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As Adrian Baker feasted on ham, potatoes and green beans at a holiday party in the Roseland Townhomes, he surveyed everything that changed since the nonprofit Behind Every Door took over the community center he was sitting in.
For years, the giant building at the heart of the sprawling Dallas Housing Authority complex in Old East Dallas was hollow and rarely used — an invitation for the community’s kids to misbehave.
“A lot of people were getting in trouble,” Baker, 22, said. “It wasn’t good.”
“When they came, a lot more positive stuff started happening. Everybody came together,” Baker said. “I look back at the progress, it’s good. It’s good.”
The faith-based nonprofit is celebrating its 10th anniversary of helping multi-generational families in low-income communities — and its second year at Roseland. The nonprofit conceived by five Dallas couples aims to provide a bevy of resources and fun to families in the communities they serve, including tutoring, field trips and counseling.
The nonprofit got its start working in two privately owned apartment complexes, Willow Pond, now known as The Hive, and Village Oaks. In the beginning, the organization had a small footprint. At Willow Pond, it worked out of a three-bedroom apartment.
“We just opened the doors to kids after school and started figuring it out how to love kids,” said Suzanne Wallace, one of the founders and first community directors.
Since then, it has partnered with Dallas Housing Authority after a coalition of churches in the area surveyed the community on its needs.
“It’s one thing to target the child,” said Cierra Cotton, the community director at Roseland. “But if the whole household isn’t helped, there’s only so far that child can go.”
Each community has its own unique services and events, as well.
At Roseland, there is a children’s choir and dance club, a basketball league and a beauty pageant. Several of the recurring programs were created by people who live in the community, not Behind Every Door.
Cotton said it is important for the community to have ownership in what’s offered at the rec center, which is known as the Rose.
“Most people want to feel like they own something and are doing something to make their community better,” she said. “It’s their community, their programs. We’re just there to love them through it.”
For the staff at Behind Every Door, this has been perhaps been its most transformative and heart-breaking year: The organization closed it first two locations, began operation in a new community, and turned its attention to a major expansion in southern Dallas.
All the while, the staff helped the Roseland community mourn the death of three children who were killed in shootings over the year. Two 17-year-olds, Gregory Horton III and Zacchaeus Banks, were shot to death June 30 in a drive-by while they were at the community center.
A month and a half later, 9-year-old Brandoniya Bennett was killed as she was sitting in her home as a 19-year-old shot into the wrong apartment in a feud with another rapper, police say.
The Rose became a “mini-grief center,” Cotton said. Food and counseling were made available to the community after each incident.
“They’ve been here for the kids. Our kids are the ones struggling with it,” said Aquetta “Gigi” Coleman. Coleman both lives at Roseland and is a Behind Every Door employee. “They’re still not over it. They’re still missing Brandoniya.”
Kesheon Johnson, 19, received extra support from Behind Every Door. He was shot in the leg at the time Horton and Banks were killed.
“They’ve been here since the accident happened,” Johnson said. “I got love for them. They took care of me when I was hurt.”
It wasn’t the first time Johnson benefited from Behind Every Door. Since the group set up at The Rose, Kesheon has been an active member. He’s played basketball in the gymnasium, gone on field trips. And when he was struggling during freshman year in college, the staff at Behind Every Door helped get him on track.
“They’re some good people,” Johnson said. “They respect everybody.”
It’s the kind of personalized help Beyond Every Door hopes to provide to each member of its communities.
“I think 2019 showed us the power and potential the community has,” Cotton said. “There are a lot of parents who have big dreams for the kids. And the more we’re able to engage them, the more we’re able to offer them opportunities to reach their goals and their dreams.”