Pictured below are two options for signage on a large, ClearChannel billboard located at the edge of our property where we are constructing the new CitySquare "Opportunity Center."

The billboards have been provided at a great price and point to our new development.

Here's the question: which one do you like the best and why? Your responses will help us make our selection!

Opportunity Center Update. . .

Photos taken this week at the site of CitySquare's new Opportunity Center located at the southeast corner of I-30 and Malcolm X Boulevard, an important gateway to South Dallas Fair Park.  Great views of the Downtown skyline and easy access from all directions make the property very attractive for its purpose. 

Early in 2012, we will launch the public phase of a capital campaign to fully fund the new development that will include a health creation center, workforce training and job placement, nutrition education, food distribution and literacy instruction. 

More details coming very soon about our partners and our plans. 

Stay tuned!

You can help TODAY!

CitySquare needs your help before January 1!

You can help TODAY!

Take a look here to find out how you can make a huge difference!

Movin' dirt at Opportunity Center. . .FINALLY!

CForward--check it out!

CitySquare's AmeriCorps team rocks!!!

Find out who's noticing the work of CitySquare's best-practice AmeriCorps team!

Click here and look for the report on Dallas. 

Or better, click here and read the report on our Dallas work.

Or best of all, click here and see who else is paying attention!

Way to go, CitySquare AmeriCorps team! 

A Night to Remember 2011. . .tickets on sale now for October 29!

Heaven standing at the gate of Hell

I saw it again yesterday.

Across the years I've seen it time after time, appearing in different forms and shapes.

Heaven standing at the gate of hell.

The context for my latest experience was routine enough, at least for a sweltering hot July afternoon in Dallas.  I dropped in on one of the delivery sites for our mobile summer lunch delivery program.  The innovative effort teams CitySquare (through our AmeriCorps members and our Nurture, Knowledge and Nutrition initiative) with PepsiCo.  Over the past two summers, thanks to this unique partnership, we've doubled the number of children served these important meals during the months when school is not in session.  Those are the details, the set up, if you will.

As I watched our AmeriCorps leaders playing with a good sized group of precious children, I somehow stepped across a line.  Somewhere between vision and overwhelming realization, I looked into hell itself from the edge of heaven. 

The children were beautiful and playful, in spite of the terribly oppressive heat.  By the time I left the site my clothing was soaked.  They all seemed unaffected!

The meals were served as usual.  Everyone sat down on the ground and ate picnic style under the only shade I could see in the aging, multi-family apartment complex. Living conditions were crowded here.  The people felt packed into a very limited and limiting space.  I met one mother who shared that two families lived in her rather small apartment, extended family members sharing a home.

In spite of all the negatives and the discomfort, the children smiled, expressed gratitude and genuinely enjoyed being together and interacting with those of us who showed up on their turf. 

I stood in heaven with these sweet kids, but I also had a front row seat at the edge of an advancing hell. 

I thought of what would happen with these children over the coming 5 to 10 years.  I wondered about their education, their health, their employment options, their success or failure and what that would mean for the kind of future they would experience.  I wondered how long the sweetness could endure the poverty and the obvious struggle I could see reflected in the eyes of their parents. 

Among those wonderful little ones, children just like my grand kids, I realized as never before what a challenge we face in the cities of this nation.  Dread rolled over me like a summer storm.  So much work to do.  So little national understanding of what's up among the urban poor and their children.  So few leaders from any sector who really "get it."

Yesterday I experienced the horrible "thinness" hanging between heaven and hell. 

In the heat with the children and our partners I had to wonder if we're up to the challenge of the present and coming battle.

CitySquare Online Store Opens!

At long last! 

The CitySquare Online Store is officially open for business!

Visit us here!

Share this good news with your network!

Join the fight against urban poverty in Dallas and beyond! 

Fall AmeriCorps positions open!

Important Announcement from CitySquare!

Summer is almost over and we’re gearing up for our fall program! We are currently recruiting for 80 AmeriCorps positions whose work begins on September 1st.

These new members will be placed with one of our partner agencies to provide after-school programming to youth in low income areas of Dallas.

Minimum Requirements:

· 17 years or older
· HS Diploma or Equivalent
· No criminal background
· Ability to serve M-F 1pm-6:30pm between 9/1/11-6/1/12
· Commitment to community service and development
· Interest in education and working with kids

Member Benefits: (see application for details)

· Biweekly living allowance
· End of Term education award
· Loan forbearance

More information is available online at www.CitySquare.org/BecomeAMember or www.AmeriCorps.gov.

