COMMUNITY SERVICE
MAKE A DIFFERENCE THROUGH
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Our Community Service Team identifies, educates and inspires our community to engage in compassionate service. There are ample opportunities for each of us to reach out, step up, and BE LOVE in action in the greater Dallas area. Look for these opportunities throughout the year and make a difference. You can also sign-up to be informed as opportunities come up by emailing Community Service.
Murushasha Community School
CSLDallas and Spirit Tours partner to fully support the Murushasha Community School in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. This community school is located in the area of the world where Mountain Gorillas live. Rev Karen Fry went on a gorilla trek in March 2022. Afterward, her guide took her to this community school and asked her to personally sponsor 6 children so they could stay in school. At the time, this school had 40 students.
CSLDallas raises funds to support new buildings, classrooms, benches, latrines, teachers’ pay, and more so these children have a place to learn. In addition, people have chosen to sponsor students so they can stay in school, have lunch provided for them each day, and have a uniform to wear. This only costs $120 per year, per student. Collectively, we are currently sponsoring 19 scholars.
Because we are now sponsoring students, the number of students in the school has grown from 40 to 200 because their parents and the children themselves are hoping that they, too, can be sponsored. Together, we can build this school up, ensure the teachers have better compensation, and students are able to attend school in an area of great need in Uganda.
Thanks to this community school, the students do not have to walk 3-hours, one way in the mountains to attend the closest governments subsidized school.
Thank you to everyone that is supporting this project!
Our Initiatives
Gooch Elementary
We have been a Community Partner for this DISD school for over 12 years. Gooch serves children who attend in brilliant ways, beginning with calling them scholars so they have their eyes set on college. 65% of their scholars are in a family that lives below the poverty line. Our community is passionate about supporting them. Every year we collect funds to assist in funding at least 100 school uniforms. We also raise funds to provide at least 100 Thanksgiving Baskets to ensure their families get to enjoy this holiday together in a special way. We have also built gardens, provided mentors, supported their annual carnival, and painted the playground equipment. We continue to evolve our ongoing relationship with this amazing school and support their scholars and families.
CSLDallas is proud to have been named Outstanding Faith-Based Partner 2015-2016 by DISD. Here’s what they wrote: CSLDallas, a Center for Spiritual Living described as diverse, radically inclusive, “not your-usual church.” And for more than ten years, Rev Karen, Dr Petra, and CSLDallas have partnered with Gooch Elementary School, supporting a positive community culture at the school. This year alone they have donated hundreds of personalized school uniforms, provided for families at-risk, and assisted with other school needs. [Then] Principal Karen Ashmore and Counselor Valerie Smith credit this partnership as an integral part of increased academic progress at Gooch Elementary School.
Nonprofit Partners
We provide financial support and volunteer hours to our Nonprofit partners throughout the year and for special projects. To find out who our Annual Nonprofit Partners are CLICK HERE.
“It is quite a burden lifted when we realize we do not have to move the world – it is going to move anyway. This realization does not lessen our duty or our social obligation. It clarifies it. It enables us to do joyously, and free from morbidity, that which we should do in the social state.”
– Ernest Holmes
Green Community
CSLDallas is a green community. We practice this in our kitchens, offices, and around our entire campus. We also inspire our community members to take up a green consciousness in their homes workplaces, and while they are out and about in their daily lives.