The Work We Do
West Dallas Community Collaborative for Schools, Jobs and Housing
Focusing on building strong communities with support for great neighborhood schools as a central theme, the Collaborative addresses the issues that plague West Dallas in three core areas:
- Transforming the network of West Dallas schools - 10 public schools, two faith based private schools and one charter school - until all 13 schools are rated Exemplary by the TEA;
- Creating affordable housing at scale (300 homes), including middle-income homes;
- Stimulating job training and employment.
DFCC 2011 Primary Initiative
The ABCs of Education in West Dallas
advocate
Equip parents and the greater Dallas community to support transformation in West Dallas schools.
PAGE | West Dallas parents are organized into PAGE | Parent Action Groups for Education which study educational issues, receive training from nationally recognized programs in how to address the issues with their elected officials, and find opportunities to engage in the classroom and in their schools. Parents are in training to run the initiative and will eventually step up as leaders across the entire community.
FACET | Faith and Community for Education Transformation recruits faith communities, schools (parents, teachers, PTA and PTO groups), universities and any other groups that would like to participate by forming Action Groups which leverage 132 people per group into political action (by sending emails and visiting elected officials) in support of needed reforms, backed up by training and relationship development with low-income parents with whom the Action Groups develop a political advocacy agenda.
build
Help to foster or create institutions that are found in other cities which have transformed their educational systems, but are missing in Dallas. Two are underway:
THE SCHOOL ZONE | WEST DALLAS (inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone and incubated at DFCC) is a collaborative effort of 17 not-for-profits committed to providing direct resources from educational support and alternative schools, to affordable housing, healthy food, work-readiness and employment, parenting training and after-school care, so that children at all 13 West Dallas public, private and charter schools have everything they need to support their academic success.
THE TEACHING TRUST (a separate not-for-profit agency developed by others in partnership with the SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development) is a human resource pipeline that will serve all DISD schools, with a learning lab in West Dallas, providing a steady supply of committed new teachers and leaders for urban schools, as well as introducing education innovations.
choice
Support great school choices. Great charter schools, including the new Uplift Education campus, The Heights Preparatory and excellent parochial schools such as West Dallas Community School and St. Mary of Carmel School prove to parents that children can succeed academically. They model conditions that foster excellent education – student engagement, principal empowerment, school culture, etc.
demonstrate
Partner with local universities to demonstrate corporate engagement strategies, develop metrics, set goals and objectives and document results:
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY | Every school at SMU has agreed to partner in mutually beneficial ways in West Dallas, from education to engineering.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS | UTD is building metrics and evaluation criteria for the entire effort.
DFCC is has a partnership with both SMU and UTD to develop the strategic plan for collaboration between all of the participating agencies (led by the UTD Institute of Public Affairs) and set objectives and metrics, develop measurement standards and document evidence of change over a five-year period (led by the UTD Institute of Urban Policy Studies).
engage
Involve students themselves in their own success via service learning opportunities at all grade levels, internships in the upper grades, and programs that teach character development and college mindedness.
