By Melanie Hess
Walking around Dixon Circle, a neighborhood in South Dallas that is often referred to as the poorest, most run down and crime ridden part of the city, Carly Pickens, director of the Champions of Hope mentoring program, ran into one of her student’s fathers.
“He mentioned his son had a Champions of Hope mentor and continued to share how much he appreciated that, and how good it was for his son,” Pickens said. “Then he said, ‘If me and my friends had had mentors like that when we were growing up, this place would be very different’.”
Although comprehending the power of positive role models is more expected for adults, Pickens said the children, referred to by the organization as protégés, see the significance of having a mentor as well. She recalls the day 10-year-old South Dallas student Jordan* chose to step away from a fist fight because he recognized who she was and wanted to learn more about having a mentor. Just moments before a physical battle would have ensued between him and another child, Jordan* realized that he was standing mere yards away from Pickens. As she began encouraging him to make the right decision, Jordan turned away from the fight, and the two drew closer in proximity. Pickens remembers the first thing the fourth grader exclaimed when they came face to face: “Hey! When do I get my mentor?”
It’s stories like Jordan’s* and the student’s father she met that day in Dixon Circle that leave Pickens with no doubt that she made the right choice, risking, among other things, her career, time and financial investment to establish and grow Champions of Hope… now 153 mentors strong.
The Early Days
Although she believes she was called to serve the South Dallas area, Pickens admits, in the beginning, she was not entirely positive the program would succeed. “We had $1,000 in the bank the day I quit my job,” Pickens said, as she described the nonprofit’s early days. “It was just me, a computer and a bank account.”
Relating and Forming Roots
In 2007, while working as an admissions representative for the University of Missouri in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Pickens began volunteering with children in South Dallas through a group at The Village Church. Over time, she began informally mentoring a young woman who lived nearby.
Soon enough, the college education major and black studies minor, began to realize a renewed passion for urban life, and for children with difficult backgrounds, a situation in which she holds first-hand knowledge. “I grew up in a broken home in rural Missouri,” Pickens explained. “My dad had substance abuse issues, and my parents divorced when I was still young; but my mom, she was very stable.”
Although she does not claim to have endured the same level of hardship as some of the students she works with, Pickens said she is grateful that her upbringing enables her to relate. By painting an image of a home life that is less common in middle-class suburbia, Pickens can draw similarities between many of the childrens’ lives in South Dallas and her own.
“Families in South Dallas often have consistent mothers, but fathers are typically in and out of the home, or they are entirely absent,” she noted. “I know what that’s like. I also had a close family member who went to jail a few times, so I was used to having a family member who had been in jail. That’s something else that is more normal for these kids.”
Moving forward, with empathy and renewed passion, Pickens conducted her own mini-investigation of the area with a number of friends… research which revealed that South Dallas was not home to any formal mentoring programs, despite suffering from similar, if not worse, problems as other low-income areas in the Metroplex.
They learned that while West Dallas was aided by government programs and numerous nonprofits, South Dallas, sectioned off by the Trinity River and Interstate 30, was in many ways, getting left behind. Using this information as a fuel of sorts, Pickens and other volunteers began pursuing the development of a local mentoring program.
Joe Ader, one of Picken’s development partners early in the pursuit, met Pickens as he himself was trying to learn about mentoring programs in the South Dallas area. For him, there was never a question of whether Pickens was the person to head up the task. “From the moment I met her, I could tell she was the perfect person, with a passion for this work and this neighborhood,” Ader said. Although Pickens was the only official employee, volunteers, who were experts in their areas, helped complete the 1023 and 501(c)3 application in 2008. From there, more wheels began to turn.
Logistics and Goals
“At first it was mostly about survival, hiring another person, adding mentors and learning,” Pickens explained. “Sometimes I felt like it was failure after failure, but when you know you’re supposed to be doing something, you have to keep going.”
She remembers days when it seemed like a game of trial and error. Ader cautioned her that there is no such thing as stability in inner-city work and ministry. “The students are always changing. The neighborhood is always changing and the volunteers are always changing,” he stressed. “You have to be a person with a lot of drive and passion to stay at it, even when things around you are in flux. Carly has done that well.”
Pickens emphasizes that she never had any formal business training or nonprofit management course. “We just figured things out and learned as we went,” she said. Today, the entry point for Champions of Hope is through one of the two partner elementary schools. Beginning in the 4th grade, children have the opportunity to “opt in.” While it may not be realistic to believe that every mentor and protégé match will last the duration of the child’s primary and secondary schooling, the goal is for students to have a mentor from 4th-12th grade. Picken’s first class of fourth graders is now in their sophomore year of high school.
Now flourishing, the organization, with five full-time staff, has more established goals. “We want to see kids come to faith, graduate from high school, have a plan for the future, and to serve and give back,” Pickens says.
On Joining The Community and Raising Funds
Pickens, an unmarried, white female, said she’s grateful that she and the organization did not face much resistance in joining the South Dallas community. “Because we partnered with the schools and were there to do something for the children, they were receptive,” she said. “Most parents really do want the best for their kids, and they saw that’s what we are there for.” While it did pose some challenges, Pickens believes, on some level, being a woman helped her to build trust in the neighborhood. “I think it made me easier to talk to,” she said. “I didn’t wear suits or anything that might be intimidating.”
As it relates to funding, Pickens found her young age was as much a deterrent to being taken seriously as her gender; however, she never gave up. One of the earliest mentors and now staff member, Billy Rose, serves as her counterpart in many elements of leadership and building relationships with donors.
Living in South Dallas
Only a couple of years into the program, Pickens felt like she could serve the community best by living there. At first, she lived with a married couple, but now, she has a place of her own. “I don’t feel unsafe,” Pickens emphasizes. “The on-the-ground fact is that most of the area violence is domestic or gang related. It’s very rarely random. Being able to have closer relationships with children and families in South Dallas is well worth any risk. It has also given me opportunities to be an advocate and a voice for the community in other ways.”
Both working and living in South Dallas, Pickens has gladly immersed herself in her passion for the community. “I love seeing our matches around the neighborhood or at events,” Pickens says. It reminds me that in the midst of all the emails and accounting work at my desk, deep, good, life-on-life relationships are happening that will last for years – if not a lifetime.”
To make a tax-deductible donation or learn about involvement opportunities with Champions of Hope, visit http://championsofhope.org
