About the Nonprofit
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Our mission is to create equitable opportunities for our neighbors to be known, empowered, and inspired.
Our dream is to create a community at Owenwood where our neighbors are known, heard, and invited to
use their gifts to transform Far East Dallas. While we do not bring all the answers or resources to an
underserved community, we are collaborating with many so our neighborhood can flourish. This is done
through creative partnerships with existing nonprofits, bold initiatives born out of the dreams and talents of
our neighbors.
The Owenwood Farm & Neighbor Space (owenwood.org) is a collective of nonprofits who are organizing
around the talents, skills, and passions of those who live in Far East Dallas, an area of great need made up
primarily of working-class people of color. We are turning an old, failing church space, formerly Owenwood
United Methodist Church, into a thriving urban farm and multipurpose space for adolescence, seniors,
after-school programs, and more. The space is already in use by partners like Diapers Etc. and Hope
Supply Co., who are hard at work and have distributed more than 100,000 diapers and hygiene supplies
into the surrounding neighborhoods. Grow North Texas is creating a four-acre urban farm that will bring
fresh produce to the neighborhood to alleviate food insecurity in the community. Aspire, provides early
childhood education, literacy, ESL, GED, and workforce development classes.
We have designed the purpose and goals of Owenwood in response to specific community needs. For
instance, the neighborhood is a haven for payday lenders who prey upon vulnerable members of our
community, therefore, we would like to provide or collaborate with a microloan program to combat payday
lenders in our ZIP code, 75228. We are also developing a farm stand for The Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) where people can use their WIC benefits to
purchase fresh organic produce.
Seniors are also a major focus at Owenwood because 75228 and the neighboring 75218 house 60% of all
seniors in Dallas County. We have identified the top three needs for seniors as transportation, education on
benefits, and programs to prevent isolation. Some of the things we have talked about doing include working
with Dallas Area Rapid Transit to establish Owenwood as a senior drop-off and pick-up location. We are
working to utilize this space as a working destination where people in the community can come and have
meetings, a place of rest for community workers, and a place where neighborhood youth can meet. We
want to create a safe space for people navigating the difficulties of economic divide, race, sexual
orientation, language barriers, and loneliness to meet and find hope.
The 75228 ZIP code has higher unemployment and lower income than the rest of Dallas and has been
