Featured: Marie’s Story

As we all know, Ellis County faces a shortage of affordable housing options for our residents. This crisis is exacerbated for many of our clients, who are newly-single parents and now facing a need to support their household alone while juggling work, childcare, and parenting. Most apartments in our area that offer units large enough for families and priced for lower income households have 3-6 month waiting lists, or more! So you can imagine our delight and surprise this March when we found an apartment complex in Waxahachie that had just opened availability for 2 and 3-bedroom units!

We had the perfect client in mind. After a successful round of services with the Heights stabilizing her domestic violence situation, our client Marie reached out to us again when she learned that her abuser was about to be released on parole. She needed a safe place to live urgently, as he would be returning to the house where she and her kids had been staying. When Marie and her kids saw the apartment, they knew this would be a perfect next spot where they could begin their lives again. The only catch? Competition was fierce for these coveted units and we needed to get her application in as quickly as possible.

Marie needed to come up with a significant security deposit to submit her application. If she couldn't come up with that money by the next day, the apartment would pass on to the next applicant. The stress was high, and Marie was not only at risk for her safety at home, but also risking disappointing her kids, who had grown quite excited about the on-site basketball court at the new complex!

Through our partnership with CarePortal, we have direct access to a generous community of churches, donors and concerned citizens. We put up an urgent request to help Marie fund the security deposit within 24-hours. Less than 6 hours later, our benevolent neighbors at Faith Fellowship answered the call! Between a combination of their benevolence fund and private donations, they raised the full amount and were able to meet Marie at the apartment complex the next day to deliver the money order and help Marie complete the application.

Marie was so happy and grateful to receive this level of support from total strangers, and the members of Faith Fellowship were able to offer encouragement and prayers directly to Marie and her kids when they all met at the apartment to transfer the funds.

It was a truly beautiful collaboration between partners, and one that made possible a whole new start for a sustainable life for this lovely family. Pictured above from left to right is The Heights Housing Coordinator Erika Allison, Faith Fellowship donor, and Marie.

2024 First Quarter Overview

It has been amazing to see the unprecedented growth of our organization over the last few months. We have five times the amount of staff members than when we first started. It was also great to see our new campus open up in November of 2023. We were able to renovate our first building in exactly one year from when we first began the process to pursue our 2230 Bryan Place property. Our second building completed renovations about 3 weeks ago and more of our partner agencies are moving in.

I am immensely proud of the hard work undertaken by The Heights Ellis County Family Resources staff. Our dedication to providing excellent care, meeting clients' needs, and guiding them toward safety and hope is unwavering. Exciting on-site partnerships are emerging, including Ellis Christian Women’s Job Corp, fostering personal and professional growth for women. I'm delighted to announce the collaboration with North Texas Behavioral Clinic, enhancing mental health support for clients and their families at The Heights Campus. Feel free to visit and witness the remarkable work firsthand. If you have any questions or concerns, my door is always open.

Jennifer Salzman, Executive Director

2024 First Quarter Services

The service team is made up of: Sharon Verigan, Advocacy Specialist, Nichole Marnell, Intake Navigator, Maria Garcia, our licensed counselor, Julie Burns, Chaplain to address spiritual needs, Julie Rogers our Children's Services Coordinator, and Erika Allison, our Housing Coordinator.

As the Service Director, it is an honor to be a part of a team that is taking crisis management, healing, and service to our community head on! The whole team takes the extra steps necessary to help our clients navigate the safest, most effective path to beginning a healthy fulfilling lifestyle they can sustain, despite the trauma they have endured. We have made strides in the past few months adding services for our clients through partnerships in our community. We have recently added service partnerships including, transportation, hotel, law enforcement support, salon, services, boutique services, extended psychology resources, housing partnerships, divorce coaching, and endless community outreach and awareness resulting in a beautiful outpouring of volunteers!

In February we were able to have our monthly pathways children’s events in conjunction with a women’s event for the moms! The big kids enjoyed a baking class in our kitchen hosted by a professional baker! The younger ones got creative, making Valentine’s Day boxes, as well as bracelets galore! Our moms were spoiled with a vision board event, put on by an amazing volunteer and partner, Brittany Cox with Dazzling Divas! The fellowship and smiles were infectious!

On March 18 we had our first Women’s event at our amazing facility! It was an evening of snacking, laughing, and shopping for Easter Church service and other gatherings!

Once again, Brittany Cox, owner of Dazzling Divas and wonderful volunteer for our onsite boutique, knocked it out of the park! She shopped for, encouraged, and poured into our amazing clients! Joy, one of our beloved Voices Committee volunteers was there to support and love on our women as well. We couldn’t do it without women like Brittany & Joy standing in the gap with us for these families! BIG thank you to Mary Kay Rep, Casi Hill, as well for donating our takeaway goodies! And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to our community of women who so generously donated clothing so this event could happen. Our clients were ready to celebrate Easter and feel great at the same time! The event was good for the soul!

We plan to have many more if you think you’d like to help with an event like this let us know!

We are on a mission to continue to work hard for our community and clients! We are committed to invest in securing a safe and hopeful environment for all the families in our community! 

Emma Sapp, Service Director

Partner Spotlight: CarePortal

If you read our featured story about Maria you heard about CarePortal, but this is not the only need that CarePortal helped The Heights with during the first quarter of 2024. They helped provide more than one client with deposits for transitional housing as well as providing clothing and other needs that clients in crisis needed. One of their donors even provided a DVD player for one family! We are grateful to be connected with them! Here is their story:

In December 2013, God inspired us with an idea to advance this vision by connecting kids in crisis with churches who can help. We knew that our nation’s most vulnerable children had a caseworker working directly with their family and advocating for their needs. And we knew that local churches, organizations, and community members had the desire and resources to serve those needs. We labored over an innovative way to connect these caring people, in real-time, through the help of technology, in order to expedite care and foster healthy outcomes for vulnerable children and families.

CarePortal was launched in 2015 by The Global Orphan Project, and since then, the platform has expanded across the nation engaging child welfare agencies, schools, pregnancy centers, churches, businesses, volunteer organizations, and more to facilitate local, proactive, and effective care for kids. It is through this collective impact that we are making real progress to reverse our nation’s foster care crisis and radically change the system, and our society, for the better. Here is how it works:

Step 1 – Uncovering needs

A child or family in need requires help from a child-serving professional like The Heights.

Step 2 – Submitting needs

The child-serving professional vets and types needs into the online CarePortal

Step 3 – Sharing needs

CarePortal alerts nearby churches and community members to needs

Step 4 – Meeting needs

Churches and community members partner to ensure that the child and family is helped.

You can learn more about CarePortal here.