Central Dallas Ministries

“AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?” Luke 10:29

For almost twenty years, Central Dallas Ministries (CDM) has been living the answer to the question, “AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?”

NEIGHBORS TOGETHER

O

ur neighbors are not just the people who live on our street or who mirror our income status or ethnic identity.

We are all neighbors, and only together – as neighbors – can we overcome and transform the conditions that breed poverty and stymie human potential. After all, each one of us is rich and poor in different ways. We all know what it means to be hungry, to be worried about our health or to simply want to be in that place that we call “home.” Whether or not we lack material wealth, we all have a deep hunger for friendship, for community, for a sense of belonging. We all know what it is like to hold, and to lose, hope.

The people who come to Central Dallas Ministries in need of assistance find more than food, medication or counseling.

They find neighbors like Janet, George, Terry and Marva who are willing to truly listen to them and to get involved in their lives. They find advocates who are willing to stand by their side as part of a genuine community.

CDM has never been a passive provider of services to the “poor.”

When our neighbors come to us in need, we invite them to explore what they have to offer to our community. Each year, this simple invitation helps CDM recruit hundreds of volunteers from among the people who first came to us in need. These volunteers develop a sense of belonging that reaffirms their dignity and self-respect. This experience of genuine community is far more valuable than any of the food, medications or other services that we provide.

Our neighbors who partner with us do not just avoid hunger, illness or homelessness; they grow in capacity, in confidence, in spirit.

Each person liberated from poverty adds immeasurably more than a mere positive statistic: they bring

new energy and hope to every person they meet. Enduring friendships form and flourish, and a larger sense of community emerges.

Never has CDM’s unique and highly effective approach to renewal been more needed. While one of the nation’s largest and most vibrant urban centers, Dallas continues to face tremendous challenges associated with poverty. Nearly 1 in 4 local children lives in an impoverished family, with parents who worry about putting food on the table and who live in constant fear of a medical emergency they can’t afford to treat.

As it prepares for its third decade of service, CDM is ever more mindful of the needs of the city it serves and ever more confident that neighbors working together can and will prevail against those needs.

CDM is also uniquely positioned to identify and mobilize everything it takes to build genuine and enduring community in neighborhoods across Dallas. With your support, CDM is making possible measurable differences in the lives of our neighbors and in the social and economic fabric of our neighborhoods.

The challenge requires resources of every kind: financial, physical, intellectual, spiritual. Time and treasure invested in CDM have yielded remarkable dividends, transforming individual lives and weaving a stronger fabric of community within neighborhoods and across our City.

We invite you to join us in partnership with your neighbors.

Together, we are building genuine community…one person at a time.

Compassion In one way or another, every area of Central Dallas Ministries’ work can be understood as an expression of compassion. A genuine concern for the well-being of our neighbors motivates all of us, both staff and volunteers, to wrap our hearts around the lives of our neighbors in need. This same desire to share our love with our neighbors also motivates us to build relationships with our donors and supporters that are about more than funding; we seek to build partnerships with all people who come through our door, whether they are wealthy or in need of assistance.

John and Antonio are neighbors working to build community in the heart of Dallas. Although one organizes regular food drives for the food pantry where the other’s family regularly receives groceries, they are brought together by their desire to end hunger in our community.

For those who come to us in need, we initially work to address their most urgent and immediate concerns and then take steps to stabilize their lives. Moving in this space, we feed the hungry, we heal the sick and we bandage those who are broken physically, emotionally and spiritually. During these interactions, we instinctively remember the story that Jesus once told about the Good Samaritan when asked, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).

Driven by compassion for our neighbors, we distribute over 1 million pounds of food through our network of food pantries. We deliver over 400,000 meals and snacks to atrisk children participating in over 100 youth programs throughout the city. We dispense over 20,000 medications per year to uninsured

families and low-income seniors who could not otherwise have the medicine that they need to maintain their health. Our sense of compassion also challenges us to reach out to our supporters to understand their needs and to engage them as active participants in our community.

This flow of compassion is not along a one-way street. Central Dallas Ministries is designed so that very low-income persons can become first-class distributors of compassion every day. Our large Resource Centers, on Haskell Avenue and inside Roseland Homes, actually function as conveyors of compassion, hope and healing.

