A Letter from Mandy Shreve
INTERIM CEO
During dinner at my house, we have the ritual of playing a game designed to encourage our two daughters to talk: High Point, Low Point.
When I reflect on 2022 at CitySquare and the amazing work of our staff, the “highs” not only outnumber the “lows,” they also overpower them. From our navigators guiding neighbors to the right services and resources, to the case managers and outreach teams who demonstrate care and patience, to our food pantry staff who run the pantry like a small grocery modeled by client choice... each day we are empowered to make a difference in someone’s life.
That’s not to say, there have not been challenges. Challenges make us stronger as an organization and offer a new perspective to learn from and build on. It’s impossible not to flex, pivot and demand improvement when you are looking into the eyes of a neighbor battling economic disparity. To understand their struggle is to accept – and invite – perspective.
CitySquare is so fortunate to have staff who care, supporters who volunteer, donate and advocate, and more than 600 corporate partners who give their time and resources. Equally, we are fortunate to have the neighbors we do. Our neighbors also care. They volunteer. They give their time and talent to each other and to CitySquare.
The fight against poverty belongs to all of us.
As we celebrate our 35th year, we continue to work toward the day we are no longer needed. But until then, we will be in the fight.
We invite you to join us and celebrate our perseverance, stamina, strength, and commitment to fighting poverty alongside our neighbors.
We invite you to volunteer, donate, advocate, and celebrate our 35 years in the fight at Block Party on September 30, 2023!
Mandy Maxwell Shreve
Interim CEO, CitySquare
CitySquare impacted the lives of 69,000
neighbors
in 2022.
impact report
Dallas:
The City We Serve
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38% of families in Dallas County make less than $49k
4,244 neighbors
are experiencing homelessness.
365,000 are food insecure
Location Matters
Did you know someone who lives in an uptown Dallas zip code has a life expectancy that is 23 years greater than someone living in a South Dallas zip code?
21% lack health insurance in the City of Dallas
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Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour
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45% of Dallas households are living paycheck to paycheck
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Average rent for an apartment in Dallas is $1,500 per month
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365,000 people in Dallas face food insecurity
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21% of residents in the city of Dallas lack health insurance, and in some Dallas County cities that number reaches 30%
The CitySquare Opportunity Center,
shown at dusk, from Malcolm X Blvd.
How We Serve
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Housing programs, information, resources, referrals.
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Our homeless outreach team meets with neighbors on the street and in encampments to understand needs and help them transition to permanent, supportive housing.
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Our wrap-around support services promote stability through employment assistance, life skills, income and public benefit navigation, referrals, essential goods, and connections to healthcare and basic needs.
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Healthy groceries, mobile delivery and children's programs
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Food pantry allows neighbors to shop for food in a grocery store style, with no zip code or income restrictions
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Food delivery for eligible neighbors unable to visit the pantry
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Year-round distribution to partner sites for children to access after-school and summer meals, as well as summer enrichment activities
Benita Vasquez
CitySquare Navigator
Needs of
our Neighbors
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Resources, navigation & referrals to help meet basic needs
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Receive help finding: a doctor, clothes, job training, legal services, childcare, food, financial assistance, English classes, and more
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Neighbors can receive help applying for public benefits and health insurance
Community
Partners
Resources, referrals and connections to services outside CitySquare, as well as those who visit on site, such as AT&T Connected Learning Center & Digital Lab, Parkland Hospital, PNC Bank, Texas Workforce Solutions
What is a CitySquare Navigator?
Rarely does poverty strike someone in only one way. We know we have to fight back in just as many ways.
Our navigators sit down with our neighbors, look them in the eyes, listen, answer questions, and talk to them about all their needs and the obstacles they are facing. Whether a neighbor enters CitySquare through our housing, food or health services, they will talk to an awesome, caring navigator, who can help guide them and connect them to services offered within CitySquare or with one of our external partner organizations.
