Missions Plus funds granted 2022
In January 2022, the Finance Committee allocated $100,000 of surplus giving from 2021 to Wilshire’s Missions Plus Fund, allowing us to provide funds to organizations apart from those supported through the Unified Budget. The Missions and Christian Advocacy Committees solicited applicants and recently granted funding to eight local nonprofits:
Abide Women’s Health Services exists to improve birth outcomes in communities with the lowest quality of care. They believe human flourishing will occur when families have access to compassionate, culturally competent care regardless of their ability to pay. https://abidewomen.org
■ Wilshire’s $25,000 gift will build capacity for Abide’s ultrasound program.
Dallas Free Press offers nonprofit journalism that amplifies voices in disinvested neighborhoods and explores solutions to the city’s systemic inequities. https://dallasfreepress.com. View interview with Keri Mitchell, exec. director, during WIlshire worship Sept. 25, 2022.
■ Wilshire’s $25,000 gift will help expand DFP’s Journalism Pathway program into Lincoln High School. In this program, South and West Dallas high schoolers gain the needed skills and confidence to use their voices to tell community stories and engage civically.
Empowering the Masses empowers South Dallas residents through vocational training, core skills development and health advocacy.
https://www.empoweringthemasses.org
■ Wilshire’s $10,000 gift will enable 10 women to complete a 12-week phlebotomy certification program, which has proven to improve lives by increasing earning potential.
Shared Housing Center offers housing stability by focusing on economic independence, vocational advancement and academic achievement. They serve non-traditional families, veteran women with children and grandmothers raising their grandchildren. https://www.sharedhousing.org
■ Wilshire’s $10,180 gift will provide playground equipment for children living at the Green Haus on the Santa Fe Trail.
Literacy Achieves equips non-English speakers in Vickery Meadow with English literacy and life skills to promote self-sufficiency and overall wellbeing. http://www.literacyachieves.org
■ Wilshire’s $10,000 gift will provide equipment to revamp computer labs for adult learners.
Owenwood Farm and Neighborhood Space creates equitable opportunities for neighbors in Far East Dallas to be known, empowered and inspired. They host seven other nonprofits in their space. https://www.owenwood.org
■ Wilshire’s $15,650 gift will help expand a robotics and coding afterschool pilot program, provide supplemental programming for kids and families and expand Owenwood’s educational farm.
The following groups were additionally funded through Wilshire’s World Hunger Offering:
Homeward Bound is North Texas’ primary resource for courts, probation offers and the Dallas County Jail when offenders are ordered to seek treatment for substance use or mental health disorders. https://www.homewardboundinc.org
■ Wilshire’s $15,000 gift will seed Homeward Bound’s Food to Freedom pantry program, which offers free food baskets to outpatient clients as a way to increase enrollment and participation and provide food to clients experiencing homelessness.
White Rock Center of Hope is a nonprofit ecumenical organization that makes a difference in people’s lives by providing a place where the community can share God’s blessings by satisfying basic human needs. WRCH feeds over 3,000 unduplicated families a year and approximately 20 households a day. https://whiterockcenterofhope.org
■ Wilshire’s $10,000 gift will help WRCOH revamp their food pantry to become a neighbor-choice model, creating a more dignified experience for those receiving aid.