board meetings and speaking to significant issues like the coming Reduction in Force at DISD where they are advocating for reductions based on performance, not tenure. PAGE has two simultaneous engagement tracks: participation in PAGE groups, and participation in the Parent Leadership Team. The Parent Leadership Team engages parents who are more advanced in their relational and advocacy abilities in developing the initial advocacy agenda for PAGE, as well as in guiding their own respective PAGE meetings - fostering community leadership and ownership. Curriculum: PAGE makes use of training and curriculum provided by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a highly successful program being imported to Dallas from Kentucky by DFCC. Once the initial four PAGE groups have advanced through the community building phase into advocacy PAGE will begin implementation of the Pritchard program. The Prichard Center for Parent Leadership (CPL) will conduct a twoday workshop entitled Parents and Teachers Talking Together (PT3) with approximately fifteen parents and fifteen teachers. PT3 generates an Action Plan involving all fifteen parents and fifteen teachers and based on two questions: 1) What do our children need? and 2) How do we get there together? Advocacy agendas that have been developed by similar groups in Pennsylvania, Ohio and California will be discussed with the PAGE teams as they develop their own agenda. Ten additional parents and community members will observe the PT3 session as facilitator trainees. During a second one-day session they will strategize implementation of the ideas learned at the PT3 and will be trained to facilitate the workshop themselves. By the end of the two-day workshop, the ten facilitators will be equipped to continue leading workshops on a monthly basis with additional participants. After the project is fully established (18-24 months), the PAGE teams will apply to become a local charter of Parents for Public Schools (www.parents4publicschools.com). The partnership with CPL will culminate in the Parent Leadership Institute, six days of intensive training spread over 9-12 months (three two-day sessions) that builds upon knowledge gained by the parent facilitators during the PT3 process. Up to 30 parents can participate in this advanced training, which teaches them to analyze school data, create programs in collaboration with school administrators, and interact comfortably with the district. This training offers the strongest empowerment for parents to engage as partners with the schools and the district in their children’s education. Faith Community Support: Additional advocacy for the data-driven agenda developed by PAGE participants is provided by faith community members in West Dallas and citywide through DFCC’s program Faith and Community for Education Transformation (FACET). FACET is modeled after Prepare the Future, a very successful web-based advocacy initiative founded by Dr. David Hornbeck, former Superintendent of Schools in Philadelphia. In 2011 DFCC will add 25-30 new faith communities to FACET, engaging over 4,000 voters in support of education transformation. Both the PAGE and FACET programs use a customized registration website and software which connects advocates with their elected officials at the local, state and national levels. The Impact: With support from the local faith community (as is underway in Dallas), parents in Pennsylvania were able to influence the outcome of a gubernatorial election, generate a $50MM increase to the State education budget, and in ten years’ time see every school in Pennsylvania reach adequate yearly progress. The primary outcome for this and every program of the Collaborative for Schools is to reach the point where every student in West Dallas graduates from high school ready for college. We anticipate three years to have programs in place, five years to see marked improvements, and seven to ten years to completely reach the goal. 36

