The Cross Church Event Center now also houses the new Hope for the Cities Resource Center. Executive director and pastor Jon Bailey leads the nonprofit with support from Benevolence Coordinator Liz Garrett and a team of volunteers. Sonia Duggan/The Wylie News

Hope for the Cities celebrated the grand opening of its new Resource Center Tuesday, June 24, marking a significant step in the organization’s mission to provide holistic support and build stronger relationships within the Wylie community.

Located inside The Cross Church Event Center at 200 N. Ballard Avenue, the Resource Center will serve as a central hub for assistance and outreach, offering everything from food distribution and financial aid to job help, educational workshops and health resources.

Jon Bailey, executive director and Hope for the Cities pastor, said the move from a temporary space at Wylie Christian Care Center to the new location represents more than just a change of address—it’s a chance to be more intentional in how the organization connects with people in need.

“It gives us so much more freedom to have a setup like this because we’ve been serving the community way beyond just food for a long time,” Bailey said. “Then to have an area where we can be very intentional with sitting down with people again—it’s huge.”

During the pandemic, Bailey said many services were forced into remote formats, which made it harder to establish deeper connections. In-person interactions, he said, often reveal needs that go beyond the surface.

“A lot of the time, whenever people reach out to us, they do so with one or two needs we know of, like a bill,” he said. “But when you start to dig a little deeper, you realize there are so many more things we could help with—and that’s just the symptom of the underlying issue.”

Now operating in-house, Hope for the Cities has the flexibility to offer a wider range of services. The Resource Center features space for workshops and community events and is already partnering with organizations like Collin College to offer one-on-one job coaching. In the future, Bailey hopes to partner with Common Good in McKinney for pop-up health clinics, as well as other organizations that align with their mission.

The team also distributes food weekly, with Wednesday deliveries on 22 routes. The food program includes a summer lunch initiative offering five lunches per week in take-home bags.

“We have an amazing volunteer team to make that happen,” Bailey said. “It’s like Amazon. We want to build relationships with the families we’re serving.”

Benevolence coordinator Liz Garrett, who retired from Wylie ISD five years ago, said the goal is to help individuals navigate life changes caused by the pandemic, economic shifts, and the rising cost of living.

“People don’t always know where to turn,” she said. “They don’t know about Texas Workforce or how to access help beyond food and utilities. We’re here to help them learn how to navigate that.”

Garrett emphasized that many people the organization assists are working adults, not the stereotypical unemployed individual. She added that the organization serves many senior adults and families who are housing extended relatives due to financial pressure.

“Where there used to be five people in a household, now there are eight or nine,” Bailey said. “That changes everything.”

The Resource Center is open Mondays and Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Wednesdays from 5 to 8 p.m. by appointment. Once-a-month Saturday events are also in the works to better reach working individuals.

The new space also allows Hope for the Cities to expand its visibility and reach, something Bailey said was important to both the organization and The Cross Church Pastor Kris Segrest.

“We don’t want to be a community secret,” Bailey said. “The more visible we are, the more people will be drawn to volunteer, serve, and donate—and the more we can do to serve the community.”

Volunteers like Yolanda, who works with Spanish-speaking residents, help bridge language and cultural gaps. The organization hopes the new Resource Center will become a catalyst for both greater community engagement and long-term impact.

“We don’t want this to be just transactional,” Garrett said. “It’s more than a food box or getting a bill paid. We’re helping people learn to maneuver through life. That’s the real hope.”

For Bailey, that hope is the heart of the mission.

“By the time we meet a lot of people, their hope is gone,” he said. “They’re desperate. And then they realize, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to do something.’ Hopefully we can give them that hope—hope for tomorrow, and the knowledge that they’re not alone. We’re here with them.”

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By Sonia Duggan | [email protected]