$25,000 Grant Recipients (7)

Community Partners of Dallas
Community Partners of Dallas received funding to help stock their “Rainbow Room.” This ongoing project serves more than 6,000 youth annually ages 0-17 throughout Dallas County. Community Partners of Dallas helps protect and restore the well being of abused and neglected children by providing resources to the caseworkers of Child Protective Services. The Rainbow Room provides critically needed items for children have just that day been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect and have been placed in the care of relatives. Having easy access to these items decreases the likelihood of these children ending up in foster care. These critical needs items include clothing, shoes, hygiene products, diapers, formula, car seats, school supplies, and school uniforms. Funding from the Mavs Foundation will be directed towards purchasing school supplies and school uniforms.

Family Place
Family Place received funding for new playground equipment at their facility. This project will serve 100 Dallas County youth annually ages 0-18 and their mothers, all who are participating in their transitional housing program. The playground, which will also include benches for the mothers, will be an essential element in helping them overcome the trauma of family violence and homelessness. The mission of Family Place is to eliminate family violence through intervention and proactive prevention, extensive community education, advocacy, and assistance for victims and their families. Family Place programs include a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, supportive living program, child development center, and community-based counseling. Funding will go towards the purchase of a playground structure and benches, including delivery and installation.

Kidney Texas, Inc.
Kidney Texas received funding for Camp Reynal at Camp John Marc in Meridian, TX. This camp serves approximately 120 youth ages 8-16 throughout Texas. Camp Reynal is a one-week summer camp that provides an essential need for children with kidney disease by offering them an educational and recreational experience they can’t get anywhere else. Because children with kidney disease require daily medications, special diets, and medical treatments, they are often excluded from other camp experiences. Camp Reynal, which is the only camp in Texas that provides on-site kidney dialysis, strives to increase self-esteem and self-confidence, create a sense of independence, improve social skills, and offer a sense of hope. Funding will cover the cost of camper fees, transportation, storage rental for dialysis chairs, and camper photography during the summer of 2008.

SpiritHorse Therapeutic Riding Center
SpiritHorse Therapeutic Riding Center received funding for horseback riding lessons/scholarships for children with disabilities. This project will directly impact 70 youth over the next year ages 1-17 in 9 North Texas counties. SpiritHorse provides free, private therapeutic horseback riding to children will all types of physical, mental, and emotional disabilities for one year on a weekly basis. They are the only center in America that provides all these services free of charge. Their curriculum is designed to help children improve motor, speech, behavioral, and social skills to cross boundaries set by doctors, therapists, and sometime parents. In addition to the actual horseback riding, each therapy session allows the children to participate in leading, grooming, and saddling their horse or pony. Funding from the Mavs Foundation will provide weekly lessons for approximately 30 children for an entire year.

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children
Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children received funding to purchase adapted daily living and mobility equipment for patients undergoing Physical and Occupational Therapy (PT/OT). This project will serve 1,020 youth annually ages 0-18 throughout the state of Texas. Adapted daily living equipment refers to medical equipment that allows children to continue everyday functioning following surgery or a procedure. This equipment is crucial to patient outcomes and to their safety and comfort during recovery. The PT/OT Departments at Texas Scottish Rite have approximately 20,000 patient visits annually. They focus on helping children gain strength, coordination, and balance while putting these assets into motion to accomplish everyday tasks. Funding will go towards purchasing toiletry and bath equipment, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, car seats, and vest belts.

Vogel Alcove
Vogel Alcove received funding for their play therapy program for homeless children. This program serves approximately 100 youth annually ages 2-6 in Dallas. Vogel Alcove provides free quality childcare, social services, and developmental services for children living with in homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, and transitional housing complexes. Their play therapy program strives to improve the social and emotional development of these children who have experienced trauma caused by domestic violence, homelessness, neglect, and abuse. Play therapists meet with each child 1-2 times a week for 20-45 minutes to monitor the child’s behavior and activities to determine the best way to guide them in understanding themselves, their reality, and their world.

YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth
YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth received funding for their “New Lives/New Beginnings Childcare” program. This ongoing program serves 500 teen parents ages 12-17 and their children ages 0-5 in the Poly/Como community in East Fort Worth. The program operates an on-site childcare center on the campus of Polytechnic High School to assist teen parents with quality, full-day childcare while they complete their high school education. While it is housed in a Fort Worth ISD school, the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth administers the center. The center offers pre-natal/post-partum nutrition classes, positive parenting classes, and health and wellness opportunities as well as a support network of other teen parents.

Special Project Recipients (2)

Computer Lab—Jeffries Street Learning Center
The Jeffries Street Learning Center is receiving a new computer resource center courtesy of the Mavs Foundation. They service 250 youth annually ages 5-14 in economically distressed areas of South Dallas. The Jeffries Street Learning Center serves multi-generation families by providing educational enrichment programs for both parents and their children targeted to improve their social and economic status with the ultimate goal of breaking the cycle of poverty. With new computer resources, they will expand their programming into the realms of internet safety, basic computer skills such as spreadsheets and word processing, and job search and career exploration. In all, the Mavs Foundation will provide 12 state of the art computers and related equipment, a server, a network printer, a new paint job, new carpet, and new desks and computer chairs.

Court Renovation—Oak Cliff YMCA
The Oak Cliff YMCA is the beneficiary of a refurbished outdoor basketball court courtesy of the Mavs Foundation. This court will service more than 500 youth annually ages 5-17 in South Dallas and Oak Cliff. The YMCA, the premier human development agency in North Texas, teaches values that help to strengthen and support families, help teenagers make the transition into adulthood, and create safe environments that allow individuals to develop total health. The YMCA’s values embrace the universal truths inherent in relationships with others, including respect, responsibility, caring, fairness, trustworthiness, and citizenship. In all, the Mavs Foundation will provide a new all-purpose Sport Court floor, new backboards, new rims, and new goal units. The court will feature a total of 6 hoops on 5 different courts (1 full-court and 4 half-courts).