This Nonprofit Works with Designers to Change People's Lives
Several years ago, Trista, a veteran whose military career was cut short by an injury, was living with her daughters in her late grandfather's crumbling home in Texas without running water or indoor plumbing. Though she had a job, its salary wasn't enough to maintain the house, so the family shared their home with bugs who made their way in through the eroded walls.
After a referral from nonprofit Rebuilding Together Greater Dallas, Trista is living in what she calls "my happy place," a new Dallas home (shown above) designed specifically for her and her children.
This is thanks to Dwell with Dignity, a Dallas nonprofit that celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The organization was the brainchild of Lisa Robinson, a designer who had taken time off from professional work to raise her kids. When her youngest started kindergarten, Robinson was ready to take on creative projects again-but wasn't so drawn to the intensity of the kind of high-end work she'd been doing. Around that time, she heard a lecture by the president of Habitat for Humanity and something clicked: "I thought: This is what I could do; I could take interiors, that gift, and transform it into something really incredible," Robinson tells House Beautiful.
For her birthday that year, instead of a gift, Robinson asked her husband for seed money to start Dwell with Dignity. "At the beginning, I thought I’d just fund as many projects as I could manage per year," Robinson says. "But I quickly found out that if we shared the idea with the design community, there was so much support, if I could turn this into a public charity where we were able to better support it, we could build the infrastructure to help more families.
The concept worked: In the ten years since then, the company-a registered 501(c)(3)-has completed more than 130 projects, thanks to the generosity of the design community. They're on track to complete 20 more this year. The organization works with other non-profits-the Genesis Women's Shelter, New Friends New Life, and Promise House, to name a few-to find women who are on track to successfully complete their programs and then gives them the best possible aid in maintaining their success: a home.
"As a designer, I truly believe the place you come home to is so integral to how you live your life," says Dallas designer Denise McGaha, who sits on the organization's board. McGaha has long been passionate about supporting women and children's causes, so Dwell with Dignity's mission spoke to her early on. "When I heard about this, something helping women and children escaping violence and creating beautiful spaces for them, I knew I wanted to be involved," she says.
Besides her work on the board, McGaha has volunteered at the organization's main fundraiser, Thrift Studio. The annual event, which raises around 40 percent of Dwell with Dignity's annual funding, sees designers creating vignettes from donated furniture, which the public can shop for a month each spring. The tenth-annual Thrift Studio opens this Friday. The offerings, McGaha assures, are designer-approved: "Right now as I speak to you, I’m in my bedroom sitting in a chair, looking at a bed and a chest all from Thrift Studio," the designer says. Robinson, too, counts at least a couple items in every room of her home as Thrift Studio finds.
Though Dwell with Dignity's prolific on-staff designer, Terica Cunningham, oversees most of the projects, other Dallas designers supportive of the organization's cause have stepped in to work on some of its homes.
House Beautiful Next Wave designer Jean Liu created an apartment for a single mother and son six years ago. "We did not get to meet them, but we knew he was 7 and he loved soccer, so we did a space that was colorful for her to have a cheery place to come home to, and then we incorporated soccer elements into his room," Liu recalls. "We wanted it to be approachable and not over-designed, but we agreed it needed to be colorful so they could come home to a bright and cheery space." Pops of turquoise, green, and orange did the trick.
In what might seem like a minute detail, Liu recalls one last-minute addition after install: "We put an umbrella stand in and filled it with umbrellas. Such a small thing, but how frustrating would it be to have to go to work in the rain and not have an umbrella. We wanted it to be one less thing they have to worry about at this phase of life."
This holistic attitude is Dwell with Dignity's forté: "They do everything," says McGaha. "They stock the refrigerator. They give everything you need in your pantry. It’s all these things we take for granted."
After all, Liu says, "I really do believe that-and I think this notion is shared by a lot of the design community-if you can come home to a space where you feel happy and healthy and secure, that really changes your outlook and your confidence to go out into the world and work on the other aspects of your life that are in need of improvement."
Plus, Robinson points out, a move during the school year results in children falling, on average, six months behind. "When you only have a blow-up mattress on the floor, if you can save $100 by moving across town, you might do that. When you have roots and a home, and everyone has a bedroom, it’s harder to pick up and move," she says. "So our families stay. They don’t move until they’re able to find something really upwardly mobile."
"So many of these children have been transient," McGaha says. "And that's what this organization does really well: It creates stability. It empowers women and children by giving them the power that comes with your own space."
It's a feeling Trista and her family know well: "Being in this home as allowed me to provide a safe, inviting space for my girls," she says. "They are always asking if friends can come over or spend the night. Seeing the smiles on their face and hearing the laughter coming from their room is pure joy. They have improved with their grades, and I know for sure being able to get a good night sleep has been one reason."
The kitchen, Trista notes, is the central hub of the home. "Knowing that when friends and family come over, they are receiving love from my cooking has inspired and opened my girls into wanting to study culinary," she says. "My youngest daughter is always in the kitchen creating something. She wants to open her own crêpe shop."
As for her own well-being, Trista says, "When we moved back into our new home, my life would never be the same. It gave me the confidence to keep pushing forward towards my goals. It has allowed me to get to know myself and discover who I am."
Proof: Shortly after moving into the new house, Trista was promoted at work and got married-in the backyard of her home.
"Home has become a happy place of dreams, inspiration, and, most important, love," she says.
Tickets to the 10th annual Thrift Studio to support Dwell with Dignity are available now.
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