Housing
Food
Health
Our neighbor,
Ms. Shelley
By the Numbers
We helped
728 neighbors find or maintain housing
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87% maintained housing (measured by 6 months or more)
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52% of neighbors increased their income within the year
Housing
From a Homeless Camp to a Permanent Home
BY SENIOR DIRECTOR OF HOUSING, KRYSTAL LOTSPEICH
Each year, across the U.S., cities conduct a “Point in Time” count to assess the number of individuals experiencing homelessness on a single designated night. In Dallas, the 2022 number was 4410 to 4,244 people without a home. About 1,350 of these individuals were living on the street.
If you have ever looked in the face of an individual living under a highway bridge, you will see someone who is extremely resourceful, creative and resilient.
Poverty Fighter, Krystal Lotspeich
They do something many of us never could; they figure out how to live in uninhabitable conditions, often made worse by weather, natural disasters, or illness. Each day, countless barriers stand between them and the basic needs every one of us has a right to: safe housing, food, and health. On top of it all, they are trying to find a permanent home.
A 2021 Texas law banned “tent cities” or encampments, but without adequate solutions for housing it only moved unsheltered neighbors from one encampment to another, while inflicting more trauma. One friend told us he came to CitySquare for food and when he returned to the encampment all of his belongings had been swept into a dumpster.
CitySquare’s Homeless Outreach Team is a trusted partner to the City of Dallas and Housing Forward because of the relationships they have built with our neighbors. Our “HOT” team, as we call them, are widely respected for their patience and perseverance on the streets. Together, they have taken the lead to help neighbors get quickly housed before an encampment is shut down. While this work is exceptionally difficult, we are glad Dallas trusts
CitySquare to take it on. In 2022, we’ve housed 728 of our unsheltered friends.
The photo on our front cover captures “moving day” for Ms. Shelley before the encampment where she lived was to be disassembled. The process to obtain housing is arduous, but packing Ms. Shelley’s belongings into our staff member’s truck was full of celebration. It may have taken time to build a strong, trusted friendship with Ms. Shelley, but it allowed her to feel confident in our HOT team’s best intentions, and ultimately it led her into an apartment of her own.
We’re incredibly grateful for the donor support that helps us to do this work, which gives hope to our neighbors… and to all of us.
By the Numbers
Our Community Health Workers
helped 97%
of neighbors they connected with to meet their healthcare needs
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55% of neighbors in our health program reported having a primary care provider
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65% continued their care at our partner clinic
Poverty Fighter, Linda Goodson
Health
Health Insurance Coverage After Years without Any
Our Health team received a call from a woman who had heard our ad on the radio. She was concerned about her sister who had several disabilities but no medical insurance, and she asked that we reach out to her.
CitySquare Health navigator, Linda Goodson, reached out to our neighbor. She learned the woman had applied for insurance a few years prior, but had not been approved, even with a letter from her doctor.
“I’d tell you the whole story,” our neighbor offered, “but it would take too much time.”
“I’ve got plenty of time to listen,” Linda told her.
Together, they completed the neighbor’s application, resulting in a monthly premium of zero and insurance that her doctor would accept.
“Our neighbor was extremely happy,” said Linda. “And I was happy for her.”
Watch our Instagram reel to hear Linda Goodson talk about her role as a CitySquare Health navigator
Our neighbor
Ms. Maria
By the Numbers
23,102 neighbors accessed
2.7million pounds of food
through our food pantry, mobile delivery, or child nutrition programs.
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94% of neighbors report receiving healthy food from the food pantry
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88% report they can spend money on other expenses in their budget
Food
Maria Makes Big Strides with Cleaning Supplies from Our Pantry
BY POVERTY FIGHTER, DORIAN RIVERA
The first few times our neighbor Maria visited the pantry, she needed special care and assistance to successfully complete her shopping trip.
One day she arrived in great spirits and completed her shopping trip solo. As I walked over to say goodbye to her, Maria asked if she could have a few extra cleaning supplies this week, given the limit had been one case each. That was an easy yes, and I sent her on her way with two cases.
On her next visit to the pantry, Maria found me and had a huge smile on her face. “Look Dorian,” she said. “I cleaned some houses last week and made $25! I bought myself these sneakers, do you like them?”
Maria used the cleaning items from the pantry to help herself earn a living, and the smile on her face conveyed great joy at her accomplishment.
It made me happy too and reminded me how far a donation and a little bit of kindness can go. This is just one of the reasons I love working at CitySquare.
