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Checking in on Pandemic-Related Learning Loss

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on . Posted in News & Updates. 9 Comments on Checking in on Pandemic-Related Learning Loss

For parents and teachers alike, learning loss has been a leading concern since the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. With all the stress and disruptions of 2020 and 2021, we all feared that the students in our community would fall behind, potentially for years to come.

While many students did experience learning loss in the first years of the pandemic, the Texas Education Agency recently released some very welcome news: This spring, Texas students’ standardized test scores in reading and math moved closer to pre-pandemic levels. That’s especially notable considering that in 2021, the same test results fell to levels not seen in at least 10 years.

This is good news for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and our supporters, as we work toward ensuring more students in North Texas graduate ready for success in college or a career.

Learning Loss by the Numbers

Unfortunately, early pandemic-era testing numbers indicated that students were struggling to adjust to the new normal. In the fall of 2020, the Texas Education Agency found that Texas elementary students had experienced significant learning loss in reading, math and science. Fifteen percent fewer third graders were reading at grade level, and 31% fewer fourth graders were meeting their grade level for math.

This was a huge step back for our students. However, in the last two years, parents, teachers, community organizations like United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the community as a whole have come together to support kids in their learning journey. Students attended longer class days and took on extra assignments. Parents worked more closely than ever with their kids to get them caught up. United Way and other organizations launched and expanded reading programs and experiential learning initiatives to ensure students bounce back from the pandemic.

As a result of these efforts, this year’s results for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test show noticeable improvement in the areas of reading and math:

  • In reading, 52% of all students met grade level or above, representing a 9-percentage point increase from the previous year.
  • In math, 40% of all students in grades 3-8 met grade level or above this year, a 5-percentage-point increase from the previous year.

In North Texas, STAAR results tended to mirror the state-wide trends, with up to 10% improvement in the percentage of students meeting expectations for their grade.

Creating Opportunity for North Texas Students

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we’ve led a movement to improve access to education—as well as income and health—for nearly 100 years. We recognize that education is one of the building blocks of opportunity, affecting everything from how much a student will go on to earn in their career to the quality of health insurance their family will one day enjoy.

When COVID-19 hit North Texas, we quickly saw the importance of supporting students throughout the pandemic and beyond. We ramped up existing programs that promote early literacy and launched new initiatives aimed at reengaging students with school. Through this and other work, we gave the entire North Texas community an opportunity to lift up students who were at risk of falling behind.

Examples of these efforts include:

Once Upon a Month: This partnership with Ferst Readers and The Boone Family Foundation provides children ages 0-5 with one free children’s book every month for a year, along with parent guides in both English and Spanish. The resulting interactions stimulate curiosity, language development and the learning skills needed for kids to succeed in both school and life. Since May 2017, more than 10,000 children have enrolled in the program and more than 46,000 books have been distributed.

Vooks partnership: We’ve partnered with Atmos Energy and Vooks, the leading streaming service for children’s books, to provide access to a free, one-year subscription for children ages 3-6 and early education teachers. In the first year of the program, 1,025 parents and 100 early education teachers signed up for subscriptions, helping improve early literacy for nearly 4,000 North Texas children.

Heal Play Learn: Funded by Texas Instruments Foundation, this partnership with Educate Texas and CoSpero Consulting is designed to encourage students’ social and emotional wellness, physical activity and engagement with science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM). In the second summer of programming, about 1,000 students in Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Lancaster school districts get to enjoy incredible, world-class programming that includes science experiments, cooking classes, dance and music classes, and more.

Southern Dallas Thrives student support: As part of our partnership with The PepsiCo Foundation and Frito-Lay North America in Southern Dallas, we engage high school students by providing academic enrichment, career mentorship and workforce centered experiences to increase youth workforce preparedness. In addition, Southern Dallas Thrives works with our corporate partners to expose students to college resources and opportunities to encourage academic success after high school.

These and other United Way programs directly engage students with school and encourage them to fall in love with learning—which today is more important than ever.

“This has been an incredibly disruptive couple of years, with the pandemic and so many other things that have affected all of our lives, but most particularly the lives of students,” says Susan Hoff, chief strategy and impact officer at United Way of Metroplitan Dallas. “With the disruption in learning—our brains can only do so much when we’re stressed. Getting kids reconnected—through social-emotional support, through hands-on learning, through fun activities—is critically important for their long-term learning and addressing learning loss.”