Giving food is secondary in importance to building relationships with those who come to us seeking assistance. Similarly, we enjoy deep friendships and strong partnerships

with many of our donors that are far more valuable than the funds that they contribute.

We work hard at transcending simple charity in an effort to move toward an empowering compassion that leads us deeper into the lives of people and closer to lifechanging opportunities.

Connection We believe in maximizing the God-given talent, purpose and potential of every person – including our neighbors in need of assistance and our neighbors who donate time and money to sustain our work. Incredible transformations occur in our neighbors’ lives when they are finally able to connect to the opportunities and resources that they need to capitalize on their own gifts. By helping people to help themselves, we are doing more than changing lives: together we are building genuine community.

Dr. Tonia Alexander, administrator for the Richardson ISD, believes in providing quality educational opportunities to individuals such as 15-year-old Deidra that will connect them to a future of endless possibilities. Whether as donors or as recipients of assistance, all of CDM’s neighbors work together on our shared goal of building community.

Once we have responded with compassion to address basic needs, we offer our neighbors the option of taking essential next steps toward a better life. We seek to develop partnerships that open doors of opportunity and then work with our neighbors to help them step through those doors themselves.

We are continually amazed by the generosity of those who originally came to us in need of assistance and who have accepted our invitation to join us as volunteers: Their love and commitment to our community is a constant reminder of the power of partnerships and the overwhelming strength of community to overcome the challenges of poverty.

We believe that every person who comes to CDM has untapped abilities, capital and capacity to guide the direction of his or her

own life. Many simply lack the self-confidence and the support systems necessary to stay on a healthy path. When partnering with our neighbors to create these opportunities, we are reminded of Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). People who decide to bury their talents or who refuse to take part in their own renewal continue to receive our compassion, but we focus our “connection” efforts on those who are willing to work hard at making a difference in their lives.

Our concern for our neighbors does not stop with the challenges of the materially poor, whom we connect to opportunities for education, employment and legal representation. We are concerned also with engaging our donors and volunteers in ways to fully utilize

their skills and resources to maximize their own potential.

We partner with all of our neighbors – the materially poor and the materially wealthy – to create new and substantial opportunities for themselves and our communities. In this way, we are working together to move beyond charity toward long-term, sustainable change. Through these partnerships, we all work together to realize the promise of our lives and the hope of our community.

Completion We have learned much over the past two decades. We have observed again and again how our neighbors often run up against barriers that cannot be addressed by individuals alone. Some problems exist that no amount of compassion can overcome and that often require larger, systemic change before our neighbors can effectively work to change their own lives. We have come to understand that our true goal is not to reach more people each year, but to remove the need for our services by working to eliminate these systemic barriers.

Don Williams, chairman emeritus of Trammell Crow Company, is working with CDM and his homeless neighbors to address the issues of poverty and homelessness. They are standing in front of 511 N. Akard in Downtown Dallas, future home to Central Dallas Ministries’ administrative offices as well as 200 low-income and formerly homeless neighbors.

A very important dimension of our work leads us to look beyond individual lives and at the larger community of which we are all a part. We look at the root causes of many challenges and then we develop ways to work together to address them.

After nearly twenty years of battling the manifestations of poverty, we have been forced to dig deeper to discover what drives people into poverty or, as we frequently find, keeps them there despite their best efforts. At times, we work to bring the public’s attention to the problems we have discovered. In this way, we advocate on behalf of our neighbors who work hard and who still cannot afford food or who cannot receive preventative medical care because they lack insurance. We fight on

behalf of our homeless neighbors to expand the number of affordable housing communities available to them. More and more, we understand the importance of working to shape public policy.

Here, we are reminded of Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple because they exploited the people of the land and took advantage of their need (John 2:13).

For our donors, we explore the barriers that they face to realizing their own potential. We have found that many of our supporters feel an overwhelming desire to make a difference, but struggle to understand the impact of their gifts. We partner with them to understand the lives of those whom they seek to help, and we engage them in efforts to create a genuine dialogue about the issues that they care about.

Regardless of whether they are interested in supporting CDM financially, we open forums for community discussion through our blogs, book clubs and public events so that those with a desire to make a difference in the public square will discover the ability to do so.

Our work begins with compassion, transitions into opportunity creation and culminates with the development of a complete circle around the lives of our donors and those who come to us in need.

