YOUTH PROGRAMS
Children and teenagers brutally abused, criticized, and removed from their homes, need our encouragement and acceptance. We couldn't do this without your help. At-risk youth today are being targeted and discouraged by lack of family stability, depression and drugs which lead to immorality, watching and participating in pornography, murder, and many times suicide. Your support allows Dare to Dream to intervene while there is still time.
Dallas County Youth Village
Assisting referred youth in becoming productive, law-abiding citizens, while promoting public safety and victim restoration.
Marzelle C. Hill Transition Center
Dare to Dream visits males and females between the ages of ten and seventeen at this facility twice a month. Volunteer speakers and role models share their life-skills and stories to inspire them to live lives with a purpose. Most of these youth come from low-income families and are performing below average school grade levels in reading, spelling and writing.
Texas Youth Commission-Cottrell House
TYC Cottrell House is located in east Dallas and houses delinquent youth from State schools between the ages of 15 and 20. 35% are African-American, 35% Hispanic, and 25% are Caucasian. Many of these teens are fatherless, and come from families with very poor decision making skills. Volunteers conduct career development classes and whenever possible assist in taking them to church. Many have accepted Christ into their lives and have been Water Baptized. Our goal is to prepare them to return to the community with skills to help them become productive citizens.
Salvation Arma Casa Shelter — formerly YMCA Casa Shelter
In l987, Dare to Dream began providing its first programs to this youth shelter. We are sad to say that in September 2011, this facility closed its doors. This shelter housed males and females between the ages of seven and eighteen. Many of them were runaways, or were removed from their home because of abuse and neglect. Twice a month Dare to Dream provided a team of volunteers who shared their Christian faith, life skills, crafts and encouragement.
Other Ministry Opportunities
Dare to Dream sponsors orphans overseas and is planning on helping graduating orphans who have the potential and desire to attend Bible School.
Foster Care
In 2007 Dare to Dream Founder - Jan Tennyson who grew up in the New York foster care system, participated on a panel on the McCuistian TV Show aired on Channel 13 entitled Is the Foster Care System Broken? Alarming statistics about youth exiting the foster care system becoming homeless influenced Jan to speak at foster care conferences and graduations. Dare to Dream is expanding programs to mentor children exiting the foster care system and those who have been adopted.
Reconciliation Outreach
Dare to Dream provided programs for Reconciliation Outreach, an East Dallas group of teenagers from a neighborhood infested with homelessness and drugs. The youth are 90% African American between the ages of 12 and 18. An average of 15 youth from the community attended our programs each month and all from low-income families. Since 1996, Dare to Dream has donated items of clothing, furniture, vehicles, and other items to this ministry. In current years Dare to Dream has supported their annual banquet and provided Jan Tennyson's autobiography...She Dares to Dream to adults in the program during the Christmas Season at a reduced cost.
Buckner Children's Home
Dare to Dream has provided programs of encouragement and love to youth from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds between the ages of ten to eighteen. As stated by former Director, Larry Mercer - "Dare to Dream gives youth a chance to re-discover their lost childhood." We look forward to working with many of these youth in the future.
Churches, Schools, Colleges and Orphanages
Dare to Dream offers keynote speeches to audiences nationally and internationally alerting the public of the urgency to embrace youth without strong family ties. These youngsters need someone and something to believe in. Dare to Dream is providing both.
