Last year, a new health center opened in Fort Worth’s historically underserved Las Vegas Trail neighborhood.
The 40,000-square-foot building provides pediatric and adult medical care to the neighborhood, along with workforce training and a food pantry, all under one roof.
In one year, more than 20,000 people sought medical care at the center. Thousands more received food, and 25 enrolled in career training.
The center “has made a real difference” in the community, said Paige Charbonnet, executive director of neighborhood revitalization project LVTRise, in an email to the Fort Worth Report.
“It has made health care more accessible to residents and helped address a need the community identified when we began our revitalization efforts,” she said.
The statistics are now in from the center’s first year. The Report examined the impact of those numbers.
Patients seen and meals distributed
The Las Vegas Trail neighborhood was “considered a medical desert” before the health center opened, said Wini King, since-retired senior vice president and chief of marketing and communications for Cook Children’s Health Care System, at a media day last July.
“There was nothing here to provide this kind of convenience for these patients,” she said.
From July 21, 2025, to July 31, 2026, the Cook Children’s clinic saw 11,324 visits.
JPS Health Network saw 10,139 visits during that same time period. More than half were for primary care. One in four were for obstetrics and gynecology, and nearly a quarter were for behavioral health.
The colocation of the two health systems allows the center to provide whole-family continuity of care, said Veronica Tolley, vice president of primary care and specialty services for Cook Children’s.
She gave the example of a mother who brings her newborn to the Cook Children’s clinic and is referred for postpartum depression to the JPS clinic — care for the parent and the child, all in a shared lobby.
“We’ve seen that over and over in this past year working really successfully,” she said.
Dr. Karen Duncan, CEO and president of JPS Health Network, and Rick Merrill, CEO and president of Cook Children’s, celebrate the groundbreaking of the health systems’ joint Las Vegas Trail neighborhood health center at the corner of Calmont Avenue and Cherry Lane on Nov. 14, 2023. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)
As for JPS, President and CEO Dr. Karen Duncan said in a statement to the Report that the more than 10,000 visits exemplifies increased access to care for the neighborhood’s residents.
“What we’ve seen over the past year reinforces the importance of bringing care closer to the community and ensuring residents have access to high-quality healthcare when and where they need it,” she said. “We’re grateful for the trust patients and families have placed in our team during the center’s first year.”
(Haley Walton | Fort Worth Report)
The center also distributed more than $1.7 million in goods through the WestAid pantry and saw a total of 24,158 shopping trips and lunches provided for the homeless.
Yuseff Howard, executive director of WestAid, said the last year has been one of growth for his organization. WestAid is serving more people now than when the food pantry first relocated to the building. Even still, the pantry has to turn people away. The demand has increased due to rising costs and cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Howard said, and WestAid does not have enough volunteers to extend its hours.
Howard said the center’s design creating close proximity between his food pantry and the health systems “has just been a blessing.” He emphasized how the organizations work together in the ways they serve the community, noting that nutrition impacts overall health.
“The amount of services that we’re able to provide in this one location — it’s a godsend,” he said. “It truly is.”
Howard also discovered a need to increase awareness of the other entities offering services in the center. By tabling in the building’s lobby outside the clinics, he met visitors who did not know a food pantry was in another part of the building. And when WestAid visitors sit in the waiting room before doing their shopping trip, he has also found that many are not previously aware they can see a doctor at the same address.
Classes taught and community events held
With collaboration from Tarrant County College and Workforce Solutions of Tarrant County, the center offers job training, aiming to instill in participants skills needed for roles such as call center representative, medical receptionist and claims associate.
After completing the program, graduates can apply for jobs at Cook Children’s and JPS, certificate in hand.
“The whole goal is to create that pathway for them to get a career in healthcare and grow that career, which will overall improve their economic well-being and their overall health,” said Christine Hernandez, then a workforce development specialist for Cook Children’s, at the media day last July.
A year later, the center has taught 25 students so far. Five were hired for roles at Cook Children’s or JPS, Tolley said.
The center also hosted 929 events, including community education, cooking classes, tours and meetings.
The demonstration kitchen hosted 42 cooking classes attended by 437 people during its first nine months. It was designed with teaching nutrition classes in mind and includes a camera above the cooking area to project an overhead view of what the instructor is doing.
A video camera projects over a stovetop in the demonstration/teaching kitchen at Cook Children’s Neighborhood Health Center at Las Vegas Trail in Fort Worth on July 29, 2025. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
One of Tolley’s favorite events was a May gallery night that displayed work from local students, focusing on feelings and mental health. The young artists, their families and members of the Cook Children’s health system attended the event.
“The dignity and the pride that comes from acknowledging someone in the community like that, I think went much further than we had anticipated,” Tolley said.
Looking to the future
Howard wants to continue the work his organization has been doing, he said, and to get the next generation involved in serving their community. As he put it, “I’m not going to be here forever. Neither are all the volunteers here.”
He also would like to expand the food pantry’s hours to keep it open later for those who work during normal business hours.
As for Cook Children’s, its pediatric clinic has enough space to add another physician, and the health system will be watching to see when that need arises, Tolley said.
She also emphasized a desire to continue building relationships, including with residents as well as community partners.
“That is where we prove that we’re not just coming and leaving, that we’re committed, that we are listening and continuously learning from what the community needs, and not assuming what they need,” she said. “We have to continue to evolve.”
McKinnon Rice is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Her position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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