Dallas, TX 2021 Finalist
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More about Dallas
The City of Dallas is truly an American city with a significant history that helped shape Texas and the nation. Located in North Texas, Dallas is in the heart of the largest metropolitan area in the South and the fourth largest in the country. Of the City’s entire population, 25% are foreign born, which adds a robust cultural landscape to the Dallas community. In the past several years, the City has been working diligently to identify the needs of underserved communities, especially immigrants and refugees, to implement data driven policies that promote equity and resilience.
In 2018, the City of Dallas became one of the 100 Resilient Cities and notably accepted “Resilient Dallas: Dallas’ Path to Share Prosperity,” a strategy that encompasses the aforementioned core values and guides all future initiatives and policies to create a more resilient community. The Strategy introduced seven goals: 1) Advance Equity, 2) Welcoming City, 3) Economic Mobility, 4) Equitable Access, 5) Healthy Communities, 6) Neighborhood Infrastructure, and 7) Environmental Sustainability all to be completed via specific initiatives and actions. The progress on the Resilient Dallas strategy is publicly accessible on the Resilient Dallas homepage with information on completion of each initiative. The process of selecting these seven goals was comprehensive, involving drawing inspiration from a network of other cities, including valuable stakeholder input, and relying heavily on community participation. Civic engagement was the number one priority before even beginning phase one of creating the Strategy. Specifically, the Resilience process integrated the insight and wisdom gained through many forms of participation that acknowledged and respected the similarities, as well as the notable differences inherent in the economically and socially diverse population.
Welcoming Communities and Immigrant Affairs
Goal two of the Resilient Dallas Strategy is focused on advancing the economic, civic, and social inclusion of immigrants and refugees living in Dallas. Approved by unanimous City Council vote in 2018, the Welcoming Dallas Strategic Plan is a shared vision and long-term plan that includes goals and actions that promote the social incorporation of immigrants and refugees in the health, safety, education, leadership, and economy of the City of Dallas, with the ultimate goal of creating shared prosperity of all.
RIGHT Care Program
Goal five of the Resilient Dallas Strategy is to strengthen partnerships with anchor institutions to understand and address the social determinants of health and improve the well-being of Dallas residents in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. The City’s Rapid Integrated Group Healthcare Team (RIGHT) Care Program fits right into this shared vision, which contributes to the long-term resilience goal.
As many police departments around the country, after the events and Black Lives Matter movement of the summer 2020, Dallas wanted to reform the Dallas Police Department (DPD) in a way that would better serve its communities. With the latest fiscal year, the new Office of Integrated Public Safety Solution (OIPSS) was created to work collaboratively with various City departments and outside agencies to mitigate circumstances before they become violent criminal activity. OIPSS is where the RIGHT Care Program is now managed, however, the RIGHT Care Program was initiated in 2018 to combat mental health challenges before they turn into violent crime. The program has been shaped and administered due to the civic engagement of residents who have implored that ongoing conversations surrounding police reform have tangible benefits to the communities via the police oversight committee.
Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan
The Resilient Dallas Strategy discussed in Parts I & II outlines seven goals for the City to become more equitable and resilient. These goals reflect a shared vision and the long-term plan that was created through robust community input and engagement. Goal seven of Resilient Dallas promotes environmental sustainability toward improved public health, alleviating adverse environmental conditions. Consistent with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and the USCM compact, the Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan (CECAP) is an ambitious plan that outlines specific actions to mitigate drivers of climate change, adapt our city to future climate conditions, and enhance environmental quality over the next 30 years.
The CECAP ambitiously outlines eight innovative goals, each with specified measurable targets for years 2030 and 2050. Each goal is broken down into actions which are thoroughly explained in the 122-page document. Each action discusses the primary benefits and co-benefits, as well as the community partners that would need to be involved in the successful implementation. Significantly, the CECAP puts inclusivity and equity at the forefront of implementation by describing the equity considerations for marginalized communities, catered specifically to underserved Dallas neighborhoods, under every single one of the 97 actions.