“AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?” Luke 10:29

For almost twenty years, CentralDallas Ministries (CDM) has beenliving the answer to the question,“AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?”

NEIGHBORSTOGETHER

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 behungry, to be worried about our health or to simply want to be inthat place that we call “home.” Whether or not we lack materialwealth, 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.

CDM has never been a passiveprovider of services to the “poor.”When our neighbors come to us in need, we invite them to explorewhat they have to offer to ourcommunity. Each year, this simpleinvitation helps CDM recruithundreds of volunteers from amongthe people who first came to us inneed. These volunteers develop asense of belonging that reaffirmstheir dignity and self-respect. Thisexperience of genuine communityis far more valuable than any of thefood, medications or other servicesthat we provide.

Our neighbors who partner withus do not just avoid hunger, illnessor homelessness; they grow incapacity, in confidence, in spirit.Each person liberated from povertyadds immeasurably more than amere positive statistic: they bring

new energy and hope to everyperson they meet. Enduringfriendships form and flourish, and alarger sense of community emerges.

Never has CDM’s unique andhighly effective approach to renewalbeen more needed. While one of thenation’s largest and most vibranturban centers, Dallas continuesto face tremendous challengesassociated with poverty. Nearly 1 in 4 local children lives in animpoverished family, with parentswho worry about putting food onthe table and who live in constantfear of a medical emergency theycan’t afford to treat.

As it prepares for its third decadeof service, CDM is ever moremindful of the needs of the city itserves and ever more confident thatneighbors working together can andwill prevail against those needs.

CDM is also uniquely positioned toidentify and mobilize everything ittakes to build genuine and enduringcommunity in neighborhoodsacross Dallas. With your support,CDM is making possiblemeasurable differences in the lives of our neighbors and in the socialand economic fabric of ourneighborhoods.

The challenge requires resourcesof every kind: financial, physical,intellectual, spiritual. Time andtreasure invested in CDM haveyielded remarkable dividends,transforming individual lives andweaving a stronger fabric ofcommunity within neighborhoodsand across our City.

We invite you to join us inpartnership with your neighbors.Together, we are building genuinecommunity…one person at a time.

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 intheir lives. They find advocates who are willing to stand by their side as part of a genuine community.

O

For those who come to us in need,we initially work to address theirmost urgent and immediateconcerns and then take steps tostabilize their lives. Moving in thisspace, we feed the hungry, we healthe sick and we bandage those whoare broken physically, emotionallyand spiritually. During theseinteractions, we instinctivelyremember the story that Jesus oncetold about the Good Samaritanwhen asked, “And who is myneighbor?” (Luke 10:29).

Driven by compassion for ourneighbors, we distribute over 1million pounds of food through ournetwork of food pantries. We deliverover 400,000 meals and snacks to at-risk children participating in over100 youth programs throughout thecity. We dispense over 20,000medications per year to uninsured

families and low-income seniorswho could not otherwise have themedicine that they need to maintaintheir health. Our sense of compassionalso challenges us to reach out toour supporters to understand theirneeds and to engage them as activeparticipants in our community.

This flow of compassion is notalong a one-way street. CentralDallas Ministries is designed so thatvery low-income persons canbecome first-class distributors ofcompassion every day. Our largeResource Centers, on HaskellAvenue and inside Roseland Homes,actually function as conveyors ofcompassion, hope and healing.Giving food is secondary inimportance to building relationshipswith those who come to us seekingassistance. Similarly, we enjoy deepfriendships and strong partnerships

with many of our donors that are farmore valuable than the funds thatthey contribute.

We work hard at transcendingsimple charity in an effort to movetoward an empowering compassionthat leads us deeper into the livesof people and closer to life-changing opportunities.

CompassionIn one way or another, every area of Central Dallas Ministries’ workcan be understood as an expression of compassion. A genuineconcern 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 ourneighbors also motivates us to build relationships with our donorsand supporters that are about more than funding; we seek to buildpartnerships with all people who come through our door, whetherthey 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 fooddrives for the food pantry where the other’s family regularly receives groceries, they are brought together by their desireto end hunger in our community.

