Read below for descriptions of the Conference Panel Sessions:
Crime & Safety Panel Session – The Impact of High Crime Rates on Quality of Life & Neighborhood Wellbeing
Dallas has suffered from the unfortunate reputation of having the “highest crime rates in the nation.” Yet, the Williams Institute Wholeness Index shows that crime in Dallas is disproportionately distributed. Most neighborhoods in Dallas experience relatively low crime rates, while certain hotspots drive the citywide numbers, creating the damaging perception that crime is rampant across the city. This panel session focused on how neighborhood factors impact the overall crime rates in the city of Dallas and how law enforcement, the courts, and citizens can work together to make their communities safer.
Urban Revitalization Panel Session - Retail Locations & Decision Making in Urban Markets
Many Dallas residents, particularly those in the Southern Sector, face the daily reality of a retail gap. Entire communities lack certain basic retail necessities such as large, chain grocery stores and discount superstores. Residents of these communities are forced to choose between purchasing items at a high markup from small corner stores or traveling long distances to mainline stores, which costs money and time. Moreover, small stores typically offer a limited selection, particularly when it comes to healthy foods, while traveling beyond the neighborhood is all the more difficult for residents with children or who lack a car in a city of limited public transit. This panel session explored the untapped profit potential of urban markets and the reasons for the persistent retail gap. In addition,the panel discussed strategies for communities to work with retailers to modify their location decisionmaking, allowing retailers to take advantage of the investment opportunities in underserved urban markets while simultaneously improving retail options for local residents.
Education Panel Session – The Graduation Crisis Among Hispanic & African American Students
The decision to drop out of high school is a particularly devastating one. College graduates will earn, on average, 159% more than high school dropouts over a lifetime ($2.65 million compared to $1.03 million). As our economy continues to lean more towards knowledge-based occupations and industries, this gap will clearly widen. Yet, Hispanic and African American students are continuing to drop out of high school at alarming rates, estimated by some researchers to be as high as 50% to 60%, placing them at a significant competitive disadvantage in the workforce. This panel session concentrated on the factors contributing to this crisis in education, and what can be done to reverse the trend in Dallas and other North Texas school districts.
Health Panel Session – Healthy Communities, Healthy Children
Numerous studies have suggested that a great deal of adult wellbeing—health as well as success in school, career, and relationships—is determined by an individual’s early childhood environment and experiences. Setbacks in early childhood compound negatively over the lifecourse, while early advantages compound positively. Moreover, neighborhood factors, particularly concentrations of poverty, can affect childhood wellbeing separately from the individual family environments experienced by each child. The Williams Institute and the Dallas Foundation recently developed a Childhood Wellbeing Index similar to the Williams Institute Wholeness Index that is designed to capture and analyze differences in childhood wellbeing across Dallas County neighborhoods. This panel session presented the findings of this Index and explored ways in which practitioners, academics, and policy makers can use the Index to track improvements in childhood wellbeing on a local level throughout the county.
Housing Panel Session - Reducing Concentrated Poverty Through Mixed-Income Housing
Concentrated poverty has been shown to have negatively synergistic effects on the residents and overall environment of a neighborhood. The difficulties faced by individuals and families in poverty are compounded by the effects of residing in a neighborhood characterized by concentrated poverty. Conversely, poor residents living in neighborhoods without concentrated poverty experience fewer of the spillover burdens of poverty, even if the move is not accompanied by an increase in income. Mixed income housing, then, can serve to reduce concentrated poverty and its negative impact on wellbeing. Across the nation, mixed-income housing is being embraced by cities as a viable solution to the disturbing trend of poor residents becoming ghettoized within the inner city. However, in Dallas, progress towards mixed-income housing has been slow. This panel session discussed creative ways practitioners, academics, and policy makers can work together to produce sustainable, successful mixed-income housing developments. The panel also examined the role of Hope VI funding in creating mixed income communities.