Join Our Movement to Improve Education in North Texas

Together, we can continue to ensure more local students have the resources and support necessary to succeed. Join us today to make a lasting impact on education right here in our community.

  • Give: Sign up to make a monthly donation to United Way of Metropolitan Dallas to directly support our community-wide movement. It doesn’t take much: For example, just $36 a month provides a child with 12 books a year through Once Upon a Month, preparing them for school and early reading.
  • Advocate: Subscribe to our Advocacy Updates, and we’ll provide timely information on our top policy priorities, plus notifications on when and how to contact your elected officials.

Message from 2021-2022 Women of Tocqueville Chair

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In partnership with the incredible United Way of Metropolitan Dallas professionals, led by Susan Hutcheson and Deborah Arango, the 17 dedicated WOT Steering Committee members charted a challenging course for the year with our intentions focused on reaching for the stars by giving, advocating and volunteering in meaningful ways. I’m happy to report that we achieved everything we set out to and more! Through your outreach efforts such as alumni events, workplace campaigns, and connections functions at Tory Burch and Lela Rose, we added 54 new WOT members to our ranks.

Together, we aligned 13 WOT activities with our North Star – the UWMD Aspire United 2030 goals – to foster those building blocks of opportunity – Education, Income, and Health – through impactful and innovative solutions. We unleashed our members to cultivate and broaden our outreach to the diverse ethnic, industry and community sectors around us. WOT members were deeply engaged in both the hallmark and new initiatives – dedicating over 726 volunteer hours to connect, mentor, advise and advocate during a time of primarily virtual events.

Your engagement and impact were evident in our key events like Most Generous Next Generation, which highlighted the investment in the Southern Dallas sector, sponsored by PwC and Vistra Corp., Reading Day presented by EY, and Bench & Bar sponsored by FTI Consulting, as well as our newer programs like State of the Regional Economy sponsored by Bank of Texas, WiNGS Baby Shower, Agape Resource & Assistance Center day of painting, and Summer Snacks Kit assembly.

Recognizing that our own well-being is imperative as we serve others, we started the Steering Committee retreat at My Possibilities with a time of meditation and self-reflection and then opened each Steering Committee meeting with a reflective and inspirational quote. That introspection and social awareness continued as we participated in the Dallas Children Theater’s Social Justice Initiative and introduced our Steering Committee to DINE! an initiative to discover differences by including one another to navigate new perspectives.

The extraordinary significance of over $4.6M in gifts, which supported over 118 community partners. I’m especially pleased with the WOT Fund for Women and Children that has raised more than $16M and made its first disbursement to provide targeted financial and skill-based investments for women entrepreneurs in partnership with LiftFund and Comerica.

I know that I speak for all of us in saluting and extending my/our sincerest gratitude to the Women of Tocqueville Steering Committee. I am especially proud to hand over the Chair reins to one of the brightest lights with a generous spirit and the most giving heart, Mandy Austin, Dallas Market President of the Bank of Texas, who has been by my side as Chair-Elect throughout the year. Mandy is a brilliant business and community leader with a passion for our North Texas neighbors. She will continue to be an incredible force for good as the 2022-2023 Chair!

Endowing the Future of North Texas

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What Is an Endowment?

Clearly, achieving a $100 million endowment is a huge win for our community. But what exactly is an endowment?

An endowment, quite simply, is philanthropic investment set aside to earn revenue to fund future charitable activities. In the case of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, our supporters invest money in our endowment fund, which is then managed United Way Foundation of Metropolitan Dallas. The foundation’s investment committee stewards the endowment funds, much like an individual retirement account, working to get the best possible return each year.

It’s common to think that endowments equal cash assets, when in fact United Way can only access the funds generated by the performance of the assets. An endowment is set up to steward funds in perpetuity, so each year we can only access the money we earn from our investments.

Setting Our Big Goal

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has been an important part of the North Texas community for nearly 100 years. Although new challenges emerge each year, we remain consistently committed to our North Star– improving access to education, income and health for every North Texan.

Of course, as the last few years have demonstrated, success, is dependent upon leadership’s ability to focus on building the capacity of the organization to rapidly adapt, live its purpose, and grow.

