North Texas nonprofit Hope Farm receives Pegasus Prize to help combat fatherlessness among youth
DALLAS — One North Texas nonprofit has thousands of reasons to be grateful this season.
"A lot of these kids' fathers are incarcerated, deceased, or they just don't care," said Victor Neil, the Vice President of Marketing and Development for Hope Farm.
To him, each one of these faces is a mission.
"Statistically, if you look at fatherlessness and you look at rates of incarceration, high school dropout rates, things like that, that's where a lot of kids that aren't in the program are headed," he said.
But inside Hope Farm's Dallas campus, they're trying to stop that, one child at a time.
"We take these young men starting as young as five and try and keep them through high school graduation," said Neil. "We do Bible study every day, we feed them a hot meal every day, and we have a reading program."
It's been Hope Farm's mission for the last three decades. Last week, their work was recognized by the Dallas Foundation with the Pegasus Prize—and $50,000.
"They applied for the Pegasus grant, which is really rooted in identifying organizations that take an innovative approach to solving community issues. What I love is that it's rooted in family," said Vickie Allen, the Chief Impact Officer for The Dallas Foundation.
"Obviously, the financial part is huge; it's going to allow us to build our capacity to continue expanding in Dallas," said Neil.
Expansion simply means they can reach more kids who need a little guidance.
"These young men are a part of our trajectory, they are a part of our history, they're a part of our community, and we want them to know that we care about them," said Allen.
"If we can touch one life at a time and keep that from happening, then we can work towards breaking the cycle of fatherlessness," said Neil.