Center for Transforming Lives and University of Texas at Arlington Host Nonprofit Executives, Foundation Leaders and Academic Experts in Response to $127 Million Funding Loss
Fort Worth, Texas (Oct. 21, 2025) - Leaders from more than a dozen of Tarrant County’s largest nonprofits are forging a new path together following the inaugural ‘Reimagining Together’ summit. On Friday, Oct. 17, the University of Texas at Arlington’s School of Social Work led a day-long retreat at Center for Transforming Lives for nonprofit CEOs and foundation funders to address the growing disruption facing North Texas social service organizations.
The event comes as North Texas nonprofits lost an estimated $127 million in funding during the first half of 2025, with $71.6 million in federal money lost primarily through canceled or delayed federal contracts and grants. The losses have mostly impacted nonprofits that provide social services, education programs for children, housing services for the homeless and meals for the elderly and homebound.
"Nonprofits are a vital part of our local community and economy," said Carol Klocek, CEO of Center for Transforming Lives. "We’re employing people, deploying resources and creating as much stability in our community as we can. The risk right now is that as the nonprofit community is destabilized, it further destabilizes Fort Worth.”
The summit emerged from summer conversations between nonprofit executives, UTA President Jennifer Cowley and community leaders about strengthening partnerships during this critical moment. Rather than viewing current challenges as insurmountable obstacles, the gathering reframed the disruption as an opportunity to innovate and reimagine how social services are delivered across Tarrant County.
“This is not a ‘one and done’ conversation. All of us in the room have to commit to this being the first of an ongoing conversation that seeks to radically transform the system,” said Kirk A. Foster, Ph.D., MSW, MDiv, Dean of the School of Social Work at UTA. “The rules around how we work have changed and we can use this as an amazing opportunity to rethink how we do what we do.”
UTA’s School of Social Work, the largest in Texas with 2,300 students across multiple degree programs, is uniquely positioned to serve as a neutral convener and catalyst for community change. Under Dean Foster's leadership, the School of Social Work is hoping to fill the convening gap left when previous collaborative infrastructures dissolved.
During the day-long summit, participants identified several high-priority initiatives including expanding closed-loop referral systems allowing broader coordination across agencies, adoption of generative AI tools to streamline work and expanding business community involvement. With more disruption expected over the coming years, the group also discussed the strategic consolidation of aligned organizations to help preserve smaller nonprofits that may not be able to weather the coming changes otherwise.
"We have really high quality nonprofits here in Fort Worth doing really good work," said Klocek. "We’re proactively thinking about six months, a year, five years down the line, solving not just for the problems of today, but the problems of tomorrow. We’re committed to collaboration because we know we’re stronger when we’re together.”
Attendees of Friday’s summit included ACH Child and Family Services, Boys and Girls Club of Tarrant County, Catholic Charities, CTL, Lena Pope, Presbyterian Night Shelter, Rainwater Charitable Foundation, Tarrant Area Food Bank, Tarrant County Homeless Coalition/Partnership Home, Tarrant County Public Health, among others.
About Center for Transforming Lives
Center for Transforming Lives partners with single mothers and their children so they can thrive. Founded in 1907, the non-profit is one of Tarrant County’s biggest family safety nets, working to disrupt cycles of poverty and homelessness among the most vulnerable in our community. Center for Transforming Lives meets the needs of 3,000 women and children annually, through a comprehensive and evidence-based, two-generation and trauma-informed model. Thanks to housing support, early childhood education, economic mobility services and counseling services that work across generations, parents and children establish security and well-being as a family. Led by CEO Carol Klocek since 2009, the $24 million non-profit celebrated the grand opening of its new Riverside Campus headquarters on May 2.
For more information about the Center for Transforming Lives, please visit www.transforminglives.org.
About University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)
Celebrating its 130th anniversary in 2025, the University of Texas at Arlington is a growing public research university in the heart of the thriving Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. With a student body of over 42,700, UTA is the second-largest institution in the University of Texas System, offering more than 180 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Recognized as a Carnegie R-1 university, UTA stands among the nation’s top 5% of institutions for research activity. UTA and its 280,000 alumni generate an annual economic impact of $28.8 billion for the state. The University has received the Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation from the
Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and has earned recognition for its focus on student access and success, considered key drivers to economic growth and social progress for North Texas and beyond.
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Contact: Trish Rodriguez
Director for Communications
(O) 817-332-6191 (C) 817-996-7330
trodriguez@transforminglives.org
Categories: News
Center for Transforming Lives partners with single mothers and their children so they can thrive. Our services are two-generational and establish long-term financial and emotional well-being.
3001 S. Riverside Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76119
info@transforminglives.org
(817) 332-6191
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