We at The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center are again deeply bruised, pained and outraged by the brutality and indifference to life that resulted in the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ahmuad Arbery in Georgia and too many other recent acts of racism and violence. We send prayers of peace to their families and to those close to them experiencing the pain these tragedies have created.

As many of you know, 63% of our Guests are African American. Our employees too often have shared stories of how microaggressions, discrimination and outright racism affect and sustain barriers to our African American Guests’ recovery from homelessness.

The face of racism and indifference is a reality all too real for many of our Guests in Dallas.

Our hope at The Bridge is that every Guest is given the opportunity to live in a society where protection is delivered, and respect is genuine. A society where only the strengths a person possesses determine the building blocks to managing a home of their own. Our Guests barriers are already too high to forfeit any of the above as they continue their journey to homeless recovery.

While we consider how we will break down those barriers and turn that hope into reality, we are facilitating changes internally which eliminate services access disparities. The Bridge is working to acquire more services providers and expand our ability to assist citizens inside of that “one incident away” from homelessness. To intentionally offer more homeless prevention activities, implement more evidence-based outreach and intervention techniques, and craft the foundation of trust with our citizens that results in more engaging in our continuum of services. Most importantly, we are communicating to the community the barriers, discrimination and racism experienced in our search with our Guests for affordable and/or permanent supportive housing.

With even more passion, our focus is to Empower all adults experiencing homelessness in Dallas with the tools to homeless recovery as they move into sustainable housing.

I am challenging employees and Guests at The Bridge to be a part of the change process. To peacefully come together. To express their frustration. To act on a desire for a new America and a renewed City of Dallas. The justice we all expect cannot be shouted loud enough. But as we make our voices heard I am thankful to local leaders discouraging violence and rage which tears down and undermines critical elements of our community. My prayer is that protests transition to solutions, that our communities would be restored and united, and our Guests of color are given equal opportunity to recover from homelessness.

Wake up. Listen. You possess the power to make change happen.

-Dr. David Woody