Spread the word!

Help us spread the word about this opportunity by forwarding this email to friends, colleagues, family, and any other email listserv you have access to!  Or, use Facebook, Twitter and/or other social media to direct anyone interested to CitySquare's AmeriCorps team!

In service,

Jennifer A. Rajkumar
Program Manager
N2 Texas Corps
CitySquare

Ingredients for community development, renewal

Across the past four decades I've given considerable thought to the entire process of community development both in groups of people and in physical locations within urban geographies. 

I'm certainly no expert.  But, of course, I have a few ideas after all this time. 

While I haven't had extensive, formal, academic training on the subject; I do have an understanding about the essentials or the ingredients necessary for community development and renewal to occur. 

Here's a brief list of essentials:

Interdependent individuals who form a group.

Willing workers who pursue a common mission.

Alignment of existing community assets.

Leveraging of additional, needed, outside resources for the work.

Youthful exuberance no matter what the age of those involved!

Of course, there are other essential factors to bring to the process, but, in my view, nothing happens without these five building blocks of community development.

CitySquare arrives!

We have a new name!

I suppose an obvious question might be, "Why?"

First, a bit of history. 

We began in 1988 with "Central Dallas Food Pantry." 

As our work in the community expanded far beyond food, and as we prepared for our next steps into the future, that first name yielded to "Central Dallas Ministries." 

So, now we've reached another one of those important moments. 

The further expansion of our work prompted the latest "brand" change.  We are no longer just "central." 

Nor are we only Dallas--our reach new extends across the Metroplex and into San Antonio, Austin and the 19-county North Texas region. 

The word "ministries" continues to confuse people in a couple of ways. 

We aren't a church, though some think we are, while others wish we were!  We have never used our work/resources as hooks to proselytize, though others fear we might on the basis of that one very loaded word. 

Clearly, the time is ripe for a new name. 

CitySquare.

The name begs exactly the right question, "Interesting.  What does that mean?"

We worked with world renowned ad agency, The Richards Group here in Dallas for over a year on the new name (at cut-rate, non-profit prices, I hasten to add!).  The marketing pros inside this amazing company led us through their "spherical branding" process with great care and the occasional, thoughtful challenge. 

The final product of our hard work:  our new brand promise.

Our "brand vision" is clear:  changing the trajectory of people's lives. 

Our brand positions us as the right organization for people who want to help "the poor" because at CitySquare we partner with people to see improvement in their lives and ours. 

We discovered our "brand personality":  compassionate, gritty and fiercely committed. 

Our brand affiliation will attract people who want in the fight against poverty. 

CitySquare.

We are in the middle of the community. 

The space we occupy is an inviting place. 

We seek partners around the square.  Our space seeks to be completely inclusive--everyone is welcome, all are invited to join us on the CitySquare!

In fact, the change we seek, the values we speak cannot be realized without full  participation around the CitySquare.

And, we intend to "square things up," to reconcile relationships and rules for the sake of equity and justice.  We want to make things right wherever we do our work. 

Our new logo communicates the presence of many individuals, numerous efforts and varied groups, all independent, yet assembled with their combined energy focused on the center of the common square, dedicated to the hard work of community renewal.

Welcome to our new identity:  CitySquare!

Her world

A couple of years ago my friend, Dr. Janet Morrison captured the image in the photo positioned as the masthead of this page. 

Janet was working on an assignment I gave her:  "Give me photos of 'the Dallas no one wants to see,' I had instructed her.  She came back with some amazing shots that we used in an educational presentation designed to awaken folks to the realities of poverty here in inner city Dallas, Texas.

But, back to the image that appears here every day. 

I find the photo haunting. 

Who is this little girl? 

I know she lives in South Dallas. 

I know the photo caught her looking out a broken shutter of an open window.  She seems to be waving, or possibly just moving her hand.  She appears to see Janet.

What kind of world does she deal with living in her ramshackle, old house? 

What does she face day-by-day? 

Where is she headed? 

Is she hungry? 

Is she safe?

Is she healthy?

Is she afraid? 

How about school. . .does she go? 

What does she see, dream and hope as she looks out at the outside world? 

What story can you read in her big, brown eyes? 

What surrounds her behind the surface of this image?  What is her "back story"?

The image calls me to wonder, to pray, to think, to work. 

Frankly, it's all about her.