Houston Nonprofit’s Initiative on Incubating Empathy Is Awarded a $75K Investment from Fondren Foundation

Program Aims to Leverage Compassion for Change

Houston, April 9 - A Houston nonprofit known for its innovative Juvenile Justice Diversion program was awarded a $75,000 grant from the Fondren Foundation to support establishing an initiative dedicated to using tools of empathy to address the toughest challenges communities can face. The Center for Urban Transformation will train a corps of Fifth Ward residents and community stakeholders in deep empathy tools to facilitate conflict transformation across key issues critical to Fifth Ward and to Houston.

The Center’s empathy initiative seeks to build skills in community members – from residents to frontline workers – to address divisions, repair harm, and mentor others. These skills are in high demand, not just when it comes to addressing conflict and public safety, but also for building bridges where there are divisions such as those between family members, landlords and tenants, or between healthcare providers and those who might be skeptical of medical advice.

“It is clearer than ever that we as a City – and as a country – need ways to overcome our divisions to protect our future,” says Reverend Harvey Clemons, the Center’s Board Chair and Founder. “We need tools to help grow the bonds of society more tightly, instead of watching in sadness as it unravels. In this moment of reforming how our nation deals with racial inequities across criminal justice, health, economic opportunity, and more, we have an opportunity to build an alternative that responds to injustice and violence with compassion and deep healing.”

This investment from the Fondren Foundation will build organizational capacity, including to develop systems to match these trained volunteers with opportunities to be part of community work in health and other areas, facilitate restorative justice circles in the Juvenile Justice Diversion program and in the community, and to use these compassionate communication tools to mentor youth and adults one-on-one.

Ultimately, the Center aims to establish a robust, community-wide corps of trained empathy-based facilitators that not only help improve the quality of life in the Fifth Ward, but also in turn train and build skills in greater Houston, leading the charge in incorporating empathy in innovative ways, and earning income doing so.

Contact: Leah Wolfthal lwolfthal@fwtransformation.org