Kim Schlossberg Designs has a tradition of supporting non-profit organizations that are doing work we believe in. We select a not-for-profit organization to support each year and focus on worthy organizations working to increase opportunities for individuals. To join us in this commitment or to learn more, please contact us or visit the organizations at their websites listed below.
Promise of Peace Community Gardens
Promise of Peace Community Gardens transforms vacant spaces into thriving places. P.O.P. Gardens serve as a context for folks from all backgrounds to come together and learn, grow and support one another. We have built three gardens in north Texas where we deliver programming to children and their families as they explore living a sustainable life. We grow, harvest and prepare fresh clean food that we savor on a lovely table, family style. The children and their families gain access to healthier lifestyles, community involvement and a sense of stewardship for the planet. As we grow, the Promise of Peace Gardens’ intent is to ensure that every child in every community has clean, locally sourced food on their plate. Thank you for helping POP change the world one seed at a time.
Learn more at promiseofpeace.us • www.facebook.com/promiseofpeacegarden • 214.240.9220
The We Over Me Farm at Paul Quinn College
When Paul Quinn College decided to convert its football field into an organic farm, many eyebrows were raised. But the move symbolized the College’s dedication to a team of a different kind – the team of individuals and organizations fighting to end food insecurity and injustice in the United States.
Located in a federally-recognized food desert, the Farm has produced and provided more than 30,000 pounds of organic produce since its inception in March 2010, and no less than 10% of this produce has been donated to neighborhood charitable organizations. The rest supports community members, the College, and restaurants and grocers throughout Dallas.
In addition to providing fresh, healthy, affordable food options for its surrounding residents, the Farm strives to improve communities throughout the metroplex by providing hands-on educational experiences for youth and adults alike to promote healthy eating, improved food access, and environmental stewardship.
The Chiapas Project
The Chiapas Project, now known as Chiapas International, is a non-profit organization that works to end the cycle of poverty in Latin America. Funds are given as loans to women in poverty to generate self-sustaining businesses in their own communities. Since its creation in 2003, $6 million has been raised and almost 250,000 women, as well as their families, have taken paths that have led them away from poverty.
Dallas women Lucy Billingsley and Kaki Hopkins visited Chiapas, Mexico and saw how a micro finance institution (MFI), a nonprofit bank, provided loans of $50 or $60 to the Chiapas women for start-up businesses. Billingsley and Hopkins then brought a large group of Dallas women back to the city in order share what they had learned. The Chiapas Project then became a reality when these women raised funds for this “global microfinance initiative.”
Learn more at chiapasinternational.org
Heifer International
Heifer’s mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, Heifer empowers them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope.
With gifts of livestock and training, they help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. They refer to the animals as “living loans” because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal’s offspring to another family in need. It’s called Passing on the Gift – a cornerstone of Heifer’s mission that creates an ever-expanding network of hope and peace.
Learn more at heifer.org
Girl’s Inc.
Girls Incorporated has been celebrating girls’ voices since 1864, first as Girls Clubs of America and since 1990 as Girls Incorporated. The Girls Club of Dallas was founded in 1968. Girls Inc. is the champion for all girls and young women that for over 40 years has provided effective life skills and enrichment programs to empower girls daily to take charge of their lives. They provide learning and development opportunities designed around personal effectiveness, academics, and career planning so that girls are inspired to be strong, smart, bold and to lead successful, independent and fulfilling lives.
The four campuses located in West Dallas, South Dallas, North Oak Cliff, and Love Field currently have the capacity to provide quality programs for approximately 800 girls, ages 6-18, through after-school programming during the school year, and all day programming in the summer months. Of those members attending the four campuses, 61% live in a single parent home or with neither parent; 85% reside in homes with family incomes of less than $25,000 a year; and 69% are African-American, 30% are Hispanic and 1% are White.
The effectiveness of the curriculum can be seen through successful statistics and measurable results. Over the past eleven years, 100% of senior girls in the program have graduated from high school as well as gone on to some form of higher education pursuits. Additionally, ten out of the last eleven years, 100% of girls in the program have remained pregnancy and drug free.
The overall method and strategy includes curriculum that focuses on the following seven core areas identified as critical to addressing the challenges faced by all girls: educational enrichment, health and sexuality, self reliance and life skills, career and life planning, sports and adventure, leadership and community action, and culture and heritage. We seek to inspire and help girls improve their overall grades and their educational advancement in math, technology and the sciences. Please join in empowering girls to be strong, smart and bold and take charge of their lives!
Learn more at girlsincdallas.org
PeopleFund
We have supported The PLAN Fund, now called PeopleFund, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization inspired by the work of Dr. Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
PeopleFund is a Dallas based non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the clients’ economic self-sufficiency through a program of entrepreneurship services to assist in developing more sustainable businesses that will positively impact the client’s standard of living, create jobs, and build financial assets.
PeopleFund provides a comprehensive microfinance program unique in Dallas; no other entrepreneur program in the DFW area provides the same range of services, including low interest microloans, hands-on business training and business development support services.
The 11 year experience working with the entrepreneur community of Dallas, with a primary focus on fostering entrepreneurs in the low and moderate income communities of Dallas, combined with the staff’s high level of professionalism and commitment to our entrepreneurs, supports the mission to increase the scale and success of working class entrepreneurs in Dallas.