Our leadership understands that regardless of what the future holds, it is vital that United Way secures the funding to address the unexpected and drive measurable impact in our region for generations to come.

As Sampson recalls, the idea for the endowment campaign was born out of a desire to secure the organization’s future.

“The motivation was to build a permanent source of funding that would enable us to drive measurable impact in our community in perpetuity,” she said. “The endowment provides funding stability during times of economic uncertainty and volatility.  It also allows us to make commitments far into the future, knowing that resources to meet those commitments will continue to be available.

In 2014, United Way and our Foundation leadership launched the Unite Forever campaign—the first endowment campaign in United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ history—with a goal of raising $100 million in 10 years. In the year of our 90th anniversary, we officially kicked off the campaign, led by co-chairs Ed Galante, a long tenuered Exxon Mobil executive; Roger Staubach, the legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback; and the late Ruth Sharp Altshuler, an iconic and beloved philanthropist.

Galante explained why he stepped up to help lead the campaign: “I have long been a strong believer in United Way’s business model of harnessing the collective capacity of the community to give and then depending upon a capable staff and cadre of dedicated community volunteers to put those contributions to good use. The Unite Forever campaign was intended to ensure that this good work continues in perpetuity. For me it was a no-brainer to be involved.”

Galante, Staubach and Altshuler, along with United Way Foundation members and some of our most loyal supporters, made significant, pace-setting investments  that inspired more than 2,000 others to join them during these last seven years. Early giving to the campaign exceeded $20 million and established incredible momentum.

Following the passing of Ruth Altshuler, Mary Templeton answered the call to serve as co-chair  along with Galante in the final closing years of the campaign. The two co-chairs, along with United Way Foundation Board Chair, Terri West, re-energized the volunteer leadership of Unite Forever vice chairs in 2020 with a goal to close the Unite Forever campaign by May 2022.

Unprecedented Support from the Live United Movement

Thanks to an incredible degree of support from change-seekers across North Texas, we achieved and even slightly exceeded the $100 million goal just in time for our 2022 United Way Awards event, held May 12. As Sampson explains, not only is it remarkable to meet the $100 million goal, but it’s almost unbelievable to have reached it three years ahead of schedule.

“When we started this process, meeting a $100 million fundraising goal for an endowment seemed nearly impossible,” she said. “It was counter to our historical annual fundraising activities to support grants for community impact. But we made the impossible a reality—so much so that we finished the campaign three years early, and we exceeded the goal.”

Galante, who helped advance the Unite Forever campaign since its inception, says he is proud of the results of more than seven years of hard work—and what it means for North Texas.

“Surpassing the goal three years ahead of schedule demonstrates that the premise of our endowment campaign resonated with donors,” he said. “It shows how our community feels about the good work that United Way does and how people want to see that good work continue. The success of the campaign is also a testament to the hard work of our staff and campaign cabinet that helped to make it all happen.”

To Sampson, surpassing the campaign goal in just seven years means one thing: The Live United movement is energized, engaged and aligned on the best way forward for creating opportunity for all North Texans.

“People believe in United Way’s mission passionately, and they are willing to invest in our ability to drive measurable community impact forever,” she said. “It’s a record-breaking achievement. It’s breathtaking to realize that our endowment campaign is the second largest in the United Way universe. Only the United Way of King County, in Seattle, will have a larger endowment, and that is thanks to an $85 million kick-start from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

Thank You for Living United

This incredible achievement and historic moment is only possible thanks to you: the unstoppable Live United movement, our friends and neighbors who are leading change in North Texas.

Thank you to our Unite Forever leadership, our Board of Directors, and each and every donor who made this campaign a success. Your commitment will support individuals and families across our region in perpetuity, making our community a better place for generations to come.

Interested in joining the movement to improve access to education, income and health? Although our Unite Forever campaign is closed, you still have an opportunity to Live United by making a donation, advocating for policy change or volunteering with United Way.

Ensuring Students Bounce Back from the Pandemic

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For many students across North Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their lives more than any other single event. For the last two years, they’ve dealt with stress and uncertainty, learning disruptions, social isolation and more. And it’s no surprise that children may struggle as our community works to return to “normalcy.”

