Overjoyed: What $250,000 means for kids in this Fort Worth neighborhood
Over the past 10 years, the nonprofit Como Lion Hearts has helped thousands of children and youth get a head start on life.
But as the Como community has changed, including an influx of new residents in the west Fort Worth neighborhood, it has become increasingly difficult for the staff and volunteers to recognize and connect with the youth they serve. If you don’t know the children, it’s hard to determine what types of programs they need.
That’s about the change. Last week, the Fort Worth City Council approved $250,000 over three years through a program aimed at crime-prevention strategies.
Carol Brown was overjoyed when she learned about the funding for Como Lions Hearts, which she founded decades ago.
“It will allow us not to have to struggle to make things happen,” she said.
The money comes from the Crime Control and Prevention District Emerging Partners, funded by a sales tax.
Brown was a Como Community Center coordinator for 35 years before retiring in 2015. She founded Como Lions Heart in the early 1990s. It became an official nonprofit in 2015 to raise money for the community.
Como Lions Heart serves about 1,000 children in Como and surrounding neighborhoods.
The new funding will support its “Friday Night Lights” program that provides life-skills workshops, career guidance and a safe space for youth ages 5 to 25 at the Como Community Center. The program began as a Friday night event to provide local children with meals, speakers and an opportunity for staff to learn more about the youth.
Como Lions Heart is funded through small grants, donations and fundraisers. The new funding will allow them to provide more programming and reach more children in the community.
The group has a contract with Thank You Darlin’ Foundation, a nonprofit that empowers youth through literacy and arts, to provide etiquette and poetry classes that the grant can now pay for. Brown plans to bring in professional barbers for children, offer cooking classes to teach healthy nutrition and arrange college trips to expose participants to higher education opportunities.
Brown will also partner with another local Como nonprofit, Richelle’s Heart, for its “Next Step” program to explore career opportunities.
Parents interested in signing up their children for “Friday Night Lights” can go to the Como Community Center.
In a community that last year won Best Neighborhood in the Country at the Neighborhoods USA Conference in Lubbock, “Como is a family,” Brown says.
“We sometimes have differences, yes,” Brown says. “But as a family, we come together to make sure everyone is taken care of.”
