The Bridge Travel Essentials Store to open at DFW Airport
DALLAS – R.S. Harris LLC and Gideon Toal Management, have partnered with The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center in Dallas and Presbyterian Night Shelter’s Upspire in Fort Worth to establish The Bridge News and Convenience, an airport concession concept to create jobs, fund services, and improve community for local nonprofit homelessness service providers and their clients.
A licensing fee for use of The Bridge brand will fund the homeless recovery support network in the Dallas area to help individuals get back on their feet. Upspire, a Fort Worth-based Presbyterian Night Shelter Enterprise will provide staff through its workforce program that helps individuals facing barriers to employment. Throughout the seven-year contract, five percent revenue shared by The Bridge and Presbyterian Night Shelter is expected to generate an estimated $200,000 for The Bridge.
“Dallas is at its best when we work together to solve our most significant challenges,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said. “Through this creative partnership, one of our city’s most important homelessness services centers will receive a major boost that will help get people off our streets and back on their feet. I hope this concept serves as a model for how we can help move Dallas forward while helping us serve the most vulnerable people in our city, and I look forward to shopping there before my flights out of the second-busiest airport in the world, DFW International Airport.”
The projected opening date of The Bridge Travel Essentials store in DFW airport is April 2023. It will feature an expansive 800 sq. ft. storefront with warm earth tones and meandering pathways. The market will showcase the region by highlighting partnerships with local markets and up-and-coming businesses. Guests can one-stop-shop for all their travel and souvenir needs, whether a grab and go snack from refrigerated cases, a personal care item, or locally sourced memorabilia.
“We at The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center are so excited that the proposed social entrepreneurship project, The Bridge Travel Essential Store at DFW Airport, has been affirmed for implementation by the DFW Airport Board of Directors,” said Dr. David Woody, III, President and CEO of The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center. “I have been crafting a relationship with Dr. Alvin Brown of Gideon Toal Management Services, and Mr. Ronnie Harris of R.S. Harris, LLC for nearly 2 years to help their business ventures have an indelible impact upon our community and to move citizens experiencing homelessness into sustainable employment and a home of their own. The Bridge Travel Essential Store in Terminal A at DFW Airport will provide a medium for communicating The Bridge brand and marvelous social impact model of homeless recovery to literally the world, while also establishing a revenue stream to help offset operating expenses through the partnership with Gideon Toal Management and R.S. Harris LLC. We look forward to pursuing opportunities to grow this unique business, social entrepreneurship, and revenue building model, while continuing work with The Bridge Guests, and facilitating their recovery from homelessness.”
