Leadership ISD Heroes: Shawana Carter ('20)
The current health crisis has hurt millions of families throughout Texas. But it did nothing to diminish the dedication of these Heroes who stepped up to provide services and relief to those in need. Every week we will take this opportunity to celebrate and thank our Leadership ISD COVID-19 Heroes!
Shawana Carter
Dallas County, Class of 2020
Founder, Carter’s House
LISD: What are you and Carter’s House currently doing in response to COVID-19?
Shawana Carter (SC): Carter’s House is a nonprofit that specializes in clothing banks for children. When COVID-19 kicked off in Mid-March around spring break, we literally got put out of our building. When they closed the buildings for the public, that meant I couldn't do any work. I have a friend who runs another nonprofit, Philippa Williams, she gave me a space in her office, and we partnered together, and we started hosting diaper distributions. Philippa does it every month, she's the diaper diva, so I jumped in with her and we do diapers as well, newborn to 18 (months). When I realized that we could no longer do clothing, until we figured out how long the virus lives on clothes, I still wanted to make sure we took care of my young babies. What we've done is we host our diaper distribution in South Dallas at Park South YMCA. We’ve built a relationship with Ms. Rodrigua Ross and Carter’s House actually has a storage inside of their building so we asked if we could use the parking lot to distribute diapers. The first diaper distribution, we (Carter’s House and ilooklikeLOVE) gave out almost 16,000 diapers to about 300 families. That was an indicator of how great the need is, especially because I don't [exclusively] do diapers. I didn't realize that it was similar to how people couldn’t find tissue. Much like people weren’t able to find toilet tissue, families weren’t able to find diapers. So we saw people from every walk of life in line, and it wasn't because they didn't have money, it was because the couldn’t find diapers.
LISD: HOW HAS LEADERSHIP ISD PREPARED YOU FOR THIS MOMENT?
SC: Even though I've done this work with Carter’s House for 7 years, this was a lesson learned in regard to equity and those that are forgotten in our marginalized communities intensified and it’s like, so nobody's going to make sure these kids knew what they need? I knew that a majority of our kids don’t have internet. I know that. And so I knew that wasn’t my platform. I had to ask myself, what can I do? Where do I fit? How I can help? And this is what came out of that. I think a lot of that was after learning more in depth about the communities in Dallas that are marginalized and forgotten. And people just assuming and going on about their business without realizing that these families don't have the disposable income to go to the store repeatedly they don't have access to transportation to get to a grocery store to buy a box of diapers and it was those things that made me think, ok, these babies and these moms and these families are being ignored. So, after everything we've gone through in our fellowship, especially with the lessons and everything, all classes, my first thought was about food and how these families would eat. And so, my first thought was, who's going to help your community and where everybody forgets that they still need stuff. And this is where we jumped in. So that was kind of my preparation. Don't forget the community that I serve and remember these are their needs and this is what you see.
LISD: WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE TO OTHERS WHO WANT TO TAKE ACTION IN THIS TIME OF CRISIS?
SC: I always advise people to figure out where the need is. Figure out where the part that plugs at your heart is and get involved. So figure out if your piece is that you are concerned about kids eating food, find a food bank. Find a school district that needs help passing out phones. Don't start a service if it's not something you're going to do after this event is over, there is no need to do that. I need you to find somewhere that you can jump in and be involved. And sometimes your being involved is simply sharing the cause. Of course we want you to write checks, but sometimes you can share a word and somebody else will write the check. Spread the word, repost a video, repost a post, see what volunteer opportunities are available. Figure out where you fit and how you can get involved. There are even virtual opportunities that you can engage in and get involved. So search your heart and figure out what it is that you can do and build from that.
To learn more about Carter’s House, visit www.cartershouse.org.