BATTLING POVERTY Hunger When Central Dallas Ministries began in 1988, our initial focus was on hunger. Since that time, we have grown to understand the deeper meaning of hunger in the physical, spiritual and community contexts.

When one first approaches solving the problem of hunger, it is difficult not to hear the chords of compassion resonating within. Gazing into the eyes of a hungry toddler or, even more heart-wrenching, the eyes of his mother who experiences not only the physical anguish of her own hunger, but the emotional anguish of watching her precious child suffer, is a heartbreaking experience. Each year, CDM has over 50,000 experiences like this with neighbors who come to our three food pantries.

As we have walked alongside our neighbors who suffer with physical hunger, we have almost invariably discovered a spiritual hunger as well.

A hunger for deliverance from fear, from pain, from isolation. The issue of spiritual hunger requires a far more complex solution than the provision of food. Toward that end, CDM has learned that treating our neighbors with dignity, connecting them to others who have walked in their shoes and walking alongside them as we seek to share the love of God is the best way to address the spiritual hunger of our neighbors.

We believe that the Dallas community is hungry as well.

Hungry for real, authentic change

that puts an end to the stratification of our community. We believe that all of our neighbors, rich and poor, long for a time when we can see each other the way that God sees all of us: as unique, beautiful and essential parts of a single, joyful community.

We take crucial steps towards achieving that goal by treating the poor with dignity, challenging supporters to become deeply engaged in the lives of those who utilize services and connecting all people to their true purpose in our community.

Health Central Dallas Ministries has provided healthcare and wellness services to the community since 1990, when a team of volunteer physicians began a small, 3-hour weekly clinic above CDM’s food pantry. Driven by compassion for those suffering illness and a desire to connect our uninsured neighbors to opportunities for long-term healthcare, CDM has significantly expanded the clinic over the years.

Now open 48 hours per week, the clinic includes medical care, dental services and a diabetes education program. This clinic also includes an on-site pharmacy that fills over 20,000 prescriptions per year.

Community Health Service (CHS) is the outgrowth of CDM’s ongoing partnership with the Baylor Health Care System, Health

Texas Provider Network, Texas Tech School of Pharmacy and many other organizations. In addition to its primary clinic, CHS includes a satellite clinic for domestic workers as well as Project Access, a program that connects CHS patients to a network of volunteer medical specialists. One of our most innovative partnerships is the Vulnerable Patient Network (VPN), which provides in-home healthcare to uninsured neurotrauma victims.

These are quadriplegic and paraplegic patients who are highly vulnerable to a variety of illnesses; VPN ensures that these patients have the best opportunity to maintain their health after they have been released from primary care.

The link between physical and spiritual health is undeniable. The inability of a parent to help an ailing child heal due to lack of insurance and resources takes an immeasurable toll on the emotional and spiritual health of both parent and child. It is nearly impossible for an adult who is crippled by the effects of chronic illness to fully engage as a family member, an employee and a member of the community.

We believe that a community is only as strong as its most vulnerable members. Illness throws off the balance of the community – it keeps individuals from working, prevents families from properly caring for themselves, and serves as a tremendous financial drain on the community’s resources. Healing the sick begins with compassion,

ON FOUR FRONTS progresses into connecting patients with long-term healthcare options and culminates in addressing the physical and spiritual health of our entire community.

Housing Permanent, affordable housing is one of the greatest needs facing our city.

In Dallas alone, there are over 6,000 homeless individuals and thousands more at great risk of homelessness due to low wages, high rents and lack of insurance. Battling poverty for nearly 20 years, CDM has learned that the solution to the housing problem goes far beyond the need for additional shelters and short-term housing. Those in crisis need permanent, supportive housing in order to stabilize their life situations.

In fact, national research shows that over 80% of the homeless stabilize if simply given a key to their own door.

Housing is more than simply shelter from the physical elements.

It is a tremendous step toward the “completion” of an individual’s life.

It connects them to opportunities to find stable employment, to accrue wealth, to connect with neighbors and, most importantly, to have the sense of dignity that comes with having control of their personal living space.