Faith and Community for Education Transformation The Issue: In the 11 square mile area that comprises West Dallas, poverty and unemployment are more than double that of the city of Dallas. Fewer than 50% of residents have a high school diploma. Ten public schools serve the area; four are rated Exemplary or Recognized, but the academic performance of many students at middle and high school levels remains poor. Only about 1% of the students in the Class of 2009 at Pinkston High School (the only West Dallas high school) scored high enough on the SAT to indicate readiness for college. The Response: In 2009, the West Dallas Education Task Force – a joint effort between community-based organizations and faith groups, West Dallas principals, DISD, DCCCD, SMU, other educators, the Dallas business community and concerned citizens engaged in education reform at the local and national level - committed to a collaborative transformation initiative built upon open dialogue, volunteerism and community engagement. A set of strategies for education transformation was developed by the Task Force and is now known as the Collaborative for Schools (part two of the three-part West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing). One of the key strategies of the Collaborative is powerful parent and community advocacy. A Powerful Advocacy Movement: DFCC is leading a movement to reinforce the efforts of low-income parents to secure a quality education for their children in the West Dallas Schools by backing them with support from Dallas’ faith communities. Faith and Community for Education Transformation (FACET) is a network of volunteers from faith communities across Dallas speaking up to decision makers in support of quality education. Modeled after Prepare the Future, a very successful advocacy initiative founded by Dr. David Hornbeck, former Superintendent of Schools in Philadelphia, FACET is a companion to Parent Action Groups for Education (PAGE), which recruits and trains parents to lead the drive for excellent public schools by helping them become actively involved in their children’s education. Action Groups are the key strategy for building a powerful public voice through FACET. Through Action Groups formed by faith community volunteers and interested citizens, participants learn about the challenges in urban American education and different approaches for addressing them; learn how to conduct effective meetings and public conversations; and develop leadership and communication skills that allow them to build trust among participants and resolve conflict. They work with Dallas ISD to support parent engagement in schools and other reform measures. Working with principals, district senior management, district program staff and Trustees, they develop a shared action agenda to drive reforms necessary to ensure a future full of hope and possibilities for ALL of Dallas’ children. FACET captains attend PAGE training with West Dallas parents, to foster transformational relationships. FACET members build relationships with legislators because they are a valuable resource for sharing information building contact networks. FACET members also engage in the public dialogue about education reform through an email Action Alert system, which can be used to communicate bi-partisan candidate information when an education-related matter is at issue, and which also allows members to engage in lobbying activity within permissible limits for nonprofit organizations. The Impact: Eleven faith communities from West Dallas and the city at large are now forming Action Groups. DFCC will enlist 25-30 additional congregations in FACET by the end of 2011. (After a theater screening of “Waiting for Superman” – www.waitingforsuperman.com - several individuals also formed Action Groups.) The result will be mobilization of over 5,000 citizens united in their determination to transform education in West Dallas and across the city - a powerful voice for children all year long. To learn more about DFCC, please visit our website at www.dfcc.us or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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The School Zone Pep Rally for Education On __________, 2011 from 10am-12pm The School Zone – West Dallas will hold its second annual Pep Rally for Education at the Field of Dreams sports complex in West Dallas. The field and the street in front of it will be transformed from a baseball and soccer center into a festive carnival street fair focused on educational excellence. Participants will enter through an archway of yellow balloons into a world of food, music, bounce houses, sports figures and information. Sixteen not-for-profit organizations and thirteen area schools will have booths to inform and engage parents and students in the resources available in West Dallas to support educational success. After the event, parents and students will board a bus brigade for a no-cost college visit to SMU where they will participate in a campus tour/introduction to college and attend an SMU game. The Pep Rally will be divided into different “Zones” of fun and educational activities: • The “Learning Zone” where children and parents will find educational activities and tools for teachable moments to reinforce what children learn at school each day • The “Art Zone” with arts and crafts activities for children and an opportunity to highlight the new arts focus at Carver Elementary • The “Sports Zone” where the Dallas Mavericks, Champ, the Mavericks Mascot, and the Dallas Cowboys Rhythm and Blues Dancers will be making guest appearances. Members of the SMU soccer team and students will also play games with the children • The “Food Zone” with free hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, drinks, desserts and more • The “Fun Zone” with bounce houses and carnival games Before the event, every student in West Dallas will receive a cool t-shirt (logo above) identifying them as a member of The School Zone. By wearing the t-shirt they will show pride in their community, identify themselves as members of a special zone within the larger Dallas Independent School District, and demonstrate that striving for educational excellence is underway. On the back of each t-shirt is a list of the participating schools and not-for-profit agencies – a resource far less likely to be lost or thrown away than a piece of paper or a card. The School Zone Pep Rally is a fun way to highlight the importance of educational achievement and show the work that is being done to transform West Dallas’ schools. It is a joint project between The School Zone – West Dallas and DISD, supported by DFCC staff, and made possible by the assistance of volunteers from West Dallas schools and community organizations, SMU, Watermark Church and many other community partners. For information about how you can help celebrate education in West Dallas, contact Dallas Faith Communities Coalition at [email protected] or 214-269-3340.

To learn more about DFCC, please visit our website at www.dfcc.us or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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The Young Developers Project The Opportunity • Fifteen students from Pinkston High School, in three groups of five students each • Seven weeks of study and application: June 27 through August 6, 2011. • Each group’s project involves researching the most comprehensive and holistic community development approach for their target area, compiling asset mapping results from that area, and creating, through a charrette process, a land-use and social resources plan based on community assets and innovative ideas Educational Objectives • To research other models of effective asset-based community development around the country • To experience hands-on practice in community listening and asset mapping • To learn how to ask hard, penetrating questions to find the roots of historical and current economic and social inequities, in order to create a sustainable, holistic approach to community development that brings about deep, ongoing justice and reconciliation • To learn how to take the time and find the tools needed to evaluate options and make wise long-range decisions • To instill the values of imagination and creativity, combined with practicality and realism • To affirm a strong work ethic and self-motivation Application Objectives • Practice door-to-door community organizing to discover neighbors’ assets and generate interest in joining this community project • Through field trips and sessions with local and national grassroots community development organizations, the Dallas City Design Studio, and others, interns will incorporate their research, experience, and ideas into development plans and drawings • During a two day design charrette, each intern group will create their own development design for what they as a group envision for the area • Final designs will be judged in a contest and awarded a $500 college scholarship based on the successful incorporation of: 1. Holistic & restorative approach - socially and environmentally 2. Sustainability 3. Connectivity to other innovative approaches around the country 4. Long-term asset-based economic development, with the primary objective being to stabilize and empower the current residential population, and with the ability to adapt to needs as the neighborhood evolves • Community organizations and developers will be encouraged to incorporate the best ideas from the interns’ designs into development in the West Dallas area

