More in news about the Opportunity Center

From Dallas Morning News:

CitySquare opening a new center for East and South Dallas
By ROBERT MILLER / Staff Writer

When CitySquare calls its new facility an opportunity center, it’s not kidding.

The CitySquare Opportunity Center will offer low-income residents of Fair Park, South Dallas and East Dallas job training, food distribution, a wellness center and a community cafe. AmeriCorps, Work Force Solutions of Greater Dallas, LIFT, Per Scholas and CitySquare’s WorkPaths will have offices there. CitySquare raised $15 million to build the 52,000-square-foot facility, which is easily accessed by DART.

“We found neighbors offer the most valuable opinions about our work,” said Larry James, president and CEO of CitySquare. “Over and over, I have heard that just trying to get from place to place in search of help is an insurmountable problem. The Opportunity Center will place key services and economic opportunities in one central location to allow us to serve more of our neighbors, many of whom become some of our very best employees and volunteers.”

Read entire report here.

NBC reports on the Opportunity Center!

Building stuff

Building stuff is hard.

We've been through the process several times now.  It never gets easier.

Thursday we are set to open our new Opportunity Center.  We really aren't ready to open, but we decided two months ago that this Thursday would be the day.  Two of our three partners are operational.  We need to get moved in, and we will make it.  But, it's not been easy. 

The project itself has been a challenge. 

Thanks to so many private donors, we've been able to construct a very funky, urban cool structure at one of the major gateways to South Dallas-Fair Park.  From the beginning we were committed to developing a first class community center that would gather resources and partners to deliver a collective impact on one of the poorest areas of Dallas. 

When you work among "the poor," folks who possess limited material resources, you have to make peace with changes in vision even in mid-stream!  I've signed off on multiple change orders, all of which seemed justifiable at the time, given the circumstances. 

But who really knows?

What I do know for certain is that we care for people consigned to lives in "the surround" of poverty.  In fact, it's not too much to say that we love them.  They are our friends, our neighbors, people who are worth our highest and best efforts and resources.  The "poor" are our very best partners and they are experts on the subject of poverty.

And, I know our new center will make a huge, transformative difference in the lives of the people who enter its doors. 

That certainty makes all the uncertainty and difficulty seem very, very small indeed. 

Join us for our Grand Opening on November 6!

Opportunity Center Update!

Opportunity Center nearing end of "phase 1"

The exterior components of our new community center for "opportunity discovery" are nearing completion.  Phase 2 will see the building finished out for occupancy.  Just wanted to let you see the latest photos!

Opportunity Center way "in the dry"