At its Annual Awards Gala, Brighter Outlook, Inc. honored local leaders Rosa Navejar and Susan K. Medina for their service and commitment to the Stop Six community, Brighter Outlook, Inc. and the Freedom School Initiative. Ms. Navejar received the Roy C. Brooks Trailblazer Award and Ms. Medina received the Lillie Biggins Leadership Award.
“Susan and Rosa have been dedicated partners to our Stop Six community for more than 15-years and continue to work alongside us as we lift up those who call Stop Six home,” said Rev. Bruce D. Datcher, CEO of Brighter Outlook, Inc., and senior pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church. “Their leadership has ensured our community stays on the minds and hearts of our decision makers and their support is immeasurable.”
Brighter Outlook, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that exists to provide vital assistance, enrichment, and charitable services directly to the historic, vastly underserved, inner-city community in which it operates. These services include assistance in literacy training, reading skills and tutoring for children, employment assistance, health programs, technology training, senior services, services for pregnant and parenting women, transitional re-entry services and more. Brighter Outlook was formed by the members of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, who were moved to create a safe, multi-purpose community center in their neighborhood where children, youth and adults could receive a variety of services.
An historically underserved community, Stop Six is experiencing significant revitalization. The predominantly African American Stop Six neighborhood is a located in southeast Fort Worth, named after being the sixth stop on the old Dallas-Fort Worth interurban train line. While urban renewal projects in Stop Six began in 2005, the physical, educational and social needs of the community remain.
The Stop Six area has historically had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation. While there is a clinic nearby, there may not be enough social support for getting prenatal care, or getting any kind of well-woman care, in Stop Six. Underscored by lack of employment opportunities, the high poverty rate, difficulties that these mostly young mothers have in managing health care on their own, in addition to transportation, safety and other barriers to accessing services in their neighborhood.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded Fort Worth Housing Solutions (FWHS) and the city of Fort Worth with a coveted $35 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Implementation Grant to fund transformational revitalization projects in the Stop Six Neighborhood.
Freedom Schools were developed in the 1960’s and at the time, were a temporary alternative and provided free schools for African Americans, predominately in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and economic equality in the United States.
Freedom School at Brighter Outlook provides summer and after-school enrichment through a research-based and multicultural program model. Supporting K-12 scholars and their families through five essential components: high-quality academic and character-building enrichment, parent and family involvement, civic engagement and social action, intergenerational servant leadership development, nutrition and mental health.
source: press release
