1 in 4 Dallas children grow up in poverty. Let's work together to cut that in half in a single generation.
Every child deserves a life filled with opportunity. The Child Poverty Action Lab (CPAL) operates as an unofficial R&D department for Dallas, rethinking how data can be integrated into public systems, community programs, and neighborhood life to break cycles of intergenerational poverty.
Big Bets For Economic Mobility
CPAL works across five key areas to reduce child poverty in Dallas.
- Strong Neighborhoods
- Early Development
- Economic Connectedness
CPAL works across five key areas to reduce child poverty in Dallas.
These five big bets are rooted in a growing body of evidence that connects experiences in childhood to economics in adulthood.
Our work in media
Eviction less likely for Dallas County tenants who get a lawyer — but most don’t have one
CPAL's data analysis shows that eviction chances fall dramatically when tenants have legal representation.
- Law students at SMU observed nearly 1,300 eviction hearings across five of Dallas County’s ten justice of the peace courts from November 2022 to April 2023, representing about 10% of all initial eviction cases heard in those courts.
- Renters who had lawyers lost their cases just 7% of the time, whereas renters without lawyers lost their case – and, typically, their home — nearly 70% of the time.
View articleCommunity Resource Explorer
The CRE uses data to visualize the assets and disparities that exist within and across Dallas neighborhoods.
- Centered on the two-mile radius around each school, the CRE illustrates how well school communities are resourced and ongoing needs for investment.
- The CRE indexes all the community schools in Dallas and evaluates their resourcing across categories such as economics, education, family, health, and community while also giving historical context to the data we see.
View toolSMU Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center partnership
CPAL and the Deason Center are working to identify leverage points to reduce pretrial detention in Dallas County.
- Because pretrial detention can jeopardize a person’s employment, family stability, housing, and health, charging delays are a major issue for children and families.
- After an arrest, a prosecutor decides whether to file formal charges against an individual. In Texas, prosecutors can take up to 6 months to make that decision, and an arrested person can be held in jail for half of that time.
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More than 100 partner organizations working together with Dallas public agencies in the lab to create change.
Working Together