Cultivating Community

What hap­pens when grass­roots lead­ers and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, deeply root­ed in their com­mu­ni­ties, align their resources and focus their inter­ven­tions on strength­en­ing fam­i­lies? Togeth­er, they help pre­vent the need for child wel­fare involve­ment before a cri­sis begins. 

The Texas Fam­i­ly Well­be­ing Ini­tia­tive (TFWI) — a grow­ing social impact col­lab­o­ra­tive of more than 14 grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions in Hous­ton, Dal­las, Tyler and Austin — is mod­el­ing a com­mu­ni­ty-based approach to pre­ven­tion by sup­port­ing fam­i­lies to stay con­nect­ed and com­mu­ni­ties to be suf­fi­cient­ly resourced. Sup­port­ed by tech­ni­cal assis­tance and fund­ing from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, TFWI part­ners weave a safe­ty net that pro­motes well-being and pre­vents sys­tem involvement. 

Shared Pur­pose and Shared Resources to Ben­e­fit Chil­dren and Families

TFWI is a mul­ti­fac­eted social impact col­lab­o­ra­tive that bridges the gap between acad­e­mia, busi­ness, civic and grass­roots lead­ers. Its mem­ber­ship includes com­mu­ni­ty part­ners, sys­tem admin­is­tra­tors, indi­vid­u­als with lived expe­ri­ence and three Bap­tist pas­tors ded­i­cat­ed to ser­vice missions. 

TFWI mem­bers and their local coali­tions describe their efforts as ​“sacred work.” It address­es the wounds of root­less­ness and era­sure often felt by under­served com­mu­ni­ties. While indi­vid­ual mis­sions dif­fer, shared pur­pose and South­ern cul­tur­al val­ues bind the part­ners togeth­er. Their col­lec­tive goals are to sta­bi­lize fam­i­lies and ensure the youth of the com­mu­ni­ty thrive by: 

• strength­en­ing par­ent-teen bonds to repair and rebuild fam­i­ly relationships; 
• increas­ing aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment and devel­op­ing work­force skills; 
• reduc­ing food inse­cu­ri­ty through mobile mar­kets and com­mu­ni­ty pantries; 
• address­ing health chal­lenges, includ­ing men­tal health and pre­ven­ta­tive care; and
• cre­at­ing busi­ness ven­tures that build vibrant com­mu­ni­ties and empow­er eco­nom­ic stability. 

They believe a unit­ed approach nur­tures belong­ing, pre­ven­tion and heal­ing — all build­ing blocks of well-being that help mit­i­gate the effects of long­stand­ing dis­par­i­ties and neg­a­tive nar­ra­tives about poor Tex­ans that impede com­mu­ni­ty-sys­tem part­ner­ships from flourishing. 

The work began in 2022 and aims to strength­en fam­i­lies where they are, whether rur­al or urban. TFWI part­ner coali­tions are using the Con­nect Par­ent Pro­gram, a Foun­da­tion-sup­port­ed, evi­dence-based par­ent edu­ca­tion cur­ricu­lum that strength­ens, repairs and rebuilds bonds between care­givers and ado­les­cents. It sup­ports fam­i­lies as they reunite after a sep­a­ra­tion caused by a parental incar­cer­a­tion or a fos­ter care place­ment. The cur­ricu­lum is deliv­ered by trained com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers as a pre­ven­tion resource, too: Fam­i­lies can use it to reduce types of care­giv­er-teen con­flict that can lead to child wel­fare or juve­nile jus­tice involvement. 

Region­al Impact: Suc­cess Sto­ries Across Texas 

Indi­vid­u­al­ly and col­lec­tive­ly, Texas Fam­i­ly Well­be­ing Ini­tia­tive part­ners are pro­vid­ing rela­tion­ships, oppor­tu­ni­ties and resources that strength­en fam­i­lies and pre­vent sys­tem involve­ment. Here are just a few exam­ples that show the breadth, vari­ety and suc­cess of their projects.

Sys­tem Pre­ven­tion in Action in Dallas

In Dal­las, Carter’s House, a TFWI part­ner and com­mu­ni­ty cloth­ing bank, devel­oped a Cre­ative Arts Mak­er­space. Par­ents repair and sew school uni­forms, which were in short sup­ply dur­ing the Covid pan­dem­ic. Since then, it has pro­vid­ed uni­forms for 1,500-plus stu­dents whose hard-work­ing fam­i­lies are earn­ing low wages or are homeless. 

An unex­pect­ed ben­e­fit: For the first time in sev­en years, the community’s South Oak Cliff High School report­ed zero sus­pen­sions and deten­tions due to dress code vio­la­tions. The mak­er­space now also hosts local fash­ion design entrepreneurs. 

