Texas Bar Foundation Grant to Fund Creative Solutions

By Mario Tarradell, Public Relations & Marketing Manager

We thank the generosity of the Texas Bar Foundation. Big Thought has received a $10,000 grant from the Austin-based Texas Bar Foundation to fund Creative Solutions, a 20-year program that utilizes professional teaching artist mentors and a research-based curriculum to enhance empathy, critical thinking, teamwork skills and grit in teen probates.

“We are so grateful to the Texas Bar Foundation for their generous gift to Creative Solutions,” says Lisa Schmidt, Creative Solutions Founder. “Creative Solutions has made a huge difference in the lives of so many young people. This gift insures that we continue to keep this program strong and viable.”

Creative Solutions is a 20-year partnership with the Dallas County Juvenile Department that benefits from the generous support of the DCJD Juror’s Fund/Youth Services Advisory Board; Grant Thornton, LLP; the M.R. & Evelyn Hudson Foundation; Neiman Marcus; Texas Commission on the Arts – Arts Respond; the W.P. & Bulah Luse Foundation, Bank of America, N.A.; and the Elizabeth Toon Charities.

The program has revealed the potential of more than 10,000 students in the last two decades. According to the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS) analysis over the past two summers: 41 percent of youth increased their social skills score by more than 5 percent; and 40 percent of youth decreased their problem behaviors score by more than 5 percent. Both figures are considered statistically significant.

The Texas Bar Foundation grant to fund Creative Solutions marks the beginning of a new relationship between the foundation and Big Thought.

Since its inception in 1965, the Texas Bar Foundation has awarded more than $16 million in grants to law-related programs. Supported by members of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar Foundation is the nation’s largest charitable-funded bar foundation.