Randy Skinner is noted for his work nationally in the area of community transformation. He developed his unique approach to crime reduction, poverty eradication, affordable housing, hunger programs, and transforming culture over a period of thirty years of work as a consultant in the criminal justice community. | READ MORE
While known nationally for his work for justice in areas of child protection and race relations, he is most recently noted for his work in Dallas and West Palm Beach, FL. He has also worked to eradicate hunger and food deserts on San Antonio and poverty in Corpus Christi, Texas poorest zip codes. The zip codes are located in West Dallas, Texas and the Hillcrest and West Oso communities of Corpus Christi, Texas.
He currently is working to reclaim 25 city blocks in the poorest neighborhoods of West Palm Beach, Florida (https://transformationpalmbeachcounty.org).
As Executive Director of Strategic Justice Initiatives, Inc. (SJI), Skinner has facilitated a block-by-block reclamation of poor neighborhoods in West Dallas, which has 5000 homes and 27,000 residents. In the historic minority Hillcrest community of Corpus Christi, Skinner was involved in the development and planning of a new community of relocated residents. That work was temporarily halted during the Hurricane Harvey devastation, where Skinner was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott as one of eight Texans to help rebuild the devastated areas with $100 million in private donations raised by Gov. Abbott.
Skinner began working in West Dallas in 2003, and lives in the community working with various non-profit, church, business and political leaders. Skinner began in 2004 working with one of the largest development companies in the nation (JPI), based in Dallas, to develop a database to track crime, sex offenders, poverty and slum properties. The resulting research allowed Strategic Justice Initiatives Inc. (SJI) and Builders of Hope Inc. to facilitate private funding to purchase slum properties in West Dallas, where Builders of Hope CDC proceeded to build quality, affordable housing. SJI conducted a study measuring the accomplishments of Builders of Hope CDC and the actual impact on the community of West Dallas. The findings were presented to Southern Methodist University’s Conference sponsored by Faith and Philanthropy that year. The study was also presented to the Foundation for Community Empowerment as a grant proposal. SJI facilitated a meeting at JPI with more than 30 non-profit leaders that began a more concentrated focus on economic transformation.
The partnership between Skinner and the developer continued over the next 3 years with a collaborative effort that would include up to 70 community leaders. Skinner helped facilitate more than $10 million that was funneled into the region largely to buy out slum properties.
In 2008, Randy Skinner approached then Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and shared his vision of expanding the West Dallas Transformation model throughout other areas of South Dallas. This led to the development of the Greater Dallas Justice Revival in 2009, the largest faith movement in Dallas since 1972. Skinner was asked to lead this movement and at the end of two years, more than 1800 homeless citizens had been through a two-year treatment and placed in supportive housing. In addition, thirty-five inner city schools were partnered with area churches. In 2012, the movement was officially concluded, having surpassed its goals, and the focus on schools became known as FEED 3 (www.feed3.org), with the focus on homelessness as Homes for Our Neighbors.
Currently, West Dallas has been transformed from one of the more violent zip codes in Dallas, to one of the safest. The five elementary schools have been reclaimed and led into academic standing, while the local high school and middle school have made significant progress in academic, discipline and character development.
Today, the area is experiencing the fastest homeownership and business success in Dallas and it is quickly becoming the model nationally for social and economic transformation.
Skinner uses a five phase template that he created entitled the Five Phase Transformation Model (Copyright 1994) which consists of:
Skinner also coined the Five R’s of Community Transformation: Repentance, Reconciliation, Restoration, Revival and Reformation.
In 2014, Skinner began consulting and sharing his model with city leaders in San Antonio, Texas. A partnership with Daily Bread Ministries, one of the largest non-governmental warehouses in Texas, began in 2014 and continues today with Daily Bread Ministries 140 feeding sites across the city of San Antonio. In addition, Skinner has worked with the San Antonio Baptist Association and helping prepare its 300 churches for city transformation. He helped assist in the formation of the San Antonio Christian Leadership Coalition that has over a hundred leaders working in seven areas of influence over the city.
In 2015, Skinner met with former Corpus Christi Mayor Joe Adame and began working toward a solution to the buyout of over 500 historic homes in the minority community called Hillcrest. In 2017, Skinner helped facilitate bringing the largest South Texas Homebuilder called Braselton Homes to purchase acreage to help relocate the Hillcrest community with new mixed income housing. The community is Corpus Christi’s newest urban revitalization effort with planned green spaces, chapel and community centers with urban and mission families living every fifteen homes to help the community succeed. It is also supported by over 30 organizations to ensure the success of homeownership, job creation, and support services in holistic care. The project was halted by Hurricane Harvey, which devastated the coastal area. Skinner has been most recently in 2020 been approached by faith leaders in Corpus Christi to re-birth the project.
Skinner regularly consults with leaders from across the United States on community transformation. He has also served on relief and transformational work with governmental and spiritual leaders in Africa, Turkey, Germany, South Korea, China, Mexico, as well as other third-world countries under oppressive dictatorships.
In 2015, Skinner was asked to become part of the Texas delegation of noted leaders from Texas in the political, academic, business, and faith community to represent Texas as a member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC). Led by the Honorable Gen. Colin Powell as Chairman, the coalition is a broad-based influential network of 400 businesses and NGOs; national security and foreign policy experts; and business, faith-based, academic and community leaders in all 50 states who support a smart power approach of elevating diplomacy and development alongside defense in order to build a better, safer world.Noted leaders such as Former Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL.), Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), Sec. of State James Baker III, are involved as are organizations such as Catholic Relief and World Vision.
In 2016, Skinner was appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to the One Star Foundation of Texas, which oversees the distribution of federal funds to local communities. One Star promotes volunteerism, community service and oversees the administration of the AmeriCorps programs as prescribed by National Corporation for National and Community Service(CNCS). The foundation oversees the State of Texas Governor's Mentoring Initiative, Governor's Volunteer Leadership Conference in addition to Governor's Faith-Based and Community Initiative. The foundation became the recipient of over $100 million dollars for the Harvey Hurricane Relief, of which Skinner served with eight Texans to distribute to the devastated counties.
Skinner was re-appointed by Gov. Abbott in 2019, and by the end of 2019, the $100 million had been distributed. Over 1.1 million people were served by the funded projects and 212 organizations at work rebuilding lives and communities. An additional $63.6 Million in additional funding was unlocked by the fund involvement. (https://www.rebuildtx.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/rebuild-texas-fund-two-years.pdf).
In 2020, Skinner became a resident of West Palm Beach, FL, invited by business leaders to tackle the blight and crime with his model so successful in West Dallas, Texas. Currently, he is working with technology that develops heat maps of crime, poverty, hunger, and housing. He is also involved in the development of affordable housing in the blighted areas, alongside of working for spiritual renewal (www.transformationpalmbeachcounty.org).
Skinner also consults currently with the office of Housing, Urban, and Development (HUD) in Washington, D.C. as in other cities across America.