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About Us
Oasis Center is a faith-based, charitable 501© (3) organization that was initiated as a church ministry in 2001 and incorporated as The Oasis Center effective July 1, 2013. Our initial mission focused on first time youth offenders involved in the criminal justice system. Our program grew to address formerly incarcerated adults, who all too often were parents of our first-time youth offenders. Oasis Center was one of the first nonprofit organizations to be invited to formally partner with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office’s “AIM” Program. Successful completion of their program led to the expungement of existing felony charges for offenders 17-24 years of age. Oasis Center has added financial management training to the AIM classes, as well as workforce development training as adults.
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In 24 years of existence, Oasis Center has learned that:
1) a pathway to a higher quality of life though life skills and coaching post incarceration is an “evidence based” way to reduce recidivism
2) impact of second chance programs must be measured not solely by the participant’s gainful employment or housing, but the impact the participant can have on his/her family and their community
3) sustainability is provided through long term relationship, living wage employment, and direct access to mental and behavioral health services.
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To this end,
1) Oasis Center has continued its long relationship with the Dallas D.A.’s Office to provide alternatives to incarceration for youth facing criminal charges. In addition, we partner with the South Dallas Employmnet Project to provide life skill training classes to the youth at the Henry Wadae Youth Detention Center. Oasis Center has also partnered with Serving USA to initiate an adult in-prison ministry targeting Trauma Healing, pre-release back into the community. This program is unique because it entails a one year “train-the-trainer” program for inmates serving long term sentences and who are hand-selected by the Estes Unit warden and the chaplain, to allow Oasis Center to train them to deliver the trauma healing three-month program.
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2) Oasis Center Oasis Center has partnered with the Dallas College Workforce Development Program at their Redbird campus. Oasis Center has positioned itself to provide life skill training and workforce development preparation for a myriad of vocational certificate and certification training for livable wage employment. It has been proven that graduates of some of the vocational tracks that Oasis Center and Dallas College are offering, can make as much in a starting salary, if not more, then graduates with a four-year academic degree (i.e., welders earn a higher beginning salary than the average college graduate). This pathway is essential to sustainability for a family unit.
3) We have additionally partnered with the North Texas Behavioral Health Association (NTBHA) to provide mental and behavioral health services (when people have access to health care after incarceration, they’re 30% less likely to reoffend).
We believe education and opportunity are the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty and building a stronger, more equitable Dallas.
Statement of Faith
The following statement of faith is supported by the staff and Board of Directors of The Oasis Center. The organization does not require participants to support this statement of faith.
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God
1. We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternal existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.
The Bible
2. We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
The Human Condition
3. We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by very nature and by choice, alienated for God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled, and renewed.
Jesus Christ
4. We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus-Israel’s promised Messiah-was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
The Work of Christ
5. We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
The Holy Spirit
6. We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, He convicts the world of it guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
The Church
7. We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.
Christian Living
8. We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with acre for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
Christ’s Return
9. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
Response and Eternal Destiny
10. We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen
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Our Mission
To provide life-changing programs and services to youth and adults living in underserved communities and people needing a Second Chance
Our Vision
To create a spiritual and social "model program" that can be replicated and scaled.