Alley’s House

Teenage mothers who walk into Alley’s House enter a portal of hope. Formed in 1997, the organization exists to empower teen mothers and their children to achieve independence through support services, education, and mentoring. The vision of Alley’s House is to break the generational, economic, and social impact of teen pregnancy in the community.

The services, which are offered free to pregnant and parenting teens aged 13 to 21, include academic tutoring, career counseling, computer and office training, life skills development, and mentoring for support and guidance. Without help, teen mothers typically drop out of school and pass on a cycle of poverty to their children. With Alley’s House, they cross the threshold to a successful life.

To learn more, visit the Alley’s House website.

*Alley’s House teaches each client the necessary life skills to be self-sufficient.*

Agape Clinic

The Agape Clinic, housed in the basement of Grace Church, was started in 1983 to serve the health care needs of the immigrant population surrounding the church. Bobbie Baxter, M.D., Charles Kemp, FNP, FAAN, volunteer physicians, nurse practitioners, and others serve patients four days a week. Services include immunizations for children, treatment for chronic and short-term illness, laboratory tests, and such specialty care as psychiatry, dermatology, asthma, women’s health, neurology, and pediatrics.

When the clinic opened, patients were examined in spaces partitioned with sheets in basement classrooms. In 1996, a capital campaign provided funds to renovate the basement. The renovation created a 2,500-square-foot, five-exam-room facility complete with a small pharmacy and waiting room. Today the clinic serves more than 3,500 patients yearly and maintains partnerships with area universities and other community organizations to provide Agape patients with primary care, specialty care, social services, and community health events such as mammography screenings.

The value of services provided by the clinic exceeds $3.5 million a year. Patients make donations as they are able. The remaining operating funds are provided by individual donors, foundations, and other organizations.

*Agape Clinic serves the health-care needs of low-income citizens.*

Legal Clinic

On the third Thursday of each month, the Fellowship Hall at Grace Church becomes a legal clinic where the Dallas Bar Association offers pro bono legal aid to eligible low-income citizens of every race and age. Each session, 30 individuals are offered legal help for civil issues ranging from family law and custody to bankruptcy and restraining orders.

The clinic was opened at Grace Church in the 1980s. At one point, the church was the only place outside city courts where a sitting judge could hear and rule on civil cases. Court is no longer held here, but pro bono attorneys meet with clients one on one and take their cases or refer them to the main offices of Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, which administers the clinic.

Grace Church offers free space for the legal clinic, the only oneof its kind in East Dallas. — Grace Church offers free space for the legal clinic, the only one
of its kind in East Dallas.

Bonhoeffer House

In a small house adjacent to Grace Church, a group of seminary students practice a monastic discipline as old as Christianity and as fresh as the twenty-first century. They live and worship together while pouring themselves into serving the poor in their neighborhood.

Grounded in early Christian monastic traditions and Methodist doctrine, Bonhoeffer House fosters a contemplative lifestyle, holding members accountable for their own spiritual growth and intention to live out the gospel. The group actively interacts with their East Dallas neighbors, hosting weekly community dinners and offering their spiritual, emotional, and physical support for neighbors in need.

Grace Church supports the Bonhoeffer House’s neighborhood ministry with housing, contributions, and volunteers. — Grace Church supports the Bonhoeffer House’s neighborhood ministry
with housing, contributions, and volunteers.