$9.7 million in grants awarded to North Texas groups to expand health services

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Several nonprofits working to expand access to health services across North Texas have received $9.7 million in grants to help them accomplish their goals.

The awards — announced by the Communities Foundation of Texas on Thursday — are meant to support the nonprofits as they create or redevelop health care programs and facilities that serve residents, from early childhood to aging populations.

The nonprofit groups include Metrocare, Children’s Medical Center Foundation, Nexus Family Recovery Center, the Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas and the Resource Center.

Metrocare peer support specialist Es’Tany Flagg said she initially received support from Metrocare, Dallas County’s largest mental health service provider, in 2017 after her mother died.

“Just because issues don’t affect you directly doesn’t mean they ever won’t,” she said. “I didn’t ever think that I would be a client of Metrocare. I thought I was always too normal or whatever the case may be, until something traumatic happened... and so, from me getting the trauma-informed care that I did get from Metrocare, I’m able to give back.”

The service provider’s counselors and case workers gave Flagg the support necessary to cope with her loss, and her experience led her to getting a job at Metrocare in 2023, she said.

Metrocare is now planning to use its $2.5 million grant from the Communities Foundation of Texas to support the construction of a new Mental Health and Disability Innovation Center at Hillside, according to the foundation. The center is expected to expand Metrocare’s service capacity by 32%.

Grant recipient and CEO of Metrocare Services, John W. Burruss, M.D. shares his remarks...

“We do a lot… But with those funds and with the new building, we’ll be able to reach more people,” Flagg said. “The new building is definitely going to give them a more welcoming feel.”

One in three children and one in five adults in Texas experience a mental health disorder in a given year, according to the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Treatment for mental illness in children and youth is often delayed by an average of eight to ten years after symptoms first appear, said Wayne White, the Communities Foundation of Texas president and CEO. (The Communities Foundation of Texas is a supporter of the Future of North Texas initiative at The News.)

Texas also ranks number one nationwide in the rate of those without health insurance – 21.6% for adults, White said.

“In Dallas in particular, we’re at 24%,” White said. “We’re the worst city in Texas. We have an opportunity, and we will do better.”

The Children’s Medical Center Foundation, the fundraising arm for Dallas-based Children’s Health, is planning to use its $3 million grant to support the new pediatric campus in Dallas, a joint investment between Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center, according to the Communities Foundation of Texas.

Guests attend an event by Communities Foundation of Texas, awarding $9.7 million in grants...

Brent Christopher, president of the Children’s Medical Center Foundation, said in a video presented during Thursday’s ceremony that The Moody Children’s Hospital will be a 34-acre site that will serve as a health care resource for residents and a training ground for future doctors for decades.

Located at the new site: one of the country’s largest pediatric hospitals, which matters because the pediatric population in North Texas is expected to double by 2050, according to the Communities Foundation of Texas.

The Resource Center’s $1 million grant will support a new Resource Center Health facility, which is projected to care for over 9,500 people annually, a 36% increase from current capacity, according to the Communities Foundation of Texas.

Resource Center CEO Cece Cox said the center will offer primary care, HIV care and prevention, a food pantry and hot meals, STI testing, and a full-service pharmacy. Her organization helps LGBTQIA+ people and their allies who are often stigmatized by the health care community, she said.

“A recent study showed that 45% of LGBT people report that within the last two years their experience has been that they have faced discrimination or had some other sort of negative experience in a medical provider setting,” Cox said.

Grant recipient and CEO of Resource Center, Cece Cox, shares her remarks during an event by...

The Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas – which provides mental health and social services to anyone in the greater Dallas community regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or income – is planning to use its $1.5 million grant to help open its second medical clinic, which is expected to annually serve 55,000 people, many of whom are low-income, according to the Communities Foundation of Texas.

That’s important, because 793,000 people in 23 North Texas ZIP codes alone lack a medical home or access to health care, said Cathy Barker, CEO of the Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas, in a video shown during Thursday’s ceremony.

Nexus Family Recovery Center, which treats women with substance use disorders while also caring for their children, is using its $1.25 million grant to support its Recovery Rising campaign, which features a new and expanded Pregnant and Parenting Women with Children dormitory and Child Development Center, according to the Communities Foundation of Texas.

Those funds will transform the nonprofit’s 11-acre campus into a recovery village serving over 7,000 women and children annually, according to the foundation.

Grant recipient and CEO of Nexus family Recovery Center, Heather Emmanuel Ormand, shares her...

That matters because parental substance use is the reason for 68% of child removals in Texas, said Heather Emmanuel Ormand, CEO of Nexus Recovery Center. Over 2 million Texans need treatment, but fewer than 10% receive it, she said.

“Substance use disorder is the leading contributor to incarceration in our state,” Ormand said.

“Every $1 invested in treatment saves $7 in the criminal justice system. In Texas, treatment saves 12 times its cost in reduced healthcare cost. Every dollar we invest in recovery pays dividends in stability, safety and second chances.”

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.

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