{"id":470923,"date":"2026-10-19T22:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470923\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T22:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:00:11","slug":"esperanza-community-center-opens-in-former-risd-school-richardson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470923\/","title":{"rendered":"Esperanza Community Center opens in former RISD school | Richardson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascounty.org\/government\/comcrt\/district2\/esperanza-community-center.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Esperanza Community Center at Dobie<\/a> is now providing social and medical services in Richardson ISD\u2019s former Dobie Pre-Kindergarten School.<\/p>\n<p>The center, which officially opened Oct. 15, houses a senior center, food pantry, medical clinics, childcare and other resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis neighborhood is one of the most vibrant communities in Dallas with huge, huge potential,\u201d said Jaynie Schultz, a former Dallas City Council member. \u201cDone well, we can help thousands of young people build strong and healthy futures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The big picture<\/p>\n<p>RISD <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/richardson\/education\/school-consolidation-closures-could-save-richardson-isd-nearly-half-of-expected-28m-shortfall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">closed<\/a> Dobie Pre-K ahead of the 2025-26 school year as part of Project RightSize, which aimed to reduce the district\u2019s budget shortfall.<\/p>\n<p>After Dobie closed, Andy Sommerman, Dallas County commissioner for District 2, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascounty.org\/government\/comcrt\/district2\/esperanza-community-center.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">directed<\/a> $4 million in Economic and Community Development funding to create the resource center. The center\u2019s purpose is to provide care from \u201cwomb to tomb\u201d for the surrounding Esperanza neighborhood, which has an average income of less than $50,000 per household, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe took a school and gave it a new chapter,\u201d Sommerman said.<\/p>\n<p>Services include pre-natal care, childcare, mental healthcare, medical care and dentistry, as well as a food pantry, senior center and educational resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Esperanza\u2019 means hope and hope belongs here,\u201d Sommerman said.<\/p>\n<p>A closer look<\/p>\n<p>Community service providers at Esperanza include:<\/p>\n<p>Additional programs include a community garden, a free after-school program run by <a href=\"https:\/\/bigthought.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Big Thought<\/a> and an RISD Family Literacy program.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Ervin, Dallas County District 2 chief of staff, said the district\u2019s partnership with RISD was crucial to opening the center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Esperanza Community Center would not exist if the Richardson Independent School District did not believe in and embrace this vision as well,\u201d Ervin said.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Jasso, RISD\u2019s assistant superintendent of district operations, said the social and medical services offered at Esperanza are necessary to help students succeed in school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know that learning doesn\u2019t happen in a vacuum,\u201d Jasso said.<\/p>\n<p>Quote of note<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver 50 years ago, Barbara Jordan asked us to close the gap between the promise and the reality of liberty and justice for all,\u201d Ervin said. \u201cHopefully, Esperanza Community Center can bring change to this community so that we can begin to make that promise a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Esperanza Community Center at Dobie is now providing social and medical services in Richardson ISD\u2019s former Dobie Pre-Kindergarten&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[146984,11176,581,159788,159787,160,162,161,159789,5810],"class_list":["post-470923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-andy-sommerman","tag-community-center","tag-dallas-county","tag-dobie-pre-kindergarten-school","tag-esperanza-community-center","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-project-rightsize","tag-richardson-isd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}