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we recognize the challenges kids are up against today. Now more than ever, we need our students to feel engaged with and inspired by school, so they can graduate prepared for success in college or in their career. We have identified education, income and health as the building blocks of opportunity, and it’s incredibly difficult to thrive in the latter two areas without a firm foundation in the first.

That’s why last summer we helped launch Heal Play Learn, an innovative program that provides both entertainment and educational opportunities to students in southern Dallas County. The goal is to encourage kids to re-engage with learning through exciting, hands-on group activities.

 

Learning Loss and Disengagement

The stress and disruption of the last few years have had a very real impact on local students. At the height of the pandemic, the Texas Education Agency found that children had experienced significant learning loss in reading, math and science, with up to 36% fewer students achieving grade-level proficiency in each subject.

Meanwhile, kids have struggled with the social and emotional challenges, as well as the fear and uncertainty, of the pandemic. Many local students lost family members to COVID-19. It’s no wonder local educators say their students are disengaged, frustrated and listless.

It will take years for our students to fully recover from the learning loss and the social-emotional toll of the pandemic. That’s especially true for the Black and Latinx populations, which were among the hardest hit communities in North Texas.

 

Getting Kids Excited About Learning

With these challenges in mind, last summer United Way of Metropolitan Dallas partnered with Texas Instruments Foundation, Educate Texas and CoSpero Consulting to launch Heal Play Learn. The program focuses on the whole child and is designed to encourage students’ social and emotional wellness, physical activity and engagement with the arts and science.

As Susan Hoff, chief strategy and impact officer at United Way of Metroplitan Dallas, explains, “We focus on STEAM—which is science, technology, engineering, arts and math programming—coupled with social-emotional learning and physical activity. It’s a whole-child approach to help kids get energized, excited and reconnected to school.”

With Heal Play Learn, students in Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Lancaster school districts get to enjoy incredible, world-class programming from local organizations. Each day, it’s something a little different, and the students get to cook, do science experiments, learn about dance and music, and just have fun.

Hoff says this type of experiential learning is a great way for kids to engage with learning.

“This has been a very disruptive time, especially for children,” she says. “And our brains only do so much when we’re stressed. Getting connected again, giving kids a safe space to feel their feelings, as well as to move and experiment, really drives academic outcomes. That’s the whole focus of Heal Play Learn. And we know the results will be better outcomes when they come back in the fall.”

 

Our Collective Impact

Last summer, during its first year of programming, Heal Play Learn reached a total of 15,176 students from Cedar Hill and DeSoto ISD, delivering 36 hours of engaging programming. This summer, the program has expanded to also include Lancaster ISD, enabling it to reach even more students.

Heal Play Learn is just one of the ways in which United Way and our supporters are working to improve access to quality education for everyone in North Texas. Programs like Heal Play Learn have a ripple effect—not only on the lives of the individual students, but also on our community as a whole.

“United Way is laser focused on building a community where everyone has the opportunity and access to thrive,” Hoff explains. “We do that by focusing on education, financial stability and health. Heal Play Learn sits right in the center of those areas. Kids who are healthy, who have the opportunity to learn and connect with their community, are going to grow up to be those citizens of the future who have strong careers and jobs and can support themselves and their families well into the future. It’s a great investment for every one of those kids, but also for all of us.”

 

You Can Support Local Students Affected by COVID-19

As local students work to reengage with school, initiatives like Heal Play Learn can make a huge difference in their attitudes toward school, their connections to other students, and even their social and emotional health. Thanks to dedicated supporters like you, we can all work to ensure more students have access to impactful programming like this.

The Importance of Early Childhood Development

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on . Posted in News & Updates.

Early Childhood Development Statistics

Research indicates that 90% of brain development happens by the age of 5. These are the years that children absorb nearly everything they see, hear, taste and feel. Up to the age of 3, a child’s brain produces more than 1 million neural connections every second.

It’s no surprise, then, that the amount and quality of care, interaction and stimulation a child receives can have a huge impact on the type, number and quality of brain connections that develop and last throughout their lifetime.

In the early years of life, it’s especially important for children to receive the health and educational support and resources they need to truly thrive. Researchers have found that babies and young children who grow up in stable, safe and loving environments, and enjoy plenty of positive interactions with caregivers, typically are healthier and more successful in school and in life. It’s a strong example of how intertwined education, income and health can be in a person’s life.

