The Dr. David Woody III Outreach Center ribbon cutting. Photo courtesy of Carol Toler.
Two days after opening its new headquarters, Midtown Dallas Inc. unveiled The Dr. David Woody III Outreach Center, the home of its new Resilience Midtown initiative which connects people experiencing homelessness with counseling and support services.
Located adjacent to Midtown Dallas Inc.’s headquarters at 8420 Park Lane, the center operates in partnership with The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center and will serve the Midtown Improvement District and a five-mile radius surrounding the area.
The program features two full-time, neighborhood-based counselors from The Bridge who will work directly with individuals experiencing homelessness throughout the day. Counselors will assess their needs, enroll them in The Bridge’s programs and coordinate transportation to The Bridge’s Homeless Recovery Center in downtown Dallas for additional services.
Dr. David Woody III, retired CEO at The Bridge and advocate for homeless individuals. Photo courtesy of Carol Toler.
Funded by a $150,000 grant from The Moody Foundation in 2020, the initiative honors Dr. David Woody, former president and CEO of The Bridge.
“It’s an amazing thing, a humbling thing to see your name connected to what is an incredible word, resilience,” Woody said. “This is our first step. We can assist folks who may be sleeping on the concrete, but we can also bring the whole neighborhood together in terms of how to strategically identify necessary resources to address this increasing problem.”
Woody said The Bridge’s downtown campus, located at 1818 Corsicana St., serves about 600 people experiencing homelessness. He added that 95% of participants who complete the organization’s 12-month housing program obtain permanent housing, and 95% of those individuals do not return to The Bridge.
Lynn McBee dedicates the Dr. David Woody Resilience Center in Midtown. Photo courtesy of Carol Toler.
Lynn McBee, board chair of The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center, said addressing homelessness requires meeting people where they are and understanding the unique needs of each community.
“We see an enormous number of homeless people downtown, and it’s important that we’re serving them there,” McBee said. “We need to understand what the community needs. Getting in the community with the people and really understanding what their needs are and building that support structure around them is going to pay off in dividends.”
Resilience Midtown aims to provide that neighborhood-based approach by connecting individuals with services before they reach a crisis while strengthening collaboration between local organizations and the surrounding community.