Once we have responded withcompassion to address basic needs,we offer our neighbors the option of taking essential next steps towarda better life. We seek to developpartnerships that open doors ofopportunity and then work withour neighbors to help them stepthrough those doors themselves.

We are continually amazed by thegenerosity of those who originallycame to us in need of assistance andwho have accepted our invitation tojoin us as volunteers: Their love andcommitment to our community is a constant reminder of the power ofpartnerships and the overwhelmingstrength of community to overcomethe challenges of poverty.

We believe that every person whocomes to CDM has untappedabilities, capital and capacity toguide the direction of his or her

own life. Many simply lack theself-confidence and the supportsystems necessary to stay on ahealthy path. When partneringwith our neighbors to create theseopportunities, we are reminded of Jesus’ parable of the talents(Matthew 25:14-30). People whodecide to bury their talents or whorefuse to take part in their ownrenewal continue to receive ourcompassion, but we focus our“connection” efforts on those whoare willing to work hard at making a difference in their lives.

Our concern for our neighborsdoes not stop with the challenges of the materially poor, whom weconnect to opportunities foreducation, employment and legalrepresentation. We are concernedalso with engaging our donors andvolunteers in ways to fully utilize

their skills and resources tomaximize their own potential.

We partner with all of ourneighbors – the materially poor and the materially wealthy – tocreate new and substantialopportunities for themselves andour communities. In this way, we are working together to movebeyond charity toward long-term,sustainable change. Through thesepartnerships, we all work togetherto realize the promise of our livesand the hope of our community.

ConnectionWe believe in maximizing the God-given talent, purpose andpotential of every person – including our neighbors in need ofassistance and our neighbors who donate time and money tosustain our work. Incredible transformations occur in ourneighbors’ lives when they are finally able to connect to theopportunities and resources that they need to capitalize ontheir own gifts. By helping people to help themselves, we aredoing more than changing lives: together we are buildinggenuine community. Dr. Tonia Alexander, administrator for the Richardson ISD, believes in providing quality educational opportunities toindividuals 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.

A very important dimension of ourwork leads us to look beyondindividual lives and at the largercommunity of which we are all apart. We look at the root causes of many challenges and then wedevelop ways to work together toaddress them.

After nearly twenty years ofbattling the manifestations ofpoverty, we have been forced to dig deeper to discover what drivespeople into poverty or, as wefrequently find, keeps them theredespite their best efforts. At times,we work to bring the public’sattention to the problems we havediscovered. In this way, we advocateon behalf of our neighbors whowork hard and who still cannotafford food or who cannot receivepreventative medical care becausethey lack insurance. We fight on

behalf of our homeless neighbors to expand the number of affordablehousing communities available to them. More and more, weunderstand the importance ofworking to shape public policy.Here, we are reminded of Jesusdriving the money changers out ofthe Temple because they exploitedthe people of the land and tookadvantage of their need (John 2:13).

For our donors, we explore thebarriers that they face to realizingtheir own potential. We have foundthat many of our supporters feel anoverwhelming desire to make adifference, but struggle to understandthe impact of their gifts. We partnerwith them to understand thelives of those whom they seek tohelp, and we engage them in effortsto create a genuine dialogue aboutthe issues that they care about.

Regardless of whether they areinterested in supporting CDMfinancially, we open forums forcommunity discussion through ourblogs, book clubs and public eventsso that those with a desire to make adifference in the public square willdiscover the ability to do so.

Our work begins with compassion,transitions into opportunity creationand culminates with the developmentof a complete circle around the lives of our donors and those who cometo us in need.

CompletionWe have learned much over the past two decades. We haveobserved again and again how our neighbors often run up againstbarriers that cannot be addressed by individuals alone. Someproblems exist that no amount of compassion can overcome andthat often require larger, systemic change before our neighborscan effectively work to change their own lives. We have come tounderstand that our true goal is not to reach more people eachyear, but to remove the need for our services by working toeliminate these systemic barriers.Don Williams, chairman emeritus of Trammell Crow Company, is working with CDM and his homeless neighbors toaddress the issues of poverty and homelessness. They are standing in front of 511 N. Akard in Downtown Dallas, futurehome to Central Dallas Ministries’ administrative offices as well as 200 low-income and formerly homeless neighbors.

