Storytelling
Vision Regeneration
“It was very moving to see the end results of their efforts on kids who have gotten off on the wrong track, hearing them talk about their past versus today. That made an indelible mark and sold me into the value of the cause.” – Dick Evans, Lead Partner
Youth prisons, at-risk children, kids on street corners in gang colors—while the area of South Dallas might make some cringe in fear, for Omar Jahwar, this location is perfect. Omar, the Executive Director of Vision Regeneration, worked in youth prisons for years trying to break the cycle of youth violence in Dallas. When he kept seeing the same kids return to prison after they’d been released, he knew something was wrong. “I realized there was a disconnect with the issue [of gang violence],” he says. It was then that he started VR, an organization that focuses on gang intervention in Dallas youth. “Vision Regeneration directly addresses youth-at-risk, but also has a very strong educational bent,” says Bob Wright, a lead partner for VR. “They are so involved with gang control in the school. They are also educational in the sense of demonstrating alternatives to gang memberships to kids.”
Bob says that his most vivid memory is a tour of south Dallas, getting an idea of the area that VR is affecting. “It’s a view of Dallas very few people get,” Bob says. With VR’s help, kids’ lives are being turned around. In fact, Bob says that some former gang members go back to speak with kids in the community. “[T]hey now have the respect of the gangs, because the gangs remember them for who they are, but they’ve completely turned their lives around,” says Bob. “What makes the program work is the respect these kids have on the street, but the message [now] is hope.”
Dick Evans, another lead partner for VR, says that hearing the reformed youth speak to the community helped him make up his mind about working with VR. “It was very moving to see the end results of their efforts on kids who have gotten off on the wrong track, hearing them talk about their past versus today,” Dick says. “That made an indelible mark and sold me into the value of the cause.”
When Omar started VR 11 years ago, he did everything himself. According to Bob, it was truly a grassroots organization. “[VR] began as a program where it was very focused on gang intervention and operated on a shoestring,” he says. “Omar was the evangelist, bookkeeper, everything. DSVP’s focus has been able to lift Omar out of the day-to-day, so he has been the face and evangelist of the organization with others involved.”
DSVP’s involvement has been invaluable, says Omar. “They’ve taken us from grassroots, helped formalize our techniques, contacts, and helped expand our vision,” he says. “They said it can be replicated and sustained long after I’m gone.” For Omar, DSVP’s partnership has helped him to strategically “connect the dots.” “Because of [DSVP], I’m putting on a major conference—I couldn’t have done it without them.”
The funding from DSVP has allowed VR to not only host the conference, but also sustain operations, provide training for Omar through SMU Cox Business School, and, according to Omar, has created a process that will “open doors to those who don’t know us,” to help VR financially.
While the funding is very much appreciated, Omar says that some of the most valued assistance has come in the form of DSVP partners’ expertise and collaboration. “I’ve learned more formal business etiquette,” he says. “How to go from concept to actualization of the mission.” Omar also says that DSVP’s model makes perfect sense. “I think that social entrepreneurship is a natural partner with business entrepreneurship,” he says. “The marketing principles that people use to create great businesses have great value in the social sector.”
Dick says that VR is unique in how they interact with the assistance from DSVP. Instead of simply taking the money, Dick says that VR really appreciates the involvement. “VR is the typical low socio-economic model," he says. “I don’t think the money is as important. There’s a true appreciation. You really sense a kindred spirit—a true appreciation that you’re doing something very important for them.”
The partnership between VR and DSVP is a good match, says Bob. “The fact is that VR is in our wheelhouse in terms of what we do really well,” he says. “Our most successful investments are where we can insert our organizational capacity in terms of our financial contributions so the programs can flow more naturally. We’ve given Omar the opportunity to do that.”
Bob agrees with Omar that DSVP is an efficient model for philanthropy. “The combination of the [nonprofit sector and for-profit sector] or the cross-pollination of business and nonprofit has tremendous potential,” he says. “There’s so much to be gained [for nonprofits] by adopting business practices; like how you provide for the advancement of people, how to quantify your outcomes, how you use those outcomes to raise more money, forge alliances with other organizations to bring greater resources to bear on the organization…there are so many opportunities for leverage of the combination of the two.”
As for educating other partners and the community about VR, Bob and Dick have a strong message. “I want them to realize the significance of the work of VR,” says Bob. “How critical the need is for VR. Right here in our own backyard there is a tremendously disparate distribution of opportunity.”
“Their message is so important to all of us and it touches so many other dimensions of youth today,” says Dick. “Their program addresses youth with drugs—their message can affect so many lives if people were more aware. It is a great way for people to hear and see the model of kids who’ve been saved by themselves.”
The transformation is the message—not only for the kids, but for those who’ve worked with them and have been affected by them. “That’s why we do this, right?” says Bob. “We talk about the transformation of our nonprofits, but what happens is the people are transformed. There’s no question of transformation. It keeps you connected to hope. It keeps you humble in your own skin. It makes you realize how privileged we may be, and how uneven opportunity is distributed. Who’s doing the things that really matter? Me, who sits in an office focusing on the bottom line, or Omar, who works on lives on person at a time?”
