Better data leads to better decisions. Better decisions lead to better outcomes.
At CPAL, data is central to everything we do. We bridge information gaps by delivering actionable data to families, partner organizations, and local government.
Our work in action
A sampling of published media + data
Equity in Bond Planning
This report highlights DISD's efforts to make place-based investments in historically redlined communities with bond funding.
- The bond designated $41 million to create community hubs providing wraparound services in four feeder patterns: Spruce in Pleasant Grove, Lincoln in South Dallas, West Dallas’ Pinkston, and Oak Cliff’s Roosevelt.
- Community Resource Index data across 40 indicators and 5 domains underscore what we know to be true: that these communities have experienced disinvestment as a result of intentional policy-making.
Community 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.
Crime in Dallas isn’t as random as you may think. Here’s how police can predict it.
CPAL has used risk-terrain modeling to help identify areas of high risk for violent crime.
- Once identified, police and community members work together to create “risk narratives.” These are hypotheses on how environmental aspects work together to create the potential for crime.
- Atlantic City, N.J., is perhaps the most celebrated case study for risk terrain modeling. In the first year, violent crime dropped 26% compared to the prior year. Robberies fell by 37%.
WIC Playbook
CPAL’s WIC playbook features prototypes designed to increase WIC benefit uptake in Dallas through human-centered design.
- The WIC program plays an important role in improving birth outcomes and containing health care costs. Every dollar spent on WIC leads to savings in health care costs from $1.77 to $3.13 within the first 60 days after birth.
- National data shows that in 2021, an average of 12.13 million moms, babies, and young children were eligible for WIC but only 51% actually participated.
Mayor's Task Force on Safe Communities
This 2019 report provides recommendations on non-law enforcement solutions to crime and violence in Dallas.
- Philadelphia’s blight remediation program reduced firearm assaults by 39%--a relatively low-cost intervention that is backed by empirical evidence that can be implemented in Dallas.
- New York’s targeted lighting pilot reduced nighttime index crimes by 36% and generated a 3x ROI. This can be replicated in Dallas by using tower lighting or expanding LED lighting in micro-geographies with high incidence of crime and low lighting.
Here's how Dallas leaders plan to deal with the third-worst child poverty rate among
Community leaders launch CPAL to address Dallas’ high rate of child poverty.
- According to the U.S. Census' American Community Survey data from 2011 to 2016, children that grow up in single-parent households are up to 3 1/2 times as likely to grow up in poverty.
- CPAL combines the clout of leaders and CEOs from major city and county institutions and systems (i.e. City of Dallas, Dallas ISD, Parkland Health and Hospital System, and Dallas Area Rapid Transit) with community-based partners.