Isabella Collora

In Memoriam:
Isabelle Collora

Isabelle Collora has a lengthy list of accomplishments, many in the human rights and religion fields. In 1980, she co-founded Texas’ first prison diversion project offering residential programs for first offenders along with Douglas Denton. They named it Seidler House, after Catholic priest Father Andrew Seidler, Isabelle’s mentor. When the crack epidemic hit Dallas in the 1985, they responded to a request from the city and county by starting a substance abuse treatment facility, Trinity Recovery Center. In 1988 the substance abuse treatment facility, incorporated as Homeward Bound, became the first in Texas to accept HIV/AIDS clients. In 1999, Homeward Bound was chosen as the lead substance abuse treatment agency in the Medicaid managed care pilot known as NorthSTAR, which led to the expansion of substance abuse treatment for Medicaid patients in Texas. In 2004, the State of Texas asked Homeward Bound to establish a continuum of substance abuse care on the Texas/Mexico border. That program has grown to offer services to the Hispanic population, veterans, and Native Americans in West Texas and Southern New Mexico. In 2005, Homeward Bound became the largest residential substance abuse provider in Texas. In 2013, after 33 years, Seidler House moved from a 24-bed facility, 3,800-square-foot facility to a 24-apartment complex occupying almost an acre of land. Homeward Bound also opened an outpatient clinic in rural Ellis County offering services to adolescents. Isabelle worked within the system to make it better-- resulting in a lower-cost and far more effective alternative to incarceration that helped people return to health, sobriety, employment, and good citizenship.

Isabelle was also a board member of the Greater Dallas Community of Churches, Ladies of Charity of Dallas, Cathedral Dallas, Inc., “Si Puedes,” Inc., and the Guadalupanas Association. She received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Judge Woodrow B. Seals Laity Award from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, and the Woman of the Year Award from the Texas Catholic Conference, among many.

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