Hope for the Holidays: New Health Center Earns Multiple Top Honors for Transforming Care

This holiday season, Las Vegas Trail area residents are experiencing a new chapter of wellness and hope, thanks to an award-winning collaboration bringing health services close to their west Fort Worth neighborhood, which has long been known as both a health care and food desert.

Since the new Neighborhood Health Center serving the Las Vegas Trail area opened its doors in August, thousands have received health care services through the center’s two medical clinics, a partnership of Cook Children’s Health Care System and JPS Health Network. Participants in the Neighborhood Health Center’s first workforce development program, taught by Tarrant County College, are set to graduate in December. Nearly 100 community members have participated in one of 12 cooking classes offered in the center’s teaching kitchen, where a Cook Children’s dietician demonstrates how to prepare healthy, budget-friendly meals with limited cooking resources. Hundreds of connections have been made through outreach events.

“It's been a really meaningful experience to connect with so many members of the community through our work,” said Sky Ramos, community health worker at the Neighborhood Health Center. “I've had the opportunity to personally visit with and assist approximately 150 individuals as they navigate managing their health, and I have connected with many more through community outreach events I’ve attended.”

In October, the center welcomed over 200 attendees at a Trunk or Treat Resources Fair where guests were provided a free meal and connected with resources focusing on family health and safety resources.

“Anything like this event helps a lot, especially being close to our home,” said Liza Salinas, who attended the Trunk or Treat Resources Fair with her two children. “Right now, I have no vehicle so that right there is a blessing. I know I don’t have to worry about getting my kids to their doctor’s appointment and going to see their doctor. Events like these are just a blessing because you get to learn so much new information that you didn’t even know about. We’re having fun. It’s all about the children.”

Cook Children’s leadership in building and operating the Neighborhood Health Center recently garnered recognition from three community organizations.

A Community on the Rise

At its annual Rise Luncheon on October 8, LVTRise—the non-profit organization at the center of Las Vegas Trail’s revitalization—honored Cook Children’s for its leadership in creating a health center that reflects the community’s unique needs and embraces its cultural heartbeat.

It takes imagination and collaboration to build a center that fully meets community members’ health and wellness needs, particularly when 32% of people in a community live below the poverty level and in a food desert. The state of an individual’s health isn’t just influenced by the physical. It’s also driven by social, economic and environmental factors. Daily stressors like finances, food security, transportation challenges and joblessness often overshadow health care and create barriers that directly impact the wellness of individuals, families and communities. Recognizing the critical need for a unique approach, JPS and Cook Children’s, with support from several other community partners, joined forces to open the Neighborhood Health Center serving the Las Vegas Trail area.

“This center is the first big transformative milestone that came from the Las Vegas Trail Neighborhood Transformation Plan,” said Paige Charbonnet, executive director of LVTRise. “It’s an out-of-the-box approach to something the community needed and wanted. When Cook Children’s said they wanted to be involved, they were clear they wanted to do more than just support the cause. They wanted to be hands-on and become a part of the fabric of this community, and that’s exactly what they’ve done in a very impactful way.”

More than just another clinic, the health center is a close-to-home, one-stop wellness hub designed to remove common barriers to care for those living in and near the neighborhood. It seamlessly integrates multiple essential health and social services under one roof, including WestAid Food Pantry, a teaching kitchen, a workforce development program and an onsite community health worker dedicated to helping guests navigate the health care system, manage their health care, access financial assistance and identify local resources.

A Season of Success with JPS

JPS and Cook Children’s have been beacons of health care in Tarrant County for well over 100 years. They share a similar history and mission, having both been born from a desire to help the most vulnerable in the community, regardless of their ability to pay. This is the first joint-venture between the two organizations. Since opening, JPS and Cook Children’s have recorded more than 4,000 combined patient encounters at the center spanning its full array of services. These include adult and pediatric primary care, obstetrics and gynecology, newborn visits, well-child checks, and adult and adolescent behavioral health and counseling. 

On October 18, JPS named Cook Children’s as the recipient of the Community Impact Award at  its White Coat Gala. The annual gala celebrates the dedication, generosity and care of health care professionals, community leaders and philanthropic partners, and recognizes their daily impact on the community.

“JPS’s partnership with Cook Children’s demonstrates what is possible when organizations come together with a shared commitment to community-led solutions,” said Karen Duncan, president and CEO of JPS Health Network. “JPS is proud to partner with Cook Children’s to bring high-quality, accessible care directly to families in the Las Vegas Trail community. By integrating medical care, food resources, workforce training, and community outreach, we are helping transform the Las Vegas Trail area to improve overall health outcomes for generations to come.”

D CEO's 2005 Excellence in Healthcare Awards

In recognition of this first-of-its-kind collaboration that turned a health care desert into a wellness hub, JPS and Cook Children’s were announced as winners of D CEO's Excellence in Healthcare Awards for 2025 for Outstanding Healthcare Collaboration at an awards event on Dec. 4. Every year, D CEO recognizes the region’s health care leaders and organizations for their achievement, community impact and economic influence. Members of the magazine’s editorial team, along with outside judges with extensive knowledge of the health care field, evaluated more than 150 nominations across several categories to name this year’s winners.

“We’re thrilled and humbled to receive these recognitions from our partners and D CEO,” said Rick Merrill, president and CEO of Cook Children’s. “Of course, we didn’t work alone to accomplish any of this. It took almost every community asset, from health care to education to social services and public safety, to make the center what it is today. This proves that when organizations mobilize and collaborate, people, families and communities win. I know I speak for every Neighborhood Health Center partner when I say that’s the most rewarding thing of all. It’s why we do what we do.”