After8toEducate announced via press release that two local foundations have made major, initial grants in support of the agency’s mission to assist Dallas-area unsheltered students and open a drop-in/residential center. The new gifts from the Hoblitzelle Foundation and the Kozmetsky Family Foundation jump start the organization’s drive to raise $500,000 by November 30 of this year. The deadline is part of a recently announced matching fund created by the Rainwater Charitable Foundation.
The Hoblitzelle Foundation awarded After8 the first of a two-installment grant
totaling $200,000. This contribution will support renovation of a vacant DISD school building as a 24/7 resource facility for homeless youth.
On the heels of that news, the Kozmetsky Family Foundation made a commitment of $150,000. Those funds will support the staffing salaries of the organization.
Both gifts qualify for the $500,000 Rainwater Matching Fund Drive, which will match dollar-for-dollar up to a half-million maximum, funds raised by After8 between now and November 30, 2018.
“We are excited, honored and grateful for the support and confidence in our work by the Hoblitzelle and Kozmetsky Family Foundations,” said Hillary Evans, After8toEducate’s executive director in the release. “We applaud and appreciate their investment in Dallas youth. Their commitments will positively impact many students and we’re hopeful more investors will follow their lead.”
Last year, After8toEducate received unanimous support from the DISD school board to repurpose the former Fannie C. Harris Elementary School, an abandoned school building in South Dallas as the center for these services.
This facility, being renovated and opening in phases, will initially provide immediate assistance to homeless youth ages 14-21 through a drop-in center slated to begin operating this fall. Planned services will range from personal development
assistance, such as academic tutoring and job training, to offering basic daily life
needs, such as a place to shower and eat. In spring 2019, the facility will operate
24/7, opening the shelter component that will provide shelter and social services to
Dallas ISD unsheltered high school students. The after-hours aspect is needed since
most social service providers close their doors after regular business hours, leaving
thousands of youth without a place to go after 8 p.m.
ABOUT AFTER8TOEDUCATE
After8toEducate is the first-of-its-kind, public-private collaborative to support and
provide essential services to unsheltered Dallas ISD high school students and other
homeless youth ages 14-21. Founded by Texas businessman and philanthropist
Jorge Baldor in May 2017, the organization launched in response to the growing
number of homeless students in the Dallas Independent School District, currently
estimated to be more than 3,500, and alarmingly still increasing. Its mission is to
create a comprehensive solution that assists DISD high school students and other
homeless youth to develop academically, emotionally, and socially. Formed through the Social Venture Partners Dallas and harnessing the strengths of DISD and nonprofit agencies Promise House and CitySquare, the organization will open and operate an after-hours drop-in center this fall in South Dallas, where homeless
youth can find refuge and a place to study, eat, shower, and access other immediate
support services. The shelter component will open next providing sleeping rooms
and other social services for DISD unsheltered high school youth. Find out more on the organization’s website.