A crit­i­cal pil­lar of com­mu­ni­ty well­ness in Dal­las is He Gon Cry in the Car, the artis­tic expres­sion project of the non­prof­it ini­tia­tive Vol­un­teer­ing While Black. This project nur­tures a sanc­tu­ary for men to explore men­tal health, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and their com­mit­ment to con­struct­ing community. 

It works along­side A Steady Hand and its flag­ship pro­gram, It Takes A Man!, which focus­es on improv­ing the body, soul and mind of young men ages 12–18, by teach­ing car repair lessons and pro­vid­ing men­tal health support.

Beyond men­tor­ship, A Steady Hand also has become a vital source of food secu­ri­ty in South Dal­las. Rec­og­niz­ing that hunger is a pri­ma­ry dri­ver of fam­i­ly insta­bil­i­ty and that pover­ty is a key dri­ver for child ser­vices sys­tem involve­ment, the orga­ni­za­tion col­lab­o­rates with Texas farm­ers to pro­vide fresh pro­duce and meal dis­tri­b­u­tion to fam­i­lies liv­ing in food deserts. By meet­ing fam­i­lies’ imme­di­ate nutri­tion­al needs, this effort gives them a sol­id foun­da­tion to refo­cus from sur­vival mode toward sta­bil­i­ty, sup­port­ing both fam­i­lies and local businesses. 

Col­lec­tive­ly, TFWI Dal­las pro­vid­ed col­lege tours for more than 50 youth, cre­at­ed safe spaces for 1,000 fam­i­lies, nour­ished 300 fam­i­lies and dis­trib­uted school uni­forms to 2,000 at-risk fam­i­lies in 2024. 

Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty and Edu­ca­tion Efforts in Hous­ton and Austin

TFWI Hous­ton helps young peo­ple re-envi­sion their iden­ti­ties and com­bat the hope­less­ness that often leads to com­mu­ni­ty dis­en­gage­ment. The coali­tion is posi­tion­ing young peo­ple as the lit­er­al ​“builders” of their own neigh­bor­hoods, shift­ing the nar­ra­tive from youth as prob­lems to be solved to youth as com­mu­ni­ty assets, fos­ter­ing a sense of own­er­ship and strength­en­ing the social fabric. 

In Hous­ton, 8 Mil­lion Sto­ries leads the TFWI coali­tion holis­tic mod­el for pre­ven­tion in part­ner­ship with a host of local part­ner orga­ni­za­tions, to pro­vide indus­try-based cer­ti­fi­ca­tions through Tul­sa Weld­ing School. TWFI Hous­ton also helps young peo­ple earn voca­tion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, learn lead­er­ship skills and receive socio-emo­tion­al sup­port. 8 Mil­lion Sto­ries has engaged 150 youth in enrich­ing sum­mer pro­grams to expand their oppor­tu­ni­ties and help them build resilience. 

TFWI Hous­ton also has launched the Real High School Diplo­ma Pro­gram, giv­ing young peo­ple who dis­con­tin­ued school after the 10^th grade the oppor­tu­ni­ty to earn a high school diplo­ma in a sup­port­ive, empow­er­ing environment. 

TFWI Toolfest is the sig­na­ture event of the Hous­ton part­ner­ship, unit­ing the pri­vate sec­tor, busi­ness lead­ers, com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als with lived expe­ri­ence to pro­vide stu­dents — both in and out of tra­di­tion­al school­ing — with immer­sive expo­sure to the pro­fes­sion­al build­ing trades. By engag­ing with indus­try experts, young peo­ple dis­cov­er their poten­tial as builders of their own lives and vital con­trib­u­tors to the resources of their community.

Toolfest Hous­ton tran­scends the tra­di­tion­al career fair mod­el by func­tion­ing as a robust pri­ma­ry pre­ven­tion strat­e­gy. It active­ly reduces youth risk fac­tors — such as unem­ploy­ment, lack of hope and vision, and social iso­la­tion — by cul­ti­vat­ing essen­tial pro­tec­tive fac­tors. ToolFest pro­vides hands-on expo­sure to high-demand careers in the build­ing trades, fos­ter­ing the self-effi­ca­cy and finan­cial inde­pen­dence nec­es­sary to break cycles of sys­temic poverty. 

In Austin, TFWI part­ner Life Anew is a rec­og­nized leader in trans­form­ing the ​“school-to-prison pipeline” into a ​“school-to-pros­per­i­ty pipeline.” Its focus on pre­ven­tion has recent­ly earned nation­al recog­ni­tion. Life Anew’s restora­tive frame­works have been cit­ed as a mod­el for the Travis Coun­ty Trans­for­ma­tion Project, a pilot pro­gram designed to resolve offens­es out­side of the carcer­al sys­tem, focus­ing instead on heal­ing inter­gen­er­a­tional trau­ma and break­ing cycles of vio­lence that lead to fam­i­ly separation.