Unfortunately, the converse is true as well. Children who don’t get lots of positive attention and caring interactions don’t develop as many positive neural connections. Far too many kids have their development stunted by factors like domestic violence, food insecurity, inaccessible health services and socioeconomic struggles. This in turn can negatively impact their school years, overall health and future.

Today one in four children is at risk for developmental delays, and 80% of children with developmental or behavioral problems don’t receive early intervention. While these numbers may seem daunting, they are also an urgent reminder that it takes a broad network of support to ensure local families have the resources and care they need to thrive.

 

A Community-Wide Collaboration

Help Me Grow North Texas, an incredible community-wide collaboration, is just one of the ways United Way of Metropolitan Dallas encourages healthy childhood development. The initiative includes more than 50 community partners that work together to provide valuable developmental resources and education to parents in 18 counties in and around North Texas. Since Help Me Grow launched in North Texas in 2019, the program has supported more than 5,000 families.

In January 2021, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas led the expansion of the Help Me Grow program into Dallas and Collin counties. Working with our partners—MHMR Tarrant County, Tarrant County Early Learning Alliance, Tarrant County Public Health, ChildCareGroup and TexProtects—we’ve been able to increase developmental screening for children in our community and provide direct navigation resources to parents while helping service providers assist more families.

The program delivers important services for North Texas parents, all free of charge:

  • Free developmental screenings for every child age 0 to 6
  • Family and community outreach, which builds caregivers’ understanding of healthy child development—including how it works and what they can do to improve children’s outcomes—and increases their awareness of the supportive services available to families and service providers in the community
  • Answers for questions about pregnancy, parenting and child development
  • Care coordination for things like child care and pediatric visits
  • Key connections to community resources and programs

For families, Help Me Grow North Texas not only supports their efforts to keep their children on track developmentally; it also creates a single, comprehensive resource for everything related to their child’s early years. This centralized access point saves them significant time and effort that can instead be spent with their families.

“The biggest ways the initiative has helped the community, particularly the family support community—providers and organizations that are already supporting families with young kids—is being able to have a consistent place to send families,” said Abigail Sharp, vice president of early childhood initiatives at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. “It’s important for families because it creates a continuity of care—being able to not have a family start with a support service in one county and then end up in a new county and have to start from scratch is pretty amazing. Our navigation team is equipped to provide resources, referrals and support to families regardless of what county they’re in.”

Help Me Grow North Texas also delivers support and training to organizations that provide child development-related services. Meanwhile, the program collects and analyzes data on child development trends in our community. As a result, Help Me Grow North Texas organizers are able to help improve the quality of care that is provided to local families and make sure the system is constantly getting better.

 

Improving Health Access for North Texans

Local families have embraced Help Me Grow North Texas with enthusiasm.

“Since we launched in Dallas and Collin County, we’ve seen an incredible amount of growth and number of referrals,” Sharp said. “They’re utilizing the resources that they’re being given, and we’re getting a lot of positive feedback.”

Hudson Moses and his family are just one example of how this initiative is having a significant impact in the lives of North Texans. He and his wife started noticing signs of developmental delays in his son when he was about 2 years old.

“We didn’t even know what autism was, before that,” he says.

Then, Hudson heard about an Autism Awareness Month event with Help Me Grow North Texas.

“They helped point us in the right direction with various resources,” he says. “What appealed to us the most was the regular, sincere follow ups. They were always in touch, almost like a family member. They’re always asking, ‘Is your kid OK? Are you getting the right help?’”

Hudson said that newfound access to community resources was a turning point for his son.

“From where he was about eight months ago, when he wasn’t even saying mommy and daddy, to where he is now—he’s singing songs. Just yesterday, he started saying, ‘Daddy, I want this, I want that’. He’s independently eating, he’s even stealing food from the refrigerator. His personality has started to come out and shine. From a place of total disbelief to actually seeing progress, my experience has been nothing but positive.”

The State of Homelessness in 2022

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Homelessness prevention is an important part of the work we do at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. That’s because housing stability provides a foundation for our three focus areas: education, income and health. Without a stable home, individuals and families struggle to truly thrive in other areas of their lives.

Well before COVID-19 arrived in North Texas, homelessness was far too common for too many of our neighbors. However, the last few years only exacerbated the issue, as thousands of North Texans lost their income, struggled to pay rent and faced the threat of eviction. Luckily, the federal government, a variety of community organizations—including United Way of Metropolitan Dallas—and countless individuals stepped up to support our neighbors during an unimaginable crisis.

