Update:
2:11 p.m. Sept. 3, 2024: Updated to reflect the community center reopened Tuesday.
Here’s what to know about For Oak Cliff
The community center reopened Tuesday after a Dallas police officer was killed outside of it days earlier
The For Oak Cliff community center, a staple of the area since its founding a decade ago, reopened Tuesday after three Dallas police officers were shot outside of it days before.
Darron Burks, 46, was killed and the two other officers, Senior Cpls. Jamie Farmer and Karissa David, were injured but expected to survive.
Here’s what to know about For Oak Cliff:
Promoting education and social mobility
For Oak Cliff is a nonprofit that aims to increase “social mobility and social capital” for community members, according to the organization’s website.
It was co-founded in 2014 by Taylor Toynes and his fourth-grade class at W.W. Bushman Elementary School. As a teacher, Toynes saw that many of his students didn’t have access to school supplies, and he wanted to do something about it.
Each year, For Oak Cliff hosts a “Back to School” festival, distributing school resources to thousands of community members who need them.
At the 10th annual festival hosted earlier this month, For Oak Cliff distributed 4,000 backpacks and served over 1,500 families, the organization’s website said.
But the nonprofit does not just distribute school supplies. For Oak Cliff has also organized food drives. And those who want to achieve a high school diploma can enroll in GED programs they offer.
Recent expansion
Since it began, For Oak Cliff’s efforts have expanded dramatically. On Juneteenth in 2021, the nonprofit opened a 10-acre campus at the former Moorland YMCA building on Ledbetter Drive.
The new space, where For Oak Cliff is still based, was five times the size of the nonprofit’s old stomping grounds in Glendale Shopping Center.
Three hundred people attended the branch’s grand opening, The Dallas Morning News reported at the time.
“We are able to leave a legacy for those that come behind us,” Toynes told The News in 2021. “I feel like what we are doing here in the community, it’s a chain reaction, because now someone now has the foundation of this to stand on and dream as big as they want to.”