Learn more at peoplefund.org
Inclusive Communities Project
We have supported Inclusive Communities Project (ICP), a not-for-profit organization that works for the creation and maintenance of thriving racially and economically inclusive communities, expansion of fair and affordable housing opportunities for low income families, and redress for policies and practices that perpetuate the harmful effects of discrimination and segregation.
ICP envisions an America where equality is created and sustained in community through access to good schools, affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, and economic opportunity. ICP wants to be a resource to those who share that vision by providing information about where those opportunities exist in the North Texas area, where they don’t, and why. They work with individuals and families seeking to secure the benefits of such communities, unfettered by discrimination and prejudice. And they advocate and promote polices and practices that are consistent with this mission of inclusiveness, fairness, community, and opportunity.
Learn more at inclusivecommunities.net
The Housing Crisis Center
The Housing Crisis Center (HCC) offers programs and services designed to prevent homelessness and to stabilize the elderly, the disabled, and families with children in decent, affordable,permanent housing, and to empower these people to be able to solve future housing problems. The vision is to “make our community a better home for everyone.”
Each year, over 11,000 individuals are supported by the Housing Crisis Center – and on any given night, over 140 households are sheltered in HCC supportive housing. The agency focused on preventing homelessness and many of the clients are working, but struggling to make ends meet. They provide services to them from legal help to employment assistance to housing to child care. The goal is to move individuals and families from dependency – from tettering on the edge of homelessness – to knowing they will be safe from the streets for many months, years to come. All HCC programs are strengthened by support services: groups, financial literacy and personal budget classes, child care through Vogel Alcove, and individualized community referrals.
Learn more at hccdallas.org
Empower African Children
Empower African Children transforms the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children through the power of innovative education.
Empower African Children is a non-profit organization inspired by success stories from more than 15 years of work with Africa’s vulnerable children. Empower African Children’s programs provide a fresh new approach that unlocks the potential of this generation through an innovative education. Its holistic approach to education provides tools for success in life, creating confident, skillful, and visionary leaders. Empower African Children’s programs include holistic care for children in Uganda, a U.S. Scholarship program for African students, the Spirit of Uganda tour and the development of a secondary school in Uganda.
Learn more at EmpowerAfricanChildren.org
Natural Capital Investment Fund
The Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIF) provides patient capital to small and emerging natural resource-based businesses that will advance sustainable economic development and have a positive impact on human health and the natural environment. NCIF’s business clients are predominantly located in economically distressed rural communities and are unable to access capital from traditional sources. Sectors of particular interest include: heritage and recreation-based tourism, value-added and sustainable agriculture, water/wastewater treatment, sustainable forestry and forest products, integrated waste management, and recycling.
NCIF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a wholly owned affiliate of The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit organization with a unique dual mission of land & water conservation and economic development. Our support will help NCIF continue to find, support and fund entrepreneurs who are demonstrating that triple-bottom-line businesses can sustain rural communities and their natural resources.
Learn more at here
Mosaic Family Services
Mosaic Family Services provides culturally and linguistically competent services to refugees and immigrants in crisis, including victims of human trafficking and domestic violence in North Texas. The mission of Mosaic Family Services is to support, educate, and empower individuals and families of the communities they serve. Mosaic touches the lives of thousands of people every year.
Learn more at mosaicservices.org
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network creates hope through research, patient support, community outreach, and advocacy for a cure. The organization raises money for direct private funding of research—and advocates for more aggressive federal research funding of medical breakthroughs in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Only 6% of pancreatic cancer patients survive more than five years. This is the lowest survival rate for all cancers. This year 43,140 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 36,800 will pass away from the disease. There are no early detection methods, and currently there is no cure.
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is making an impact. They have increased federal funding for pancreatic cancer research from $17 million in 1999 to $87 million in 2008. However, this is simply not enough.
Learn more at pancan.org
Big Thought!
Founded in 1987, Dallas-based Big Thought is one of the nation’s leading nonprofits focused on building partnerships that allow all children access to quality learning opportunities. Driven by our mission — to make imagination a part of everyday learning — we do our work so that children have opportunities to become imaginative, adaptable and productive adults, resulting in stronger communities and a more capable future workforce. We do this because we believe that 100% of children deserve the opportunity to think creatively, achieve academically, make healthy choices and become productive, forward-thinking and engaged citizens. Every child and family should be immersed in opportunities to imagine, create and succeed.
Learn more at bigthought.org
Aberg Center for Literacy
Aberg Center is an educational hub that leads to richer lives, stronger families, and better communities. They focus on English fluency, GED preparation, and connection to those who are learning in the broader community. By focusing on the development of fluent English speakers, they hope to ensure high school graduation for this generation and the next.
Learn more at abergcenter.org
Alley’s House
Alley’s House was formed in 1997 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation on the heels of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. The founder, Allison Whitehead Field, felt there was a need within the community to provide comprehensive services to teen mothers. Field, who was working towards her Bachelor’s in Social Work at the time, believed that with sufficient guidance and support, these young women can break out of the cyclical situation they find themselves in once they have a baby.
For the first eight years, the organization was completely volunteer-based with programs offered in a local church. Eventually, the organization expanded, and now the agency’s offices are located at 4113 Junius Street. Alley’s House has three full-time staff members, three social work interns, and countless volunteers.
Their mission is to empower teen mothers and as well as their children to obtain independence through support services, education and mentoring. Their overall vision is to one day break generational, economic and social impact of teen pregnancy.
Learn more at alleyshouse.org
