Meet Dania Carter of Heart of Courage in Desoto

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dania Carter.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Dania. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
People often ask me where I got the idea for this organization. Honestly, the only answer I have is God placed this in my heart. I grew tired of hearing about the rising number of children being placed in foster care and seeing how it is becoming increasingly more acceptable for children to grow up without a parent in their life. Dallas County alone has well over thousand children currently in foster care. I wanted to try and make a difference in as many of these children lives as I could. I decided to step back and ask why can’t we help the mothers. I knew in my heart that were mothers out there that wanted to reconnect with their kids and fight to keep their kids. Hopefully, with our organizations support they can.

Behind every mother, there is a story. Some mothers have lost custody due to drug addiction, incarceration, domestic violence, mental health and even homelessness. Some have been products of the foster care system themselves. Our job is to find out what her story is and help to see that she has a future and she can create sustainable goals. To help them realize that they have a support system and people that believe in them. We want them to let go of the embarrassment that they are often times feeling and learn to change the situations that they are currently in. For example, if a mother does not have a high school diploma or GED, we want to help her pass that GED test so that she has a better chance of getting a job.

I was talking to a young lady recently, who had aged out of the foster care system. She was 23 had 2 kids and she told me her mother never fought for her. You could feel the anger and pain in her statement. The sad part is she is not the only person feeling that way. There are many kids who feel that same way. We want to change some of that. We want to help them to start to break cycles.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it has not been a smooth road. It has taken a lot of faith. I have been questioned on numerous occasions as to why would I want to help “those women”. I think people tend to not realize there is more to the story. They feel like the child is always better off and assume the child will be adopted or placed in a nice foster care home. This is not to say that that this will not happen. However, what about that child who desperately wants to be with their mother and that mother who is willing to do everything she needs to do to become a better mother to that child. Don’t they deserve a chance to be a family?

The other challenge has been finding funding. Being that we are a new nonprofit, it can sometimes be difficult to find grants that we are eligible to apply for. We have relied very heavily on support from our Board of Directors and friends and family. Now that the we are starting to get the word out about our organization, we hope to gain more support.

Our most current challenge has been just letting people know we are a resource for the community. Fortunately, we have begun to partner with some great organizations.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Heart of Courage – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Heart of Courage is a nonprofit organization that focuses on mentoring and advocating for women who have had their child placed in the Texas Foster Care System or CPS. The objective of Heart of Courage is to work with the mothers, the courts and child protective services to reunite these families and potentially change the future for both the mother and the child.

Heart of Courage is not for every woman wishing to be reunited with their child. It is established for the mother, who is determined to commit to making significant changes in their life. Heart of Courage maintains a high level of accountability with each mother that becomes a client of the program. This accountability includes check-ins with staff and/or mentor, following up on court dates and meetings with caseworkers and accomplishing every step of their individualized plan of action. The majority if not all of our mothers come from a lower socio-economic background with limited education, job support and family and social support. As a preventative measure, we also work with teenage mothers.

Heart of Courage provides a full array of wraparound services for each mother that enters our 12-month program. The programs include:

• Mentors for Courage (mentoring program)
• Heart Talk (parent peer support group)
• Job Readiness
• Educational support
• Advocacy, Education and Community Outreach program

Along with the above programs, monthly workshops will be hosted for the community and our clients that discuss such topics as, Financial Planning, Taking Care of Your Body (Inward and Outward), and Goal setting. The mothers along with other staff will also participate in community project that gives back to the community.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We have big plans for the future. We are still looking for an office space/meeting space. One plan that I would like to put in place in the very near future is to open up a coffee shop as part of our nonprofit business. The hopes is that the space will be big enough for us to host small workshops and parent support meetings. Computers will be set up so people can work on their resumes or search for jobs. The key factor is it will be a place for the mothers in our program to work while they are studying for their GED, taking classes or looking for the job they would like to build a career in. They would get paid an hourly fee and any remaining profits would go back into the nonprofit. Of course, it may take a year or two for those plans to come to fruition.

As soon as sufficient funds are secured, we do hope to acquire office space and in 2018 our goal is to serve at least 100 mothers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.heartcourage.org
• Phone: 972-920-6510
• Email: info@heartcourage.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heart_o_courage/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeartOCourage/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeartOCourage
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10684865/

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