Poverty Fighter,
Dorian Rivera
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Summer Meals
CitySquare’s summer mobile meal program delivers meals to kids at non-traditional sites such as apartment complexes, reaching children whose families face transportation, economic, and other barriers to accessing traditional food programs.
Thanksgiving Dinner
In 2022, we handed out turkey and sides
to more than 600 families.
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Food Pantry
Our pantry is shoppable, and carries non-food essentials as well, like cleaning supplies. Access to the pantry is not restricted by or zip code. Everyone is welcome and may return bi-weekly, Tues - Fri 9 am - 3 pm. As one of the largest food distribution sites in Dallas, we serve between 300 neighbors per day
By the Numbers
Each year, our volunteer program averages
3,500 individuals who serve a total of 40,000 hours
We rely on the support of our community and are grateful so many people are willing to invest this most valuable commodity… time! Please join us and volunteer today.
Please join us and volunteer today.
Volunteers
From Serving Food to Driving a Neighbor to Chemo Treatments
When Tom and Jeanne retired and came to spend one day a week volunteering in the food pantry at CitySquare, they didn’t know they would get a bonus job. The couple has been volunteering for the past year, and during that time, a staff member asked if they could help drive one of our neighbors, “Mr. B.,” who is blind, to his cancer treatments. They recruited Jeanne’s brother to help as well, so between the three of them they could manage Mr. B’s treatment schedule.
When asked the best part of the opportunity, Jeanne and Tom agreed it was their interaction with the neighbor. “He had a great sense of humor and was a very interesting individual. We had great conversations with him,” said Jeanne.
They describe Mr. B as someone “who was in a spot” and needed a ride. “He wanted people he could rely on and trust to get him to treatment and not patronize him,” said Tom. “It wasn’t a hard thing for us to do.”
Jeanne and Tom chose CitySquare as a beneficiary of their time and financial support because they appreciate that CitySquare focuses on solutions, not just symptomatic relief. “Symptomatic relief is important, but it doesn’t make the problem go away.
CitySquare is working on solving problems with upstream solutions, rather than waiting at the bottom of the stream to react to the problem,” said Tom.
Their advice for anyone looking to volunteer? “The staff knows what they’re doing, so come in, respect what’s happening, learn it and become part of the fabric,” said Jeanne, "Mostly, get over here – there’s lots of help needed!”
Supporters,
Karen & Tom Falk
By the Numbers
Did you know monthly
donations help us the
most? Because just like
a family’s budget, they
help us plan for the year!
Donors
Thank You, Karen and Tom Falk for Investing a Half-Million Dollars in CitySquare
Karen and Tom Falk have supported CitySquare for more than a decade, and at the end of 2022 invested their largest gift thus far, $500,000 over the next five years. The Falks first learned about CitySquare after reading Larry James’ book, The Wealth of the Poor. They appreciated the wholistic approach to fighting both the causes and effects of poverty and took time to learn about the organization and offer their support, including bringing in many volunteers and donors through Tom’s previous role as CEO of Kimberly-Clark Corporation.
When asked about the best aspects of CitySquare, they will tell you the team does important work that matters to the City of Dallas. “We want to support an organization that can help bring an end to poverty,” said Karen. “This is difficult work and the team at CitySquare does an incredible job working with neighbors who are in need of housing, food and health services, while showing enormous compassion and respect.”
We are grateful for the Falk’s support and friendship to CitySquare and appreciate this investment in our future.
To invest in CitySquare through a multi-year commitment or legacy gift, please contact Sandra Ostad at sostad@citysquare.org
Liberty Mutual Volunteers
By the Numbers
In our 35 year span,
we have befriended
600+
corporate partners
Corporate Partners
Hundreds of Liberty Mutual Volunteers Gave Thousands of Volunteer Hours
All of our corporate partners are the best advocates, and this year, we’re highlighting Liberty Mutual, who has set a great example of unwavering support for CitySquare since 2016.
Commitment to community and giving back are qualities rooted in Liberty’s culture. Together, we work hand-in-hand to fight poverty through their robust employee engagement and philanthropic giving programs.
