Mentors and Students who attended our Graduation Luncheon May 21st 2011
Over the past eight years, Mercy Street has grown from a vision to a reality that is just beginning to concretely transform the neighborhood of West Dallas. We thought you might be interested in our progress! Mercy Street:
· Has recruited, trained, and supervised over 550 active mentors from 31 Dallas churches to match with a West Dallas Public School student.
· Experienced a reversal in the drop-out rate from 70% to less than 30%. 36 of the first 44 who were mentored graduated in the spring of 2011.
· Built a staff with capabilities of bringing mentors to every West Dallas Public School child, increasing our budget from $250,000 to $1,400,000 and raising it each year.
· Raised the money and built a $550,000 baseball field with room left to build soccer, football, lacrosse, softball, and t-ball fields. We are in positive conversation with the Texas Rangers Baseball club to build the balance of the sports complex ($2,500,000)
· Established a “Pathways Program” to teach children how to fix bicycles, keep our headquarters and ball fields cut and trimmed, plant and grow vegetables—along with the skills of filling out a resume’, interviewing for a job, and working on an hourly basis for an income (or a bicycle),
· Established very active Bible studies and summer camp for every age group (8-10, 11-14, and 15-18) and including the mothers of our students.
· Built long term relationships between mentors and students, coaches and students, Mercy Street staff and students including the families of both mentors and students.
· Our next five years will be better as we see our maturing young people take leadership roles in West Dallas
