Bezos Day 1 Families Fund
We are proud to have been selected as a Bezos Day 1 Families Fund leadership award recipient! The Day 1 Families Fund supports organizations that are moving the needle on family homelessness. We are 1 of 32 nonprofits from 23 states to receive one of the second annual Day 1 Families Fund leadership awards. See full list of the 2019 award recipients online here.
We’re excited that this grant will help us continue to provide stability and life-changing supportive services to children and families affected by homelessness. The unique flexibility of this grant will allow us to:
- Continue to scale our Assessment & Diversion practice by adding more Diversion Case Management support and a deeper level of evaluation.
- Significantly grow our pool of eviction remediation, short-term rental assistance, out of town transportation, and other prevention and diversion solutions.
- Supplement emergency shelter space with affordable hotel stays and pay-to-stay shelter expenses when all other shelter space is full.
- Implement a one-year pilot project to “Extend Diversion into Shelter,” targeting first-time homeless families in our emergency shelter and overflow program for rapid shelter exits.
- Fill system gaps identified through our work as the service access point for families with children experiencing homelessness in Dallas County.
Does this influx of support decrease our need to raise money?
No. This investment enables us to undertake activities and services that we hadn’t planned – our “dream projects.” We still need to raise money for our regular, ongoing activities and services not covered by this funding. These include:
- Emergency Shelter – ours is the only one in the community that will accept a family of any kind
- Supportive Housing
- Shelter & Housing Stability Case Management
- Children’s Education Program
You can learn more about these vital programs online here.