Fam­i­ly Engage­ment Ini­tia­tives in Tyler, Texas

In Tyler, the East Texas Cares Resource Cen­ter — a dis­tin­guished T.B. But­ler Cit­i­zen of the Year Award recip­i­ent and TFWI part­ner — is sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand­ing its foot­print as a crit­i­cal pre­ven­tion resource. Cen­tral to its mis­sion is the belief that hous­ing sta­bil­i­ty is the ulti­mate pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sure to keep fam­i­lies intact and out of the fos­ter care sys­tem. The cen­ter cur­rent­ly pro­vides direct emer­gency finan­cial assis­tance for rent and mort­gage pay­ments while offer­ing tran­si­tion­al hous­ing for moth­ers and chil­dren in cri­sis. Hav­ing already pro­vid­ed a safe haven for three moth­ers and nine chil­dren, the cen­ter is now scal­ing its capac­i­ty to serve 10 addi­tion­al sin­gle-moth­er families. 

The center’s holis­tic approach also was recent­ly demon­strat­ed through a pop-up med­ical clin­ic that pro­vid­ed essen­tial health­care to 165 vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies, ensur­ing that no child is dis­placed due to med­ical or finan­cial instability. 

As a pow­er­ful van­guard with­in the TFWI col­lab­o­ra­tive, Coolx­Dad ​“holds the line” along­side oth­er TFWI nation­al father and fam­i­ly focused part­ners, to reclaim and ele­vate the nar­ra­tive of mod­ern father­hood, in strate­gic align­ment with Con­nect in Bar­ber­shops — a mod­el cham­pi­oned in Atlanta, Geor­gia. It trans­forms trust­ed spaces like local bar­ber­shops into sanc­tu­ar­ies for growth, con­nec­tion and com­mu­ni­ty well-being. Trained com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers deliv­er evi­dence-based par­ent­ing tools in a cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant set­ting to sup­port the bonds between families. 

By fos­ter­ing an envi­ron­ment where father­ing is cher­ished rather than mere­ly expect­ed, Coolx­Dad enables men to cul­ti­vate the social cap­i­tal and resource net­works their chil­dren need to grow mightily. 

CoolX­Dad, like its part­ners across Geor­gia, oper­ates as more than a sup­port group: It is a pre­ven­tion-first move­ment that reframes fathers as the pri­ma­ry builders of their chil­dren’s futures. By meet­ing men where they are and strength­en­ing the father-child bond, they are work­ing hard to direct­ly reduce risk fac­tors that can lead to fos­ter care or juve­nile jus­tice entry, ensur­ing fam­i­lies can broad­en their hori­zons and build lega­cies of strength, free from unnec­es­sary sys­tem involvement. 

Show­cas­ing and Strength­en­ing the Com­mu­ni­ty Roots of Well-Being 

Part­ners describe TFWI as chang­ing the cul­ture of non­prof­it col­lab­o­ra­tion. It involves those most affect­ed by sys­tems involve­ment, hous­ing inse­cu­ri­ty and food inse­cu­ri­ty in the deci­sion-mak­ing process, the key to pro­duc­ing solu­tions that achieve results. 

TFWI suc­ceeds because it fos­ters a deep sense of belong­ing, sup­port and trust — neigh­bors help­ing neigh­bors. The part­ner orga­ni­za­tions report they are expand­ing their net­works and unlock­ing resources togeth­er that can be dif­fi­cult to acquire alone. Togeth­er, they are bet­ter able to address fam­i­ly needs holis­ti­cal­ly, see­ing and serv­ing a full spec­trum from cra­dle to career. 

We can no longer mea­sure tomor­row’s promise with yes­ter­day’s ruler. TFWI’s work moves beyond siloed inter­ven­tions to com­mu­ni­ty-designed and col­lab­o­ra­tive solu­tions and shifts the focus to the things required for true well-being: food secu­ri­ty, edu­ca­tion, eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty, health and well­ness, rela­tion­al heal­ing and com­mu­ni­ty infrastructure. 

This emer­gent mod­el of cross-sec­tor col­lab­o­ra­tion — across non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, busi­ness­es, acad­e­mia, fam­i­lies and gov­ern­ment — is prov­ing to be a promis­ing mod­el for change that cen­ters fam­i­lies to keep them whole, sup­port­ed, out of sys­tems and root­ed in the pos­si­bil­i­ty of liv­ing joy­ful­ly, thriv­ing fully. 

To learn more about TFWI, con­tact Lakei­dru Blay­lock, TFWI Coor­di­na­tor at lakeidrublaylock@​gmail.​com

Veo­la Green is a senior asso­ciate in the Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group. Debra Jenk­ins-Kear­ney is a senior con­sul­tant with Mad­dy Day LLC & Asso­ciates, a Foun­da­tion part­ner. They pro­vide tech­ni­cal assis­tance to the Texas Fam­i­ly Well­be­ing Initiative.