Dallas Morning News spotlighted TRAC on July 5, in an article which provided a small glimpse of the complexities of aging out of care. It featured two TRAC youth, Danielle and Tiffani, who recently moved into TRAC’s transitional apartments.

"Growing up in an endless succession of foster homes wasn't like having a family of her own, but for Tiffani Harrison, it at least meant regular meals and a bed to sleep in. Dannielle Hill and Tiffani Harrison, both 20-year-olds who grew up in foster care, share an apartment sponsored by Central Dallas Ministries' Transition Resource Action Center." Click here to read the entire article.

Fox 4 visited TRAC on Saturday, June 11, when Texas Star Racing brought their #14 race car (sporting the logos of TRAC and Central Dallas Ministries) and their 18 year old driver to TRAC. Owner Joe Stinson, a TRAC Mentor and resident of Arlington, hosted by Texas Star Racing to raise awareness of youth emancipating from care and to recruit mentors for our youth. Everyone had a good time and got their pictures taken in the driver’s seat! The news clip will be available soon on our website.

New funding, faces and services

This spring and summer have been a time of explosive growth for TRAC – in many exciting ways.  TRAC now provides both PAL and Aftercare Services on contract with DFPS and also residential programming through grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Community Development’s Continuum of Care, in cooperation with the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation. 

Andrea Ewing, Catherine Goode and Tim Shreve are on board for TRAC’s Residential Services team.  Catherine and Tim are resident advisors at Ashby Commons, overseeing TRAC’s two new short term transitional living apartments.  Andrea Ewing will be joining the TRAC staff in July, coming from the Dallas YMCA CASA program.  Andrea will be the residential services manager who will supervise TRAC’s residential programs at Ashby Commons, Gaston Commons and scattered site locations in East Dallas. 

Kenya Havis has joined TRAC as our WIA (Workforce Investment Act) Youth Career Specialist.  Kenya is at TRAC through a cooperative agreement with ACS State and Local Solution, a youth service provider for WorkSource for Dallas County.  ACS is making all of its youth life skills and employability skills curriculum and expertise available at TRAC.  TRAC will be enrolling out-of-school youth in a self-paced employment readiness and placement program:  CEO.   For more information on eligibility, please contact Kenya at 214-370-9300 x 26.

Welcome Forest Hanna as TRAC’s new Training Manager and David Hansard as a facilitator for Post-PAL activities – that’s skill building after completing PAL classes.  Opportunities will include Financial Literacy classes, Parenting classes, and OnTRAC (see below).  Forest and David are cooking up a lot of experiential activities that will give youth hands-on  training to practice independent living skills.

New services managers include Shari Padgett, who started in June and Grady Asher who will begin in July.  Madeline Reedy is TRAC’s new contract manager.

May 14 marked the beginning of TRAC’s yearly Summer Arts Program which provides opportunities for young people to participate in the visual and performing arts through hands-on workshops, exhibits and performances. May hosted Turkish Dancing, bringing colorful dress and stories of life from Turkey. June brought Drama Teach, a fun and interactive team using life-like scenarios to teach valuable life lessons to youth. New Art Six will bring music and history together on July 30, helping youth see the connection between story and song in the music of today and yesterday. Jorge Lopez is currently providing a four-week workshop where youth tap in to their artistic skills by creating religious art from sheet metal, learning metal cutting and chiseling. August ends the summer with a field trip to a local theater to see a performance by Teatro Dallas. Artists are provided through the Neighborhood Touring Program funded by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.