Selected Project Highlights
The Institute’s holistic research strategy brings the interdisciplinary perspectives of six focal areas to bear on the most pressing problems facing our communities. These include Education, Public Safety, Health, Housing, Social Capital, and Economic Development. Since 2005, The Institute has implemented this strategy alongside a variety of nonprofit, corporate, and government partners. Below is a brief list of some of those partners and their projects.
Texas Tenants Union
2020 to 2021
Texas Tenants Union and the Institute partnered on a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the impact of housing policies on evictions during the time of the COVID pandemic. Our research found support for the effects of interventions that occurred in March/April and September, 2020, but also found that many tenants in need fell through the cracks.
A Review of Eviction Protections in Dallas, Texas
Details 9.56 MB 5020 downloads
Texas 2036
2020 to Present
Texas 2036 is a policy organization that’s looking forward to Texas’ future. With a statewide presence, Texas 2036 turned to the Institute for Urban Policy Research for assistance with data visuzualization, research planning, and technical support. We work closely with them on DataLab, their data portal supporing statewide policy-makers in Texas, and their COVID Dashboard, making state- and county-level covid data useful through daily updates.
Children’s Health Systems of Texas
2010 to Present
Since 2010, the Institute for Urban Policy Research has worked closely with Children’s Health Systems of Texas to prepare the Beyond ABC Report on Children’s Wellbing in North Texas. Working with an advisory board with members from their six-county service area, Institute Staff facilitate working sessions to identify the most pressing challenges facing our kids. Staff then compile data from more than sixty different datasets to help illustrate the needs in North Texas.
2021 Beyond ABC Report
Details 14.09 MB 923 downloads
News: One in 5 Kids Live in Poverty
Details 555.27 KB 589 downloads
Beyond ABC 2017
Details 4.95 MB 2168 downloads
United Way
2010 to Present
As their research partner, the Institute provides evaluation of progress toward the community-wide goals in the areas of education, income, and health. We also work closely with the Community Impact staff to provide enhancements to the grant making process through facilitation and program design services that help the United Way realize their goals. We provide data assistance from a local perspective to the Dallas County Home Visiting Project, funded through Texas HHSC in partnership with the UCLA Center for Healthier Children. We have assisted the United Way in the establishment of a regional workforce partnership through policy briefs and survey design and implementation.
learn more about the United Way
Capital One
2014 to Present
The Institute has worked closely with Capital One since its foundation as the J. McDonald Williams Institute. Their generous support funded our first look at place-based philanthropy. We assisted them further in recent years through an in depth analysis of their place-based strategies in New Orleans and Houston. Our latest collaboration involves a white paper that explores innovation in the non-profit community in the wake of the recession of the late 2000s. Focusing on North Texas, this report details the adaptive strategies that local non-profits employed to increase efficiency and effectiveness and reduce costs.
learn more about Capital One
Nonprofit Innovation in a Time of Economic Change
Details 5.65 MB 857 downloads
Dallas County
2020 to Present
Dallas County engaged the Institute for Urban Policy Research to explore alternatives to traditional police response in Dallas County. Builidng on the work of New Directions for Public Safety report, the Institute will be evaluating three new pilot initiatives in the county, aimed at providing a more nuanced response to issues of mental and behavioral health. The Institute will also assist the county in reviewing the public safety data submitted by the participating agencies to develop trends and recommendations.
Interview on Criminal Justice Reform
Details 0.00 KB 503 downloads
Changing Demographics in Dallas County
Details 688.39 KB 730 downloads
City of Dallas, Texas
2011 to Present
In 2011, the City Attorney’s Office partnered with the Institute to create an online survey tool, primarily for the Dallas Police Department, to assess areas of interest for the Community Prosecution program. In 2012, the Institute assisted the City Attorney’s Office in provided research support for zoning proposals considered by council; in particular, the impact that certain land uses have on surrounding home values. More recently, the Institute has worked with the office to design a strategic prosecution initiative for the city. The Institute has been included as the potential research partner on several upcoming projects including diversion courts for drug-related offenses and veteran offenders.
