The Dallas Mavericks — in partnership with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks, Sacramento Kings, and Indiana Pacers, along with the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, Minnesota Lynx, and Indiana Fever — hosted the Team Up For Change virtual summit on Oct. 21. This was put in place to unite, activate, and inspire a shared commitment and call for social justice and racial equality. … The Mavericks contributed to Team Up For Change with inclusion ambassador Chris Arnold hosting a panel of four community leaders from the Dallas-Fort Worth area on the importance of civic engagement, and on voting on both the local and national levels. That panel included Akilah Wallace, Veronica Torres Hazley, Elizabeth Henneke, and Xavier Henderson. Wallace is the executive director of Faith in Texas, which is a non-partisan multi-racial multi-faith grassroots movement of people united in values working together to achieve economic, racial and social justice for all people. She spoke about the role institutions of faith can play in everyone’s right to vote in the upcoming election while in the midst of this pandemic. “My first recommendation is for people of faith — our clergy and other institutions of religion and spirituality — to first just allow healing spaces and the opportunity for people to just be able to feel seen, to feel heard and that they can have space to just breathe,” Wallace said. “People are experiencing a lot of loss in this pandemic — they’re grieving. “They’re grieving the loss of people, they’re grieving the loss of ideas that they had for this year, they’re grieving the loss of plans that they may have had. That on top of the heightened divide that our nation is feeling is creating all types of mixed emotions that people are holding. So it’s really important that our religious leaders, our spiritual leaders, as well as just everyday people who are leaning into whatever their core value system may be, that they one, create opportunities for community engagements, but also spaces where you don’t have any expectations.” Excerpted from Mavs.com. Read the full article here.

Election Day is 4 weeks away and Faith leaders in Dallas are encouraging young people to become poll workers. NBC 5’s Noelle Walker talks to Rabbi Nancy Kasten, Robert Elkin & Reverend Stacey Brown. NBC 5’s Noelle Walker talks to Rabbi Nancy Kasten, Robert Elkin & Reverend Stacey Brown. “You look at the civil rights movement, many of those leaders were faith leaders because with us our faith is synonymous with how we live our lives… It is our job as people of faith to get involved and not just pay lip service but walk out our faith with our feet and our hands,” said Rev. Stacey Brown, pastor and Faith in Texas Clergy Table member. Watch the full video on NBC 5.    

Should the coronavirus pandemic create a housing crisis? As the virus grinds on, its side effects are becoming more dangerous and pronounced. With furloughs becoming permanent layoffs, businesses and day care providers shutting down for good, and emergency relief efforts running out, Americans are facing greater insecurity in basic needs. Earlier this month, more than 60 Dallas-area religious leaders (including me) signed a letter to Judge D’Metria Benson and the county justices of the peace appealing to them to extend the local moratorium on eviction hearings. We asked them to go beyond the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by extending the protections to all our neighbors, including immigrant families who may not have been able to apply for previous assistance. … State and local orders lapsed last month. But even the remaining measures have limits, as the Rev. Wes Helm, an organizer with the nonpartisan advocacy group Faith in Texas, explained to me. Eviction notices could still be filed and rent and late fees accrued, and the CDC order imposes requirements that exclude some undocumented people and potentially legal immigrants seeking permanent residence. “We need protections in place right now,” Helm told me, “before we start putting lots of people on the street.” This is the concern that led faith leaders to draft and organize a letter to county court officials. “Many are on board” with continuing the moratorium, according to Helm, “and some are not.” … During our conversation, Helm of Faith in Texas acknowledged that the moratoriums are a short-term measure. “Eviction moratoriums buy us time and keep people off the streets, but we need to use that time to find long-term solutions.” Excerpted from The Dallas Morning News. Read the full article here.