Now that we are firmly in year three of the pandemic, we have a better picture of the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on homelessness in North Texas, as well as how successful local housing stability and homelessness response programs have been.

2022 State of Homelessness

Thanks to a variety of community programs, this year there has been a decrease in homelessness overall, according to the eighth-annual State of Homelessness Address, presented virtually May 13 by Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA). The event included the results of the 2022 Point-in-Time Homeless Count, an analysis of the data and efforts to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring.

The event featured Ashley Brundage, executive director of housing stability and senior vice president of community impact at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and board chair of the Dallas and Collin Counties Homeless Collaborative; Joli Angel Robinson, MDHA president and CEO; Peter Brodsky, board chair of MDHA; and Ashley Flores, of the Child Poverty Action Lab.

View the full State of Homelessness event below or read on for some of the key insights from this year’s State of Homelessness event.

Overall, homelessness is on the decline

The 2022 Point-in-Time Homeless (PIT) Count found that on any given night there are 4,410 individuals experiencing homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties (almost 4,000 in Dallas County and a little more than 400 in Collin County). This is the lowest count since 2019. Robinson says community programs to prevent homelessness and serve our neighbors who are already unhoused are making a true difference.

“COVID-19 and extreme winter weather greatly impacted individuals, organizations and systems, including our homeless rehousing system,” she said. “Although these events have impacted all of us, the trends supported by this year’s PIT count data, are a direct result of our community’s tremendous commitment to serving our unhoused neighbors, increasing housing interventions, and building our system’s overall capacity to effectively serve those experiencing homelessness.”

Family homelessness decreased by more than 20% since 2019, from 1,025 to 822. This indicates that organizations are finding success by addressing the immediate needs of families who have just lost their housing by helping them find safe alternative housing immediately, when otherwise they would enter a shelter or experience unsheltered homelessness.

Rapid rehousing is proving successful

Data collected throughout 2021 shows that the rate at which individuals exit to permanent housing is at an all-time high, practically doubling between 2018 and 2021 from 16% to 30%. This reflects the increase of rapid rehousing beds from a little over 300 in 2019 to almost 1,100, today. Initiatives like these prevent people from falling into a cycle of homelessness, which can make it difficult to find a job and get back on their feet.

Chronic homelessness and returns to homelessness are increasing

Unfortunately, the number of people who are chronically homeless has increased from little more than 500 in 2019 and 2020 to over 1,000 in 2022. These individuals have experienced long episodes of homelessness, which can cause or exasperate declines in mental and physical health. These findings mirror national trends, which show a surge in chronic homelessness by more than 40% since 2016. (Prior to that, this group was significantly decreasing over time.)

Another concerning figure found in the data collected throughout 2021 is the slight rise in returns to homelessness. Of those who exited to permanent housing destinations, 22% returned to homelessness within two years, up from 17% in 2019. This reflects growing housing costs, which have outpaced incomes, making it extremely challenging for vulnerable families to maintain housing.

As Ashley Flores of the Child Poverty Action Lab said, “No state has an adequate supply of affordable rental housing for the lowest income renters. The housing gap is most acute for the lowest income households.” In fact, a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that there are only 20 affordable and available rental units for every 100 extremely low-income renters in Dallas.

Homelessness affects Black North Texans more frequently

The homeless count findings show that while Black households make up 18% of the general population of Dallas and Collin counties, they make up 54% of the homeless population in those areas. “This imbalance has persisted, and it is unsurprising. It is a by-product of systemic inequities that continue to perpetuate disparities in areas such as income, wealth, housing, healthcare and incarceration, which directly impact rates of homelessness,” emphasized Robinson, who is the first Black person to lead MDHA.

Homelessness Requires Community-Wide Solutions

Homelessness is a complex problem that requires multifaceted solutions and broad community involvement.

“Homelessness does not exist because of one, single factor—rather, it’s a series of forces that manifest as homelessness,” Brundage said.

