Dwell With Dignity:  Empowering Families to Lead Their Best Lives

The mission of Dwell with Dignity is to help families escape poverty and homelessness.  They work with a wide group of organizations who work to help families work toward self-sufficiency.  But these great organizations often don’t have the resources to make a living space a home. And that’s where DwD comes in. 

Families in need are referred to DwD. They are provided with a fully furnished home. It’s complete with furniture, art, bedding, linens, kitchen supplies, food in the pantry and their first night’s meal.  This lifts a huge financial and time burden from the families served. They can focus on their job, their children, and their future.

The Transformative Power of Living Spaces on Mental Well-Being

Families served by DwD indeed show remarkable improvements in self-sufficiency and mental health. Adults living in a well-maintained home environment report a boost self-confidence.  Living in a better atmosphere encourages better financial management and supports sustained employment. And studies have shown that children living in well-designed spaces exhibit improved academic performance and behavior. A stable and stimulating environment helps in lowering toxic stress levels and fostering creativity. It also promotes social interactions such as play dates and family gatherings.

Every family that DwD helps becomes part of the Dwell With Dignity family. The families receiving DwD services are nominated by existing social service organizations working to help them in their struggle to attain self-sufficiency. Organizations approved by the DwD board must have accountability-based programs that address housing, education, career, finance, life skills and children’s needs.

The Stats Say it All

The families served by DwD say that living in a positive, healthy atmosphere boosts their personal self-confidence. And this helps them make other positive changes in their life.  100%managed to maintain independent housing, and became self-sufficient, without the need to return to the nominating agency for ongoing services.  100% of employed adults remained employed for 12 months or more.  And 95% of parents reported positive changes in their children’s overall behavior and academic performance.  92% of clients say they manage their finances better due to improved living conditions.

Dwell with Dignity’s Impact Extends To Commercial Facilities, Too

Beyond their work in individual’s homes DwD volunteer designers also put their skills to work to rehabilitate and revitalize commercial facilities. For example, the incredible nonprofit Community Does It serves a zip code that has the second-highest occurrence of behavioral health hospitalizations throughout all of North Texas. To help them better serve the people they represent, they desired a calming, rejuvenating facility for the mental health counseling services they provide. Together with the generous help of Amazon, DwD created their dream space in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood.

DwD’s annual pop-up shop provides financial viability for Dwell with Dignity by selling donated furniture, housewares, accessories and high-end designer finds to the public.  The shop displays and sells donated high-end home decor items sold at significant discounts. 100% of sales benefit DwD’s mission of bringing good design to those who can afford it the least.