HungerWhen Central Dallas Ministriesbegan in 1988, our initial focus wason hunger. Since that time, we havegrown to understand the deepermeaning of hunger in the physical,spiritual and community contexts.When one first approaches solvingthe problem of hunger, it is difficultnot to hear the chords of compassionresonating within. Gazing into theeyes of a hungry toddler or, evenmore heart-wrenching, the eyes ofhis mother who experiences not onlythe physical anguish of her ownhunger, but the emotional anguish of watching her precious child suffer,is a heartbreaking experience. Eachyear, CDM has over 50,000experiences like this with neighborswho come to our three food pantries.

As we have walked alongside ourneighbors who suffer with physicalhunger, we have almost invariablydiscovered a spiritual hunger as well.A hunger for deliverance from fear,from pain, from isolation. The issueof spiritual hunger requires a farmore complex solution than theprovision of food. Toward that end,CDM has learned that treating ourneighbors with dignity, connectingthem to others who have walked intheir shoes and walking alongsidethem as we seek to share the love ofGod is the best way to address thespiritual hunger of our neighbors.

We believe that the Dallascommunity is hungry as well.Hungry for real, authentic change

that puts an end to the stratificationof our community. We believe thatall of our neighbors, rich and poor,long for a time when we can see eachother the way that God sees all of us:as unique, beautiful and essentialparts of a single, joyful community.We take crucial steps towardsachieving that goal by treating thepoor with dignity, challengingsupporters to become deeplyengaged in the lives of those whoutilize services and connecting allpeople to their true purpose in our community.

HealthCentral Dallas Ministries hasprovided healthcare and wellnessservices to the community since1990, when a team of volunteerphysicians began a small, 3-hourweekly clinic above CDM’s foodpantry. Driven by compassion forthose suffering illness and a desire to connect our uninsured neighborsto opportunities for long-termhealthcare, CDM has significantlyexpanded the clinic over the years.Now open 48 hours per week, theclinic includes medical care, dentalservices and a diabetes educationprogram. This clinic also includes an on-site pharmacy that fills over20,000 prescriptions per year.

Community Health Service(CHS) is the outgrowth of CDM’songoing partnership with theBaylor Health Care System, Health

Texas Provider Network, Texas TechSchool of Pharmacy and many otherorganizations. In addition to itsprimary clinic, CHS includes asatellite clinic for domestic workersas well as Project Access, a programthat connects CHS patients to anetwork of volunteer medicalspecialists. One of our mostinnovative partnerships is theVulnerable Patient Network (VPN),which provides in-home healthcareto uninsured neurotrauma victims.These are quadriplegic andparaplegic patients who are highlyvulnerable to a variety of illnesses;VPN ensures that these patients havethe best opportunity to maintaintheir health after they have beenreleased from primary care.

The link between physical andspiritual health is undeniable. Theinability of a parent to help an ailingchild heal due to lack of insuranceand resources takes an immeasurabletoll on the emotional and spiritualhealth of both parent and child. It isnearly impossible for an adult whois crippled by the effects of chronicillness to fully engage as a familymember, an employee and amember of the community.

We believe that a community isonly as strong as its most vulnerablemembers. Illness throws off thebalance of the community – it keepsindividuals from working, preventsfamilies from properly caring forthemselves, and serves as atremendous financial drain on thecommunity’s resources. Healingthe sick begins with compassion,

BATTLING POVERTY

progresses into connecting patientswith long-term healthcare optionsand culminates in addressing thephysical and spiritual health of ourentire community.

HousingPermanent, affordable housing is oneof the greatest needs facing our city.In Dallas alone, there are over 6,000homeless individuals and thousandsmore at great risk of homelessnessdue to low wages, high rents and lackof insurance. Battling poverty fornearly 20 years, CDM has learnedthat the solution to the housingproblem goes far beyond the needfor additional shelters and short-termhousing. Those in crisis needpermanent, supportive housing inorder to stabilize their life situations.In fact, national research shows thatover 80% of the homeless stabilize ifsimply given a key to their own door.

Housing is more than simplyshelter from the physical elements. It is a tremendous step toward the“completion” of an individual’s life. It connects them to opportunities tofind stable employment, to accruewealth, to connect with neighborsand, most importantly, to have thesense of dignity that comes withhaving control of their personalliving space.

