History
Given the length and breadth of Incarnation Place’s activities and participants, you might think its establishment and growth was the result of a grand plan. Not so. Today’s Incarnation Place was born of insight from an extraordinary coming together of black and white churches in and around Roseland.
It began in 2009 when a handful of members of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, St. Paul United Methodist Church and Central Dallas Church started a lay-led, weekly Bible study group. Close relationships quickly developed, and in 2015, several members pondered the lack of after-school activities for Roseland Community children. Or even some place safe for children to come after school.
They decided to host a meeting, inviting the J.W. Ray principal, representatives from Head Start, the Boys and Girls Clubs and area churches. “How might we work with you?” was the question they asked. They figured a few would show up. More than 15 attended and they all wanted to help.
The group discussion immediately turned to Head Start. The Roseland Head Start Director asked for help in getting families to enroll their pre-schoolers. Which led to an ask for help to get more Roseland Community parents to send their children to Head Start. The Principal at J.W. Ray pleaded for aid in getting children school supplies. Which led to others in attendance to agree to step in. The Incarnation Place outreach director would recruit a group of volunteers to knock on residents’ doors to explain the benefits of Head Start. Pilgram’s Rest would include the Roseland Community in providing school supplies for its members’ children.
All present asked Incarnation Place to keep convening the group. And so it was that Roseland Partners was born. Other churches, service providers, and local schools were invited to join the effort. Roseland Partners now includes 20 different entities, under the leadership of Incarnation Place.
In 2016, Roseland Partners continued to ask, “How might we work with you?” by conducting a door-to-door survey to listen to community members articulate their needs and hopes. Partners knew that an outsider-imposed fix would be disrespectful and wouldn’t work.
In 2017, Incarnation Place and its Roseland Partners took another big leap forward when they opened the Roseland Community Center. Chidren ages 5 to 17 would have a safe place to go after school and during the summer and plenty of programming to challenge them. The center, closed for seven years, was in disrepair. The floor of its biggest asset, an indoor basketball court, had been damaged with water coming from a leaky roof. Incarnation Place found an operator to run the center and it and other Rosland Partners raised money and recruited services to repair the center.
In 2018, Incarnation Place helped involve other Roseland Partners in the annual "75204 Day of Service," which typically involves 350 volunteers and neighborhood residents for a community work project. The same year it raised money to purchase property to allow Central Dallas Church to continue its local recovery ministry.
In 2019, Incarnation Place’s Director of Outreach and two young Roseland mothers formed a young mothers support group called Ladies Oxygen. The same year, Incarnation Place facilitated the establishment of a mental health and family counseling service with an office in Roseland and with onsite counseling at Chavez Elementary School as well.
In 2020, Incarnation Place facilitated the addition of onsite mental health and family counseling services at Spence Middle School and Ignite Middle School.