On a community level, providing housing to our neighbors who are homeless or at risk of homelessness is necessary for the entire community

to flourish. Dallas currently spends over $25,000 per year for each person who spends the night on our city’s streets, compared to CDM’s cost of $10,000 to provide permanent supportive housing to a person who would otherwise be homeless. The cost of emergency room, police and charitable outreach alone drains resources that could be better spent developing housing that can sustain vulnerable lives. The essential building block of “genuine community” is the feeling of connectedness to one’s neighbors.

Without a home, our neighbors who sleep on the street lose their connection to community. We believe that every individual must have a home before our community can truly be home to any of us.

Hope From our food and health services to our programs for foster care children aging out of the system, from our numerous educational programs to our legal services for domestic violence victims, Central Dallas Ministries is in the business of helping to restore the most fundamental thing that an individual needs in order to truly come alive: hope. Hope does not grow from feeling marginalized and dependent upon others. Hope does not grow from living in fear of not being able to meet one’s basic needs. Hope grows when neighbors are part of a

community that affirms their own self-worth and that enables them to achieve their tremendous potential.

CDM is not about giving “handouts.” We do not treat people as though they are just a number in a long line of numbers waiting to receive a sandwich, a vaccine or a place to sleep for the night. Instead, we are able to assess the situation of each individual who walks through our doors and to connect them to the various services they need to grow strong and self-sufficient. We encourage everyone who comes to CDM seeking assistance to return as a volunteer so that they can connect with others who are also changing their own lives. We all have a vested interest in forming a community where we are united to help one another in difficult times and rejoice with one another in joyful times.

Dallas is a stronger, safer and more genuine community when its residents feel that they are connected to one another as neighbors. Crime drops as we begin to simply look out for one another, and health improves as we begin to take pride in ourselves and our lives. Homes that were once neglected are cleaned up. Gardens are planted. The bonds of community strengthen, and Dallas becomes more than simply a place to live: it becomes a home.

Our greatest hope lies in the hearts of our neighbors and in the community that they are building here in Dallas. Working together, we are renewing hope for Dallas… one neighbor at a time.

The History of Central Dallas Ministries Originally founded in 1988 by Jim and Betsy Sowell with the help of members of the Preston Road Church of Christ, the Central Dallas Food Pantry changed its name to Central Dallas Ministries (CDM) in 1994 as part of a broader effort to address the deeper issues associated with poverty. Thanks to the commitment of its many supporters, CDM has since grown into an expansive community development organization with a network of interlocking programs designed to address the root causes of poverty.

NEIGHBORS TOGETHER Over the past decade, CDM has grown from a handful of employees into a team of nearly 240 community development professionals and AmeriCorps members. This team is joined by over 1,000 volunteers each year, over 90% of whom originally came to CDM to receive services. By partnering with those in need, CDM has successfully expanded its operation to address the hunger, health, housing, legal, education and employment issues associated with poverty. Thanks to people like you, CDM now has over 60,000 contacts with its neighbors each year.

Working together, these neighbors

are now helping CDM to replicate its services in new neighborhoods throughout North Texas.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS In twenty years of service to the community, CDM has formed several key partnerships that have greatly enhanced its mission.

Partnerships with the Baylor Health Care System, Health Texas Provider Network and Texas Tech School of Pharmacy have expanded the reach of CDM’s healthcare programs from under 1,000 patients in 1997 to over 21,000 today. The organization’s partnership with the Dallas County Medical Society and Project Access has further connected thousands of these patients to medical specialists to address needs ranging from oncology to gynecology. CDM’s memberships in groups like the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance also continue to open doors of opportunity for our neighbors.

Most recently, CDM’s affordable housing program has developed significant partnerships with private corporations and government organizations that have helped it to develop nearly 50 units of housing for low-income and formerly homeless people. These efforts also recently led to the acquisition of the property at 511 N. Akard in Downtown Dallas.

This project, which will be known as citywalk@akard, will provide nearly 150 units of affordable housing for the working poor and permanent supportive housing for 50 of our homeless neighbors. The building will also become the new home for CDM’s administrative service center, its public interest law firm and its community development

corporation. Funded in part by the City of Dallas, as well as the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, citywalk@akard is a community partnership that will forever change the face of homelessness in our city.

As CDM continues to grow and improve its work, one thing remains constant: the compassion, connection and completion of our work would not be possible without the support of our neighbors – from the most affluent donor to the poorest volunteer in our food pantry. Thank you for your continued support through the years. We are proud to call you our neighbor.

Building Community: Lives Touched by Central Dallas Ministries

Commit to Help Your Neighbor Today GIVE YOUR TIME Every year, nearly 1,000 of your neighbors volunteer at CDM: ■

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Students looking for internships (including for class credit) Individuals and families Clubs, classes and service groups Church groups Corporate volunteer groups

We invite you to join them! Whether you want to volunteer regularly or just once, we welcome your valuable time. Please contact our volunteer coordinator at 214.823.8710 or Volunteers@CentralDallasMinistries. org to sign on as a volunteer today.

GIVE YOUR TREASURE With more than 90 cents of every dollar invested directly in lifechanging programs, the impact of your gifts to Central Dallas Ministries is greater than any other investment you can make in our community. ▼ Cash Donations

Donations can be mailed to Central Dallas Ministries, P.O. Box 710385, Dallas, Texas 75371-0385. To make a donation by phone, please call the development office at 214.823.8710.

Secure donations can be made

online at www.CentralDallas Ministries.org.

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▼ Donated Goods

We can accept donations of food, clothing, books, household goods and furniture. Donations can be delivered to 409 N. Haskell, Dallas, Texas 75246.

To arrange a pickup for large donations, please call 214.823.8710. ▼ Vehicle Donations

Make your car a vehicle for change!

We can pick up cars, trucks, boats, RVs and planes. For more information, visit www.CDMCars.org or call 972.

231.2220 to arrange a pickup. ▼ Real Estate and Stock Donations

By transferring stock, real estate and other appreciable assets to CDM, many donors can support our mission while also realizing a tax savings. To discuss these opportunities, please call the development office at 214.823.8710 or email Info@CentralDallasMinistries.org.

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www.CentralDallasMinistries.org.

Bring them to our free monthly book club and community discussion (1st Thursdays).

Reading not required! More info at www.UrbanEngagement.org.

Invite them to go on a tour of CDM to see our programs firsthand and to meet our staff. We host regular tours each month. To learn more, call the Development Department at 214.823.8710 or email us at Info@CentralDallas Ministries.org.

To take your commitment to the next level, help CDM raise money by turning your birthday, anniversary or other celebration into a fundraiser for CDM. Instead of accepting gifts, ask for donations to be made to CDM. We can even help you set up your own free Web site to share with your contacts. To learn more, contact the Development Director at 214.823.8710 or Info@CentralDallas Ministries.org. Or, visit us online at www.CentralDallasMinistries.org/join.

▼ Estate Planning

Many donors have already planned to leave a legacy with Central Dallas Ministries by naming the organization a beneficiary in their will or insurance policy. To discuss these opportunities, including gifts to our endowment fund, please call the development office at 214.823.8710.

SHARE YOUR COMMITMENT We need your help to find other people interested in building community and renewing the lives of their neighbors! There are easy ways to engage your friends and contacts without having to worry about asking them for money or to volunteer.

Email them a link to our Web site, ■

Best Investment: Percent of Budget

CENTRAL DALLAS MINISTRIES OUR MISSION: We seek to share the love of God by building genuine community in the neighborhoods where we live and work.

OUR STRATEGY: We address the core issues related to poverty, including hunger, health, housing, legal representation, education and employment.

OUR PHILOSOPHY: We do not have clients. We have neighbors.

Working together, we are building a genuine community…one person at a time.

OUR REACH: We directly impact the lives of over 60,000 people each year.

OUR VISION: We aim to put ourselves out of business by removing the need for our services in every neighborhood in our community.

Central Dallas Ministries P.O. Box 710385 Dallas, TX 75371-0385 Dear Neighbor, It was not so many years ago that I found myself hungry, jobless and alone. Now because of your compassion, which allowed me to be connected to amazing opportunities to change my life, I have completed a transformation into a stable, successful manager of a large hotel in Dallas and proud father of two beautiful children. I could not have done this alone. I’m thankful to be a part of this community where we truly are neighbors together.

Sincerely,

Robert

Printing Donated by an Anonymous Neighbor

CENTRAL DALLAS MINISTRIES 409 North Haskell ■ Dallas, Texas 75246 P.O. Box 710385 ■ Dallas, Texas 75371-0385 214.823.8710 ■ Fax: 214.824.5355 www.CentralDallasMinistries.org