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Annual Breakfast for Education Each year the Dallas Faith Communities Coalition hosts an annual breakfast featuring high-profile leaders at the forefront of education reform. This year, we have the opportunity, in partnership with the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University to respond to an emerging opportunity in DISD and hear from thought leaders as they consider what the community expects from and can offer to our new Superintendent of Schools in the form of a very special dialogue between Dean Chard (Simmons), Sandy Kress (special consultant to the Bush Institute), Sal Cavasos (Superintendent of Schools in Alice, Texas, a high performing school district outside Houston) and other education reformers. Each year our breakfast has grown in size and the event this year is anticipated to attract 150-200 business, civic and philanthropic leaders who are instrumental in the field of education in North Texas. Because many of the attendees will leave the event excited by what they have heard, DFCC typically schedules a full day of smaller scale conversations with the speakers and other interested parties and this year will be no different. At the event, our guest of honor will be Jack Lowe, former DISD Trustee. We will also recognize a significant individual’s contribution to West Dallas redevelopment; update you about our business, civic and faith community coalition’s progress in implementing the West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing; and make an exciting announcement about a new collaboration with SMU. This year for the first time we are offering sponsorship opportunities to the Dallas business community. The sponsorship will help us to offer the breakfast at no cost to out West Dallas partners and any additional funds generated by sponsorship will help to cover DFCC’s operations costs as we implement the Collaborative. Sponsorship levels are as follows and we encourage you to consider sponsorship by your company: PRESENTING SPONSOR ♦ $10,000 Priority seating and tables for 20 ♦ Podium recognition during breakfast ♦ Featured as Presenting Sponsor in publicity and during breakfast program ♦ Option to display banner during breakfast ♦ Option to display signage outside breakfast and at prior evening reception ♦ Recognition in thank you ad ♦5 invitations to VIP Reception GOLD SPONSOR ♦ $5,000 Priority seating and tables for 20 ♦ Podium recognition during breakfast ♦ Featured as Gold Sponsor in publicity and during breakfast program ♦ Full-page recognition in program ♦ Option to display banner during breakfast ♦ Option to display signage outside breakfast and at prior evening reception ♦ Recognition in thank you ad ♦ 3 invitations to VIP Reception TABLE SPONSOR ♦ $1,000 Priority seating and table for 10 ♦ Featured as Table Sponsor in publicity Please consider joining us on June 23 with a sponsorship that demonstrates your commitment to the cause of education transformation in West Dallas. We will be contacting you by telephone in the coming days to discuss your support. Until then, thank you for supporting great education in Dallas!

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West Dallas Community Celebrations Primary Goal: Celebrate and strengthen the many close-knit communities that are West Dallas.

Current Challenges • West Dallas is largely identified as ‘dangerous’ by outsiders; in order to turn around the community, an image change is required and visitors need a reason to cross the bridge • The West Dallas community needs celebration to balance the work of rebuilding Spring Celebration: Dia de la Familia and Family Fun Run • Focus on physical activity and fun out of doors healthfulness • Bring in resources from outside the West Dallas community • Provide a fun day of free events while showcasing the talents of West Dallas children Back-to-School Celebration: Pep Rally for Education • Build enthusiasm for the new school year • Identify The School Zone – West Dallas as a special “Zone” within DISD • Identify resources for parents and families with the list on the back of the Pep Rally t-shirts Holiday Celebration: La Posada • Join faith groups in observing an old ritual with new partners • Engage children and families with local not-for-profit resource providers • Build trust and friendly relationships Success Stories • The third annual Family Fun Run took place in March 2011; for pictures see the Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/61221691@N03/. This annual event will expand as the Trinity bridges are completed. • 750 people attended the Pep Rally for Education in August 2010 to celebrate the new school year. • For two years DFCC has partnered with four other organizations to host an annual West Dallas Community Posada. 350+ people attended in 2009; gifts were provided to 200-300 children in 2010. Volunteer and Donor Needs: Volunteers are needed at all events! We need people to staff information tables, help at arts & crafts and game booths, serve refreshments, supervise children, put out traffic cones, direct traffic and control crowds, and set up before and take down after events. At la Posada volunteers are needed to help West Dallas dads wrap the tree in lights, fill and hand out gift bags, make and set out luminarias, and lead songs and play guitar during the walk. Donors are needed to provide Pep Rally t-shirts, food and refreshments, children’s holiday gifts, printing costs, entertainment, arts & crafts supplies, games, bounce houses, and decorations. For information about how you can support our community celebrations, contact Dallas Faith Communities Coalition at [email protected] or 214-269-3340.

To learn more about DFCC, please visit our website at www.dfcc.us or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Map source - Research Compilation: West Dallas (ZIP Code 75212), December 2006, The J. McDonald Williams Institute and the Foundation for Community Empowerment, Marcus Martin, PhD, MPH, MA Director. For a copy please contact [email protected]. 42