In an additional show of support for our neighbors during a difficult economy, the Liberty Mutual foundation gave an incremental inflation grant and encouraged local chapters to show the same kind of support to their partners.
We could not fight poverty without the generosity of our corporate partners. We are fortunate to have the level of commitment we do in Dallas. Thank you!
By the Numbers
AmeriCorps Members
By the Numbers
280+ members
serve each year.
CitySquare’s AmeriCorps
program is the largest in
North Texas.
CitySquare
AmeriCorps
Developing a Host of Future Civic Leaders
Established in 1993, AmeriCorps is often thought of as “the American Peace Corps,” which engages more than one million Americans in service.
CitySquare AmeriCorps was established 17 years ago and is the largest in North Texas with more than 280 members serving each year. We deploy members within CitySquare or other area nonprofit organizations to serve with youth in afterschool and summer programs, adults receiving services from social service organizations, and families benefiting from food distribution programs. Depending on the area, members serve four or nine months in our program and earn a living stipend as well as an education award at the end of the four month term.
One of our CitySquare AmeriCorps alumni, Joe Carreón, served between earning his bachelor’s from SMU and his master’s from Harvard. He’s now an attorney who serves on the DISD School Board, working to ensure all children receive the same opportunities he had.
"Citysquare AmeriCorps allowed me to serve the city and community that raised me,”
Joe said. “It also connected me with a national network of like-minded individuals who believe in volunteerism, public service and giving back.” When asked about the best aspect of serving with CitySquare AmeriCorps, Joe said, “The leadership skills I built then, still impact how I lead today.”
For more information, please contact americorps@citysquare.org or click here to apply.
Connecting the Community, Maximizing Resources
More than 80 cents of every dollar raised directly supports our neighbors.
Revenue
Expenses
CitySquare Leadership
Mandy Shreve
Interim CEO
Winnie Bamuinikile
Director
HUMAN RESOURCES
Craig Hoffman
Director
FACILTY OPERATIONS
Dynesha Jones
Director
HOUSING OPERATIONS
Christina Mayes
Director
FINANCE
Nadia Salibi
Chief Program Officer
Carla Cleeton
Sr. Director
TRAC
Tikisa Jackson
Sr. Director
HEALTHY EQUITY & FOOD SECURITY
Krystal Lotspeich
Sr. Director
HOUSING SOLUTIONS
JR Newton
Community Health Nurse
Sandra Ostad
Director
DEVELOPMENT
Christine Postolos
Director
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Adela Santana
Sr. Director
OUTCOMES & EVALUATION
Eli (Elizabeth) Van Oort
Sr. Director
LEARNING & SERVICE
Introducing our 2023 Board of Directors
Partner
Lewis Weinger
Chairman of the Board
BAIN & COMPANY
Chequan Lewis
Vice Chairman of the Board COO
PIZZA HUT U.S.
TC Alexander
SVP, Community Development
BANK OF TEXAS POWERED BY BOK FINANCIAL
Mark Anthony
Principal
ANTHONY FAMILY INVESTMENT PARTNERS, LLC
Robin Blakeley
Sports & Entertainment Principal
OVERLAND PARTNERS
Edie Diaz
VP Government & Community Relations
DART
Jon Halbert
Chairman
THE PURSUANT GROUP
Marquis Hawkins
Lobbyist
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
Wendy Messmann
Market Leader
BANK OF AMERICA PRIVATE BANK
Kerry Perez
VP Enterprise Strategy
AMN HEALTHCARE
PURSUANT
Trent Ricker
CEO & President
Byron Sanders
President & CEO
BIG THOUGHT
Anthony Shoemaker
Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel
KEURIG DR PEPPER, INC
By the Numbers
Save the Date
Our Biggest Event of the Year,
Celebrating 35 Years
September 30, 2023
Saturday, 6:30-10:30pm
The Empire Room
1225 N. Riverfront Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75207
Thank you
for your support of CitySquare in 2022. Together, we impacted the lives of 69,000+ neighbors in our community.
Want to get involved?
To volunteer, schedule a tour of our Opportunity Center, or learn more about ways to give, and how your gifts are being invested, contact us at dev@citysquare.org