Mission
01To honor Clara D. Young by creating affordable, dignity-first memory care and respite support that helps people living with memory loss, strengthens caregivers, and connects families to the resources they need.
Our story
Love can become a place.
The Clara D Young Legacy Foundation began with a daughter's loss and a question: what would it look like to make memory care feel more human?
Clara D Young passed away from complications of Alzheimer's disease in August 2025. In her honor, this nonprofit is developing affordable memory care homes and a respite facility in Dallas, beginning in Pleasant Grove the neighborhood where Charliette was born and raised, and where her parents moved in 1970.
This work is personal for Charliette. After making their home in Pleasant Grove, her parents had to leave the community to find care for her mother. Clara’s House Pleasant Grove is being created so families can access quality, affordable memory care close to home because care should not be defined by financial status.
The foundation will help guide the day-to-day operations of the first location, then carry that learning forward as the work expands. The goal is simple to say and meaningful to build: specialized care should make room for personhood, family, and community.
At a glance
A dignified, community-based answer to memory care
The Clara D. Young Legacy Foundation is developing Clara’s House & Community Center to address the shortage of affordable, dignified, community-based support for individuals living with dementia and Alzheimer's disease and the family caregivers who support them.
An intimate, home-like residence for 8 to 10 residents, paired with weekday respite care, evening community programming, and weekend caregiver training, all on one 3-acre campus donated by a neighboring church.
320 Pemberton Hill Road, Dallas, TX 75217
Planning snapshot
A small campus with a clear community role.
- 8 to 10
- residents at a time
- 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM
- weekday respite hours
- Approximately 2,600
- respite visits per year
- 22
- jobs created at launch
These 22 projected launch jobs would bring quality, well-paying work directly into Pleasant Grove’s 75217 neighborhood. Families could build good careers close to home while serving their own community.
All staffing and service figures are planning projections, subject to licensing, regulatory approval, funding, and final operating policy.
Our purpose
The reason behind the work.
Clara’s legacy gives this work its beginning. Our purpose gives it a direction.
Vision
02A community where every person living with memory loss is cared for with dignity, every caregiver has meaningful support, and quality memory care is within reach for every family.
The promise
A foundation for families, too.
For loved ones
A setting designed around smaller homes, specialized care, and the dignity of everyday routines.
For caregivers
Respite support that recognizes the people who give care need care and breathing room, too.
For neighbors
Community forums that make conversations about dementia and Alzheimer's more open and less isolating.
For care partners
A trusted resource healthcare organizations can share with families planning for long-term care.
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