Foundation for Community Empowerment

In 1995, Don Williams, then Chairman of Trammell Crow Company, founded the Foundation for Community Empowerment to develop an asset-based, comprehensive renewal initiative in the low-income neighborhoods of Southern Dallas. Focusing its initial efforts on the South Dallas Fair Park area, FCE’s goal was to create, in collaboration with community-based schools and churches, a successful model of redevelopment that can be replicated throughout the Southern sector.

FCE's asset-based programmatic work is focused in three areas: Community Development, Education and Social Capital Development. With a major emphasis on capacity building, their role varies as they strive to serve as a facilitator and catalyst to encourage empowerment, innovation, collaboration and coordination in community revitalization efforts. Their activities include providing technical assistance, coalition building/collaboration support, and grant making to support capacity development efforts with our partners.

The Foundation for Community Empowerment was awarded a 2003 Compassion Capital Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. The grant is for three years, with the first year’s award totaling $578,892. With this grant, the FCE Compassion Capital Fund Program will focus on supporting faith-based and community-based organizations (FBOs and CBOs) providing services to those in need in the city of Dallas, TX. The goal of the program is to increase the ability of Dallas-based FBOs and CBOs to serve the residents of our city who live in lower-income neighborhoods and to increase their ability to compete more effectively for private and public resources through capacity-building activities and support.

FCE worked with a number of partners in Dallas to establish a CDC Core Operating Support and Capacity Building Fund. This fund was established with the support of fifteen donor partners, with funding commitments totaling $2.5 million. The City of Dallas Housing Department is a member of the Fund, as it invests a significant portion of its CDC funding in line with the grant making of the Fund.