After-school outreach works to break cycles of poverty and crime

FORT WORTH, Texas - Hope Farm's Como campus is ready to ramp up enrollment.

Since mid-April, seven boys from Ft. Worth's Como neighborhood have been learning the ins and outs of becoming successful young men in the nonprofit's recently built center.

Hope Farm has "taken it kind of slow" in Como, located in north central Texas, said executive director Sacher Dawson. But now the nonprofit is settled into a new 7,200 square-foot school, and the organization is ready to increase enrollment. The after-school program in Como wants as many as 70 young boys, Dawson said. Hope Farm is dedicated to breaking cycles of poverty and crime by building the academic, social and spiritual character of young men.

The only requirement for young men in Hope Farm is that they not have a father in the home. That's likely the case for many boys in the Como area, Dawson said.

"We know there has been a need over here," he said after a tour of the Como center with a group of volunteers. "I've been more worried about finding teachers than finding boys, honestly."

Since the 1990s, Hope Farm has focused on boys living in neighborhoods south of downtown Ft. Worth and east of Interstate 35W. The primary campus made headlines earlier this year when a University of Texas-Southwestern study listed the area as having the shortest life expectancy in Texas, at 66.7 years.

That age is far lower than the state's 78.5 year average, according to the study.

A few years ago, the organization opened a Como center in a small house, but Dawson said they quickly outgrew the space.

The Como center is not nearly as large as the Morningside campus, which is spread across a few blocks with a garden and large gym. But that campus is limited to 60 boys. The Como school can handle as many as 80, though Dawson said the number should stay closer to 70.

There's plenty of space in the building. Four classrooms provide space for after-school tutoring and mentoring to kindergarten through high school boys. They learn public speaking and critical thinking skills, along with reading comprehension and financial literacy.

Around eighth grade, the boys receive a career aptitude test that allows Hope Farm teachers to connect them with possible career mentoring.

The building also has a large banquet hall and kitchen so the boys get a hot meal before going home in the evening. Dawson said Hope Farm would like to purchase some adjacent land to build a "beautiful playground the boys in Morningside can be envious of."