The Buckner Family Hope Center at Wynnewood just got a little bigger as it will provide services to a newly built affordable housing apartment complex across the street from the Hope Center’s campus.

The Hope Center will have an office on site and will have a family coach available twice a month to help families who may be going through a crisis or need resources. In addition to a family coach, a community programs coordinator will also be available throughout the week to help promote family relationships through financial, nutrition, health and other education courses, family movie and game nights and tax preparation. 

“The apartments are beautiful inside but that doesn’t change the heart of a man because you put him in a nice apartment,” said Cheryl Williams, Family Hope Center at Wynnewood director. “How do you get to the heart of the family? How do you encourage relationships to be healthy? That will be our opportunity. We’re going to do a lot of teaching and a lot of character building. We get to help families build a foundation and hopefully show them how to build a home.”

With 160 units in the High Point Family apartment complex, the Hope Center will have more opportunities to connect with families not previously involved with the Hope Center.

“I get a little excited about helping families. That’s what gets me up in the morning,” Williams said. “That’s what gets our Buckner team up in the morning that we have the blessed privilege to come every day and see how we can serve.”

The developers of High Point Family – a partnership that includes the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation and Bank of America, which owns the site – saw the importance of providing services beyond a safe living experience for their housing project.

“I think Buckner provides that stability of growth so not only are they housing-wise taken care of, but they’re also [helping] financially, emotionally, with child care and parenting,” said Darren Smith, senior vice president of Bank of America. “Buckner provides those building blocks so people could have success steps. We never envisioned doing it without Buckner because they know the community and they know the services that need to be provided.”

At the grand opening ceremony on Aug. 25, Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings commented on the unique partnership of the project.

“It’s truly a collaborative program which is how we get things done in Dallas,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot about coming together as a city, and we can’t come together as a city if we can’t come together in neighborhoods to build and transform things.”