Photography by Victoria Gomez
Photography by Victoria Gomez
Photography by Victoria Gomez
Midtown Improvement District. Five Points. Little UN.
Through landlord neglect, systemic failures, high crime, beautification efforts and recent gentrification: Vickery Meadow.
It’s one of the most densely populated areas of the city, spanning a few square miles of apartment complexes built on apartment complexes. Originally built for early-career single professionals, the apartments now house one of the most diverse and robust populations of immigrants, refugees and working-class people in Dallas.
According to 2022 census survey data, close to 48% of the population in ZIP code 75231 spoke languages other than English at home, and almost a third were born outside of the U.S.
Currently in its 25th year of service in the area, Heart House is a nonprofit organization that provides free literacy programs for refugee, immigrant and under-resourced children in Vickery Meadow. The organization recently expanded its operations outside of after-school education to include an in-school tutoring program at Lee A. McShan Jr. Elementary School called McShan Reading Homeroom.
“Many of the children who come to Dallas or families who come to Dallas as refugees are settled into the Vickery Meadow community by the resettlement agencies,” says Executive Director Shannon Hendricks. “And so in those three square miles, we have just numerous, numerous refugee children and immigrant families who have found their way to that community as well.”
“We’ve historically served them after school, with what started off as a safe place for them to go so they’re not just home alone or in the neighborhood on the streets. They helped with homework and things like that. Now it’s transitioned to be a place where we help them develop their literacy skills, their English language learning.”
At first, Heart House operated in neighborhood apartment complexes but was forced to abandon the model in 2021 due to permitting issues. Since then, they’ve provided programs at libraries, Literacy Archive’s Vickery Meadow Center and the Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation facility, before landing at McShan earlier last year.
Working with refugee and immigrant children in schools requires a certain level of sensitivity and finesse in the current climate. In January, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded a 2011 directive prohibiting federal enforcement actions in “safe zones” such as elementary and secondary schools, colleges, hospitals and churches.
“(Parents were worried) especially in late January, February, March, when parents didn’t know if their kids were safe at school because of the directive that ICE could come into the schools, which had been a safe place before,” Hendricks says. “We worked with the schools to understand the processes and the protocols and what would garner ICE coming into a school campus, and served as a conduit to sharing that information with the families, reassuring the families that their information was safe with us because we are not a government-funded entity.”
Hendricks says things have settled down since the winter, but the organization is still monitoring changes to federal programs, especially AmeriCorps.
Teaching the Heart
The core of Heart House’s mission may be English language education, but it also pursues a more holistic model in reaching its students.
“Heart House provides opportunities to increase a child’s awareness of literacy and English language learning, coupled with development of their social emotional skills, their mental well-being,” Hendricks says.
The organization incorporates breathing exercises, story times and other exercises designed to help children understand, label and process their emotions into most sessions. Past processing their own emotions, Heart House incorporates social-emotional learning (SEL) to help the children learn empathy and healthy interaction.
Serving immigrant and, especially, refugee children can come with its own host of challenges, Hendricks says.
“We know that these kids have been through a lot of traumas, a lot of changes, more so than your typical child, which mental health is important for everybody,” she says. “So we do specific things that help them to really understand their emotions and be able to speak about their emotions.”
The emphasis on SEL isn’t just about making children happier, Hendricks says. It’s about creating well-rounded members of society who are better equipped to deal with the pressures and adversities of life. She says that the in-school tutoring program will provide one-on-one opportunities to further this mission.
The Classroom
It’s around 4 p.m. on a gray November afternoon at McShan Elementary. Through bright construction paper-wrapped hallways, the lower elementary after-school group is being led in breathing exercises inside a quaint, equally construction paper-adorned classroom. The children are calm, probably because they just enjoyed their second recess of the day.
Downstairs, the upper elementary group is a slightly different crowd. They have yet to enjoy the privilege of second recess. While things are a little rowdy, the children are still filling out worksheets, practicing consonants and long Os.
They say after-school is better than regular school, with a few citing better activities as the deciding factor. (A substance called slime, apparently blue, was referenced as one’s favorite activity.)
Teaching them is Camryn Woodson. She earned a degree in human development and family science from the University of North Texas. Before Heart House, she assistant taught at an area elementary school.
“I was always looking for something that was SEL based, because in the school, I noticed there wasn’t that at all, and the kids really needed a social emotional [supporter] to help them,” Woodson says.
“And that’s why I gravitated toward Heart House.”
She started in the spring and says things have been going a little better in her new classroom.
“I really feel like I’m making a difference with kids, and I’ve seen kids grow,” she says. “So the kids that I had at another location we were at when I came in April, I got to see how they developed.”
“There is this little girl who never really talked about her emotions or how she was feeling at all, and then by the end, she would open up to me more, and she was able to label her emotions and her feelings.”
Woodson is one of eight full-time staff members at the organization. Staffers are largely supported by volunteers, who come to fulfill work or school service obligations, or simply for the sake of a good deed.
Hendricks says volunteers of all skills and availabilities are able to serve at Heart House’s programs.
“They can come to our after-school program, they can share a skill or a talent that they have,” Hendricks says. “They can just come and hang out with the kids and just be a positive influence. We have one volunteer who has a therapy dog, and he brings Bunny in once a month to be with the kids, and the dog is trained to be that calming presence. We have individuals who know how to do yoga, and they’ll come in and teach yoga to the kids as a good method.”
Christelle
Originally from Rwanda, Christelle Agasaro grew up in Malawi before coming to the U.S. with her two sons three years ago. After she arrived, like many in Vickery Meadow, she says she was challenged by finding a job, helping her kids with homework and adapting to an entirely different country.
She saw a flier for Heart House and enrolled her boys as fast as she could. She says one of the most immediate effects she noticed was in her eldest son, who had been experiencing social isolation.
“He would be in the apartment, and he would just be staying indoors,” Agasaro says. “He wasn’t making any friends, he was getting bored. He was a sad kid, but after he joined Heart House, he would come home happy, smiling, and I just had that positive energy. It was more like they were bringing positivity in my life. Because even for me, things were just a bit hectic. But for him, he started making friends. He was happy. He was always excited to go. And then came in the reading.”
She had enjoyed the benefit of English classes at her Catholic school in Malawi — her sons had not. When they first arrived, she says both of her children had difficulty reading, but quickly caught on after lessons at Heart House.
Agasaro says she is very involved in the community, rarely missing events, which is why Heart House eventually offered her a job as the organization’s community and family engagement coordinator last February.
In her role, Agasaro coordinates with volunteers and communicates with families. She helps get resources, program information and updates to the children’s parents, who may feel more comfortable with her.
“I would say it is very much helpful, just because where we come from. We have a certain perspective of things where, if it’s someone who is in your situation, you feel like you open up more to them and you trust more of them,” she says.
Her oldest son is in middle school now and has aged out of the program, but her younger son, Brave, is now in the upper elementary class. Sitting in a McShan Elementary hallway, Agasaro is approachable, friendly and enthusiastic about Heart House’s mission — the archetype of a nonprofit community engagement coordinator in one of the five biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S.
“I believe in this mission, mostly because it has that perspective of taking care of the kids, other than just families, and I believe it’s a necessity for the kids to be supported in that emotional support and that reading part.”
Not going anywhere
Heart House teachers are supported by AmeriCorps volunteers. It’s an area of concern for the organization, as the Trump Administration recently laid off over 1,000 AmeriCorps employees and slashed funding for thousands of programs. However, a federal district judge ordered the administration to restore AmeriCorps funding in early June, and Hendricks says the agencies that administer Heart House’s volunteer funding have been unaffected.
Despite the temporary reprieve, AmeriCorps still faces an uncertain future, and Hendricks says the organization would be forced to hire part-time staff to compensate for any potential loss of volunteers. Cuts to USDA food programs are also a concern as the organization relies on the funds to provide after-school snacks, she says.
Regardless of potential challenges and cuts facing the organization ahead of the upcoming school year, Hendricks says the need remains the same.
“These children are here, regardless of how they got here. They’re here and they are human lives, and we can help them now by repairing some of those pathways in their brain that have been damaged by the traumas that they’ve encountered in their lives. We can help them build their literacy skills, help their learning, help them learn coping mechanisms so they can become productive members of society, wherever they are. Or we can ignore that and put blame on their situation, not help them, not repair the damages that they’ve encountered so far, and they can become taxing members of society — the choice is ours.”