She explained that the systems in place to help prevent and end homelessness are just as complex but can be broken down into four parts:

  • Prevention programs that stabilize individuals to make sure they don’t fall into poverty
  • Housing creation to actively expand affordable housing
  • Rehousing services, where organizations engage with people experiencing homelessness, bring them into shelters and then rehouse them
  • Street services to manage and care for individuals living on the streets

In North Texas and across the country, COVID-19 exacerbated our preexisting housing and homelessness crises. Fortunately, organizations like MDHA and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, as well as local, state and federal governments, stepped up to help prevent these issues from becoming even worse.

Together, We Can Prevent Homelessness

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we work to prevent homelessness by improving housing stability for North Texas families and advocating for affordable housing.

As MDHA pointed out during the State of Homelessness event, prevention initiatives have helped more North Texans stay in their homes over the last several years, which has contributed to a 20% decrease in family homelessness since 2019.

One successful prevention initiative is the Dallas Rental Assistance Collaborative (DRAC), which provides rental and utility assistance so people can stay in their homes. In the early days of COVID, as federal relief dollars began flowing to our region to prevent an eviction crisis, the City of Dallas chose us as a trusted partner to help lead DRAC and unite the community around the issue of housing stability.

DRAC enabled us to quickly and efficiently partner with grassroots organizations that are trusted members of their communities and already have well-established relationships with their neighbors. As they received DRAC funds, these partners were able to serve their clients without delay, right where they needed support—in their own communities.

Over the last two years, DRAC has helped North Texas prevent an eviction crisis. Together with our dedicated supporters, United Way and our partners have provided 4,261 households with rental and/or utility assistance, for a total of $14.4 million in assistance distributed to families.

You Can Be Part of the Change

“As you drive around Dallas and Collin counties, it’s easy to see that our unhoused neighbors do not have a safe or adequate place to call home,” Brundage said during the State of Homelessness event. “The only way we will end homelessness is through collective impact: everyone working together toward one common goal.”

We invite you to join the movement to improve housing stability for all North Texans. To support our work in housing and homelessness, we offer three ways to get involved:

  • Give: Donate to United Way Dallas to support housing stability and eviction prevention initiatives.
  • Advocate: Call your representatives and tell them you support affordable housing throughout our community. And be sure to sign up for our Advocacy Alerts to receive information on our top policy priorities, such as affordable and equitable housing.
  • Volunteer: We frequently host volunteer events that support housing stability and homelessness prevention. Fill out our general volunteer interest form, and we’ll let you know about upcoming programs that fit your interests.

Celebrating Our 97th Annual Campaign and Unite Forever Endowment

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On Thursday, May 12, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas invited supporters and partners to gather at The Star in Frisco for a very important celebration: our 97th Annual Celebration and Unite Forever Campaign Awards, where we recognized the incredible community impact made by North Texas companies, volunteers, donors and partners.

This was the first time the annual event has been held since 2019, and we were delighted to welcome more than 800 guests for an evening of gratitude, celebration and recognition.

Read on to get the highlights of the night’s awards and big announcements:

Award Recipients

  • J. Erik Jonsson Award: Ed Galante
  • Public Service Award: Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew
  • Community Leader Award: Taylor Toynes, For Oak Cliff
  • Emerging Leader Award: Tyler Riddell and Adam Torma (Emerging Leaders Co-Chairs)
  • Education Award: Roxanne Pittman
  • Income Award: Lancaster ISD
  • Health Award: Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty
  • Give Award: Debbie McComas, Haynes and Boone
  • Advocate Award: Rev. Gerald Britt
  • Volunteer Award: Tina Morefield, AT&T and United Way Teens United

 

Unite Forever Campaign

In addition to our traditional annual awards, this year’s event also included a celebration of the close of our Unite Forever campaign, United Way’s first $100 million endowment campaign. Launched seven years ago, the goal of the campaign is to create a financial foundation that will benefit generations of North Texans in the years and decades to come. The $100 million campaign has now been met three years ahead of the 10-year goal.

As Jennifer Sampson, McDermott-Templeton President and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, explained, “On May 12, we celebrated the incredible fact that our annual campaigns over the last three years, along with the Unite Forever endowment campaign, have secured almost $300 million to drive measurable impact in education, income and health. These resources make a lasting difference in the lives of over 1.3 million North Texans every single year.”

 

Event Replay

Thank you to everyone who helped make this an unforgettable evening. We invite our volunteers, friends and supporters who were not able to attend to view the full event recording here: