Incarnation House
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Mission Statement
Located in the heart of Uptown Dallas, Incarnation House offers a safe and consistent after-school destination that feels like home and programming where each student is valued for who they are as an individual. We are dedicated to closing the opportunity gap by ensuring homeless and low-income youth have access to academically enriching activities. With a team-driven approach, staff, volunteers and over 20 nonprofit partners collaborate to deliver the following services: • Case Management & Counseling • Medical and Dental • Life Skills • Educational Support • Vocational Support • Unique Educational & Enrichment Activities Our hope is to permanently change the course of at-risk youth’s lives, putting them on a track to reach their full potential. Our goal is to ensure they have a high school degree, access to post-secondary education and vocational support that will provide them with a sustainable career path.
About This Cause
Mission Statement The mission of Incarnation House is to partner with the vulnerable youth of Dallas to access the physical, educational and emotional resources necessary to live an independent and successful future. Vision Statement Our vision is for all young people to reach adulthood healthy, supported and with full opportunity to thrive in life. Background & History In 2012, the Church of the Incarnation in conjunction with DISD created a Drop-in Friday program for students that were homeless or highly mobile students after learning of the large homeless population in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) and in its own backyard at North Dallas High School. Since then, the program has grown to serve on an average 40 kids each Friday. Initially, it was expected that the program would provide breakfast to these students, but the program became much more than that. The volunteers at Drop-in Fridays became a source of much-needed consistency for the students. As the program volunteers bonded and interacted with the students, they learned of many unaddressed needs from clothing and toiletries to tutoring and general life skills. The extent of need and the temporal limitations of the program quickly illustrated potential for the growth and development of a program, one that more broadly connected these students with the resources they needed to help break the cycle of poverty and live independent, productive lives. Thus, Incarnation House was born as its own 501(c) 3 organization to further extend resources and provide a consistent and stable environment for the transitional teens in the immediate community. A Great deal of research was put into architecting the model for Incarnation House. The church reached out to the community to form a task force to help identify what Incarnation House would look like. These community members included Promise House, DISD, Momentous Institute, Dallas Afterschool and the Volunteers at Drop in Fridays. Then team members visited more than a dozen youth-oriented centers located across the U.S. in order to identify best practices from staff structure and building construction to understanding the most critical year-one services. The result is a wrap-around model that allows for the greatest number of positive outcomes. Issues and Needs The economic opportunity available in North Texas is the envy of the nation, luring large companies to move their headquarters to our area. As a flourishing and forward-thinking community, it is cause for great concern that many of our children are still falling behind. Texas has the 6th highest rate of child poverty – a shocking 26% of Texas children are poor, and Dallas County has the highest rate with 29% of children living in poverty. In the 75204 zip code, 30 % of the families live below the poverty level and this an area of Dallas that over the past ten, years has become a community of contrasts. Areas of economic need abut areas of prosperity and luxury. With the destabilization of the economy came the rise of transiency within families who could not maintain their current homes. Among these changes also came the realization that many service providers appear to have left the area, taking their services to where their targeted populations have moved, such as South Dallas. While there are children within the area whose parents have the means and skills to ensure they are educated and prepared for life, there are those whose parents struggle to understand and provide these same opportunities to their families. Without significant and ongoing intervention, children whose parents are among the working poor are all but guaranteed academic struggles, generational poverty and homelessness. Across the United States, schools, districts, and communities are grappling with a rise in student homelessness. According to a 2015 report by the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE), in the 2013-14 school year there were 1,301,239 students experiencing homelessness in U.S. schools, a 15% increase from the 2011-12 school year. The increase in student homelessness is particularly alarming because these students tend to have poor attendance and school participation, low grades and test scores, and high rates of grade retention and dropout. They also tend to change schools often—disrupting their academic learning and dissolving relationships with friends and teachers. Homeless and highly mobile (HHM) students have wide ranging needs—from school supplies, shelter, clothing, food, transportation, and tutoring help, to more intangible resources such as emotional and social support. These needs often create barriers to academic success. When it comes to rising student homelessness, the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) is no exception to national trends. In Dallas, the estimated number of homeless kids has been dismal recently. The Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance reports that the population of unaccompanied homeless kids is up 108 percent in just the last few years, and the number of homeless families is up 60 percent. According to the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, Dallas ISD reported 3,626 identified homeless children in 2015-16, which is a 15% increase from 2014-15. According to MDHA, homeless families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population and over the past four years, homeless families increased 60 percent now comprising nearly forty percent of the total homeless population. Eighty-four percent of these families are headed by single women with dependent children. An increase in the number of families living in poverty, the shortage of affordable housing, and critical risk factors in the lives of mothers all contribute to family homelessness. But perhaps the most shocking number provided by the MDHA is the 108 percent increase of unaccompanied homeless kids, which includes runaways. At North Dallas High School 80% of the students are economically disadvantage, 71% are considered high-risk and 170 have inadequate housing. On an average day, these kids must navigate public transportation just to get to school and are oftentimes responsible for their younger siblings. They come from backgrounds of poverty, neglect and abuse. They are in unstable housing and most of them have never been to a dentist. Despite all of this, these kids are showing up, working hard and participating in school and extracurricular activities. They are talented and deserve what every child deserves, a future. They are the next great composers, artists and thinkers of Dallas who may go on to impact our city if they are given the opportunity and the support they desperately need. Incarnation House’s positive intervention can provide students with nurturing services and experiences to help transform them out of the pattern into which they were born in or gravitated towards. Surrounding them with adults, who value and care about them as individuals, as well as students in similar situations will provide them with a sense of community and foster a sense of hope for a future. A direct effort to make a difference where we are, where we live together we can change the face of homelessness in our area. Geographic Area Served Homeless and at-risk youth living in unstable, who attends North Dallas High School and/or in the 75204 area code. Youth Demographics Socioeconomic status: These students are living in poverty and many of their families are not able to afford single-family housing. All of these students are on free or reduced lunch at school. Ethnicity: 61.1% African-American, 27.8% Hispanic, 11.1% Caucasian Gender: 55.6% Male, 44.4% Female Age: 15 years old 16.7%, 16 years old 16.7%, 17 years old 25%, 18 years old 27.8%, 19 years old 13.8% Incarnation House, located in the heart of Uptown Dallas, is a center dedicated to serving the needs of transitional high school students with after school programming that helps to develop essential life skills, provide emotional support and physical resources, and foster a sense of hope for a future free from the bondage of poverty. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Incarnation House is a hub and functions as a collaborator among its volunteers and partners in order to provide support and resources for the youth it serves. Services focus on the students’ physical, educational and emotional needs in order to equip them to live as confident, independent adults. Our hope is to permanently change the course of homeless youth’s lives, putting them on a track to reach their full potential. The disparity between education and earning potential is growing, and there are now fewer living-wage jobs for those without a college degree. A sound education and sustainable career path are the keys to long-term stability. To this end, we have established outcome goals. Incarnation House offers a safe and consistent after-school destination that feels like home. It is a wraparound program, where each student is valued for who they are as an individual. Once in the program, the Program Manager will work directly with the youth to address their unique needs and desired future. The Plan will include formal services and interventions, together with community services and interpersonal support and assistance provided by a network of adults who care about their future. The approach is team driven, involving staff, community partners and volunteers who collaborate to develop, implement, and evaluate an individualized care plan. Plan components and strategies are revised when outcomes are not being achieved. Key areas of focus: • Basic needs met along with a connection to caring adults and mentors • Two years+ of post • Physical and emotional well being • Safe and stable housing Services: • Case management • Counseling • Medical and Dental • Life skills • Educational support (tutoring, enrollment, scholarships & funding) • Vocational support • Leadership and Community Building (unique educational & enrichment activities)