Going green and good community health

Blog by Kristin Jenkins, President of the DFWHC Foundation

The DFW Hospital Council (DFWHC) Foundation is participating in a region-wide collaborative Park Project involving a partnership between the City of Dallas, the Trust for Public Land, Parkland Health & Hospital System and the Foundation’s own Information and Quality Services Center.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL), led by Robert Kent in the organization’s North Texas offices, has been engaged by the City of Dallas to provide analytics to the Dallas Parks Division to plan green space for public use throughout the city, with potential connections to neighboring cities.

This initiative has multiple goals, one of which is to improve the health of the city’s residents.

Parkland Health & Hospital System has requested use of the DFWHC Foundation’s data assets to inform the team regarding “high incident” areas of asthma, pulmonary disease, depression, heart disease and other conditions.

The information from our data warehouse will be correlated to other data assets related to city services and available green space with a goal to prioritize areas of park development that will be geographically near the neighborhoods of greatest health needs.

In meeting with city planners and the Trust for Public Land, we have refined the data planning in order to render the community transparent so choices for future park development can be strategically made.

Numerous studies have shown that the use of public parks contribute to health in a number of ways including promoting physical activity, improving mental health and reducing health care costs.

The DFWHC Foundation is so excited to be participating in such a unique and innovative program.

Many thanks and have a “green” day!