learn more about the City of Dallas
2017-18 Domestic Violence Task Force Report
Details 7.47 MB 1905 downloads
Dallas Domestic Violence Taskforce Report 2016-17
Details 5.14 MB 577 downloads
Dallas Domestic Violence Taskforce Report 2015-16
Details 1.91 MB 537 downloads
The Dallas Morning News
2008 to 2010
The Dallas Morning News engaged the Institute as their data, analysis, and visualization partner for their North-South Gap initiative, which sought to illuminate disparities between Dallas’ northern and southern sectors. Working with dozens of disparate data sources, the Institute developed a virtual data system with hundreds of indicators for each of the News’ identified neighborhoods. The Institute engaged in cutting edge qualitative research to capture the look and feel of the neighborhood conditions, and developed visualizations that conveyed the baseline information for the News’ work. Much of the research data, combined with the editorial work of the News, was showcased in a 2010 eight page section of the Sunday paper, for which members of the editorial team were awarded the coveted Pulitzer Prize.
learn more the DMN
Interview on Criminal Justice Reform
Details 0.00 KB 503 downloads
News: One in 5 Kids Live in Poverty
Details 555.27 KB 589 downloads
News: Partnership Aims to Improve Resources for Domestic Violence Victims
Details 65.60 KB 456 downloads
Dallas Community Data for Action
2018 to Present
The Dallas Community Data Initiative (Dallas CDA) is a pioneering partnership between IUPR, the Community Council of Greater Dallas, the Dalals Fort Worth Hospital Council Research and Education Foundation, Parkland’s Center for Clinical Innovation, and bC Workshop. The goal is to bring timely, relevant data to non-profit and social agencies to improve their effectiveness and efficiency in fighting poverty.
Learn More About Dallas CDA
Community-wide Data Initiative Listening Session Report
Details 7.48 MB 649 downloads
Promising Youth Alliance
2008 to 2017
In 2008 the Institute began a long partnership with what would soon become known as the Promising Youth Alliance. Promising Youth Alliance is a collaboration among Phoenix House, Boys and Girls clubs, and Big Brothers Big Sisters that provides a continuum of services for children in need at locations across the city of Dallas. The Institute provided consultation assistance during the organization formation and launch, and now currently the Institute provides evaluation of PYA’s after school programming. The Institute has expanded the evaluation effort as the program has expanded, including the addition of a quasi-experimental design that will allow for a more robust evaluation.
North Texas Public Broadcasting
2012 to Present
Working with a variety of data sources, the Institute developed a visual and quantitative report that analyzed potential expansion neighborhoods for KERA’s Healthy Families Initiative, which KERA presented to its project funder. The Institute has provided facilitation, analysis and evaluation of the American Graduate Initiative, which focuses on ways to keep kids on the path to graduation. The Institute brought together a variety of different organizations, experts, stakeholders, and community members to brainstorm strategies that would boost high school graduation rates and support the creation of future programming for the American Graduate Initiative.
learn more about KERA
Trinity Park Conservancy (fka Trinity Trust)
2013 to 2016
The Trinity Trust Foundation engaged the Institute to analyze and evaluate perceptions of safety at parks and recreational facilities to help guide and inform the Trinity Trust Foundation’s creation of a master safety plan for the Trinity River Corridor Project. This included the design and implementation of regional survey about attitudes and perceptions of safety at area parks and recreational facilities. The Trinity River Corridor Project is a monumental public works project that encompasses 20 miles or approximately 10,000 acres along the Trinity River for recreation and environmental restoration.
learn more about Trinity Park Conservancy
Dallas Education Foundation
2014 to 2016
The Dallas Education Foundation, in partnership with the Dallas Independent School district has engaged the Institute to evaluate Project Amplify – an in-school tutoring program implemented for at-risk students at certain campuses in the district. The Institute is working closely with the Dallas Education Foundation, DISD evaluation staff, and tutoring providers to design and implement an evaluation that will track academic progress, as well as social-emotional well-being for participating students. Project Amplify is part of a broader initiative within DISD called Imagine 2020, which provides additional services to all students, not only at-risk, at the same campuses where tutoring is provided.
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CITI Foundation
2011
The Citi Community Leadership Initiative, funded by Citi Foundation in 2011 was a planning grant to explore how universities can support the sustainability and viability of nonprofit organizations that work specifically with low- to moderate income families. Our work on this project included convening a steering committee of non-profits from the Southern sector of Dallas, piloting four experiences to marry university infrastructure, faculty, staff, and students with nonprofits, and creating a toolkit. Through work with the Institute, the steering committee identified seven programmatic areas that are critical to the sustainability of nonprofits: leadership development, fundraising, public relations, research assistance, budgeting for specific outcomes, organizational auditing, and corporate record keeping.
learn more about Citi Foundation