The Bachman Lake Together website.

One model for citizen powered change that we'll look into this week is in Dallas.

The Zero to Five Foundation grew out of The Dallas Foundation, a group of philanthropic and business leaders who work to pool their contributions for greater impact.

In 2009, the Zero to Five Funders Collaborative was born to ensure that children from low-income neighborhoods are ready for school. They target their efforts in the Bachman Lake neighborhood of Dallas.

That year, the Collaborative decided to commit to a five-year funding plan and coordinated the work of four respected service providers in the Bachman Lake neighborhood--AVANCE-Dallas, Catholic Charities of Dallas, The Concilio, and Lumin Education.

Research by the Southern Methodist University Center shows that children of parents in the partner programs are better prepared for school than their peers.

The next phase is to empower parents to be the advocates for their neighborhood and their children as they focus on school readiness.

The Collaborative's next step is the Bachman Lake Together Family Center, which opened this week with a grand opening planned for May 19. The center aims to house services that the Bachman Lakes families need all under one roof — in much the same way that the Community School model being built at C.A. Weis Elementary School works.

Trained parent leaders are to step into leadership roles at the center, with the hope that it will have life beyond the Zero To Five Collaborative's focused leadership in the beginning.

I'll be traveling to Dallas to meet with these folks to see if what they have built could be a model for Pensacola as we embark on our own journey of community building and collective impact.