On a community level, providinghousing to our neighbors who arehomeless or at risk of homelessness is necessary for the entire community

to flourish. Dallas currently spendsover $25,000 per year for each personwho spends the night on our city’sstreets, compared to CDM’s cost of$10,000 to provide permanentsupportive housing to a person whowould otherwise be homeless. Thecost of emergency room, police andcharitable outreach alone drainsresources that could be better spentdeveloping housing that can sustainvulnerable lives. The essentialbuilding block of “genuinecommunity” is the feeling ofconnectedness to one’s neighbors.Without a home, our neighbors who sleep on the street lose theirconnection to community. We believethat every individual must have ahome before our community cantruly be home to any of us.

HopeFrom our food and health services to our programs for foster carechildren aging out of the system,from our numerous educationalprograms to our legal services fordomestic violence victims, CentralDallas Ministries is in the business of helping to restore the mostfundamental thing that an individualneeds in order to truly come alive:hope. Hope does not grow fromfeeling marginalized and dependentupon others. Hope does not growfrom living in fear of not being ableto meet one’s basic needs. Hopegrows when neighbors are part of a

community that affirms their ownself-worth and that enables them toachieve 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 toreceive a sandwich, a vaccine or aplace to sleep for the night. Instead,we are able to assess the situation ofeach individual who walks throughour doors and to connect them to the various services they need to grow strong and self-sufficient. Weencourage everyone who comes toCDM seeking assistance to return as a volunteer so that they can connectwith others who are also changingtheir own lives. We all have a vestedinterest in forming a communitywhere we are united to help oneanother in difficult times and rejoicewith one another in joyful times.

Dallas is a stronger, safer and more genuine community when itsresidents feel that they are connectedto one another as neighbors. Crimedrops as we begin to simply look outfor one another, and health improvesas we begin to take pride in ourselvesand our lives. Homes that were onceneglected are cleaned up. Gardens areplanted. The bonds of communitystrengthen, and Dallas becomes morethan simply a place to live: it becomesa home.

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

ON FOUR FRONTS

TheHistory ofCentralDallasMinistriesOriginally founded in 1988 by Jimand Betsy Sowell with the help ofmembers of the Preston RoadChurch of Christ, the Central DallasFood Pantry changed its name toCentral Dallas Ministries (CDM) in1994 as part of a broader effort toaddress the deeper issues associatedwith poverty. Thanks to thecommitment of its many supporters,CDM has since grown into anexpansive community developmentorganization with a network ofinterlocking programs designed toaddress the root causes of poverty.

NEIGHBORS TOGETHEROver the past decade, CDM hasgrown from a handful of employeesinto a team of nearly 240 communitydevelopment professionals andAmeriCorps members. This team isjoined by over 1,000 volunteers eachyear, over 90% of whom originallycame to CDM to receive services. Bypartnering with those in need, CDMhas successfully expanded itsoperation to address the hunger,health, housing, legal, education andemployment issues associated withpoverty. Thanks to people like you,CDM now has over 60,000 contactswith its neighbors each year.Working together, these neighbors

are now helping CDM to replicateits services in new neighborhoodsthroughout North Texas.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPSIn twenty years of service to thecommunity, CDM has formedseveral key partnerships that havegreatly enhanced its mission.Partnerships with the Baylor HealthCare System, Health Texas ProviderNetwork and Texas Tech School ofPharmacy have expanded the reachof CDM’s healthcare programs fromunder 1,000 patients in 1997 to over21,000 today. The organization’spartnership with the Dallas CountyMedical Society and Project Accesshas further connected thousands ofthese patients to medical specialists toaddress needs ranging from oncologyto gynecology. CDM’s membershipsin groups like the United Way ofMetropolitan Dallas and the MetroDallas Homeless Alliance alsocontinue to open doors of opportunityfor our neighbors.

