Dive Brief:

• AT&T is launching Believe Dallas, an initiative to help the homeless in Dallas, with a special focus on homeless families and veterans.
• The company will split $565,000 among 11 Dallas-area homeless service providers. The largest portion will go to nonprofit OurCalling to create a new space for homeless women. The organization also will continue its work to help people get to the root cause of why they're homeless and to provide resources to overcome the challenges. 
• AT&T is matching its employees who are interested with opportunities for volunteering with homeless service providers. It also is collaborating with the Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative on second chance hiring.

Dive Insight:

Believe Dallas is a part of AT&T's larger company-wide initiative, AT&T Believes, which is intended to create positive change in communities. The company previously launched an initiative in Chicago that's focused on hiring and training people in communities heavily affected by gun violence, and another in New York City to help families protect their children online. 

Homelessness is a problem that cities often struggle to get a handle on by themselves. More municipalities are partnering with nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and the private sector to tackle the issue, and the Believe Dallas initiative includes all of those entities.

It also includes an element that more homelessness mitigation programs are adopting: finding the root causes of an individual's homelessness and addressing those issues rather than simply providing shelter. Portland State University recently created a research center in Portland, OR dedicated to homelessness and better understanding the root causes to help city leaders find better solutions.