Dallas, TX

Crossroads Community Services
Parkland Health and Hospital System
Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS)
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
University of Dallas

ABOUT

We will enhance an existing community-based food distribution system serving Dallas County, using a data-driven approach to select new sites in the southern sector that leverage health system connectivity and innovative client referrals to improve health and wellbeing. We will: 1) Embed health programs and safety net services offered by community partners within distribution sites; 2) Create an address-based referral system to match households with neighborhood food distribution sites; 3) Refer health system patients with food-sensitive health conditions to distribution sites; and 4) Use multi-sector data to locate and expand food distribution sites in high-need neighborhoods.

Health Equity

Food insecurity affects approximately 1 in 6 Dallas residents. The residents are likely to be at higher risk for diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. People facing food insecurity have higher rates of hospital admission, frequently lack access to care, and infrequently utilize preventive services. In this project, Crossroads and Parkland will address food insecurity and low health services utilization with the ultimate goal of improving public health for those affected by food deserts, poverty, and lack of social support.

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

Crossroads’ Community Distribution Partner (CDP) model enables a wide variety of organizations to nourish neighbors without building new infrastructure or meeting stringent compliance standards required of full-fledged food pantries. By enlarging the CDP network, we will provide an innovative model to guide food distribution systems in other large cities. We will make bold changes to healthcare and health services by integrating hospial and health department services, empowering local organizations to host critical health services.

Upstream

In Southern Dallas County, hunger and poor health are caused by several upstream social, environmental, and economic factors, including: food deserts, poverty, lack of client mobility, limited healthcare access, and lack of effective community engagement between service agencies and community members. Our project will tackle these upstream factors by improving access to food, health, and healthcare services.

Integrated

Each partner has strengths, including food distribution, outcome evaluation, data tracking and linkage, health promotion, healthcare and public health services, and partnering with and serving low-income populations. Project partners will integrate services to promote efficiency and maximize client, patient, and community well-being.

Local

CDPs are inherently community-based and are responsive to local food preferences. In this project, we will track the number and type of community contracts to ensure robust community engagement throughout our project. As the project continues, we will conduct site visits, key informant interviews, and community meetings with CDP leaders and constituents, using active listening techniques to ask community leaders and residents for their ideas about what health services should be incorporated.

Data-Driven

Parkland electronic health records (EHR) and population health registry data will guide the selection of patient populations most in need of healthcare and human services and help us identify CDPs who are best positioned to make an impact by incorporating wraparound services. Crossroads’ existing data collection tool, the Crossroads Clientcare Longitudinal Database, will be used to track downstream health and healthcare impacts from our activities.