Most recently, CDM’s affordablehousing program has developedsignificant partnerships with privatecorporations and governmentorganizations that have helped it todevelop nearly 50 units of housing forlow-income and formerly homelesspeople. These efforts also recently ledto the acquisition of the property at511 N. Akard in Downtown Dallas.This project, which will be known ascitywalk@akard, will provide nearly150 units of affordable housing forthe working poor and permanentsupportive housing for 50 of ourhomeless neighbors. The buildingwill also become the new home forCDM’s administrative service center,its public interest law firm and its community development

corporation. Funded in part by theCity of Dallas, as well as the TexasDepartment of Housing andCommunity Affairs, citywalk@akardis a community partnership that will forever change the face ofhomelessness in our city.

As CDM continues to grow andimprove its work, one thing remainsconstant: the compassion, connectionand completion of our work wouldnot be possible without the supportof our neighbors – from the mostaffluent donor to the poorestvolunteer in our food pantry. Thankyou for your continued supportthrough the years. We are proud to call you our neighbor.

BuildingCommunity:Lives Touched byCentral Dallas Ministries

Committo HelpYourNeighborTodayGIVE YOUR TIMEEvery year, nearly 1,000 of yourneighbors volunteer at CDM:

■ 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! Whetheryou want to volunteer regularly orjust once, we welcome your valuabletime. Please contact our volunteercoordinator at 214.823.8710 orVolunteers@CentralDallasMinistries.org to sign on as a volunteer today.

GIVE YOUR TREASUREWith more than 90 cents of everydollar invested directly in life-changing programs, the impact ofyour gifts to Central Dallas Ministriesis greater than any other investmentyou can make in our community.

▼ Cash DonationsDonations can be mailed to CentralDallas Ministries, P.O. Box 710385,Dallas, Texas 75371-0385. To make adonation by phone, please call thedevelopment office at 214.823.8710.Secure donations can be made

online at www.CentralDallasMinistries.org.

▼ Donated GoodsWe can accept donations of food,clothing, books, household goods andfurniture. Donations can be deliveredto 409 N. Haskell, Dallas, Texas 75246.To arrange a pickup for largedonations, please call 214.823.8710.

▼ Vehicle DonationsMake your car a vehicle for change!We can pick up cars, trucks, boats, RVsand planes. For more information,visit www.CDMCars.org or call 972.231.2220 to arrange a pickup.

▼ Real Estate and Stock DonationsBy transferring stock, real estate andother appreciable assets to CDM,many donors can support our missionwhile also realizing a tax savings. Todiscuss these opportunities, pleasecall the development office at214.823.8710 or emailInfo@CentralDallasMinistries.org.

▼ Estate PlanningMany donors have already planned to leave a legacy with Central DallasMinistries by naming the organizationa beneficiary in their will or insurancepolicy. To discuss these opportunities,including gifts to our endowmentfund, please call the developmentoffice at 214.823.8710.

SHARE YOUR COMMITMENTWe need your help to find otherpeople interested in buildingcommunity and renewing the lives oftheir neighbors! There are easy waysto engage your friends and contactswithout having to worry about askingthem for money or to volunteer. ■ Email them a link to our Web site,

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 first-hand 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@CentralDallasMinistries.org.

To take your commitment to the nextlevel, help CDM raise money byturning your birthday, anniversary orother celebration into a fundraiser forCDM. Instead of accepting gifts, askfor donations to be made to CDM.We can even help you set up yourown free Web site to share with yourcontacts. To learn more, contact the Development Director at214.823.8710 or Info@CentralDallasMinistries.org. Or, visit us online atwww.CentralDallasMinistries.org/join.

BestInvestment:Percent of Budget

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.

CENTRALDALLASMINISTRIES

Central Dallas MinistriesP.O. Box 710385Dallas, TX 75371-0385

Dear Neighbor,

It was not so many years ago that I found myself hungry, jobless and alone. Now because ofyour compassion, which allowed me to be connected to amazing opportunities to change mylife, I have completed a transformation into a stable, successful manager of a large hotel inDallas and proud father of two beautiful children. I could not have done this alone. I’mthankful to be a part of this community where we truly are neighbors together.

Sincerely,

Robert

Printing Donated by an Anonymous Neighbor

CENTRAL DALLAS MIN ISTR IES409 North Haskell ■ Dallas, Texas 75246

P.O. Box 710385 ■ Dallas, Texas 75371-0385214.823.8710 ■ Fax: 214.824.5355

www.CentralDallasMinistries.org