United Way wants to focus on wealth gaps. Will it help Fort Worth’s neighborhoods?
The United Way of Tarrant County wants to do a better job tackling community issues through a lens of equity and inclusion.
That starts with ensuring the nonprofit’s board of directors has a clear understanding of how inequity affects Fort Worth’s communities, such as the 76104 ZIP code, where the Star-Telegram last year explored low life expectancy rates.
Since July the local United Way has been one of five chapters in a pilot program that aims to teach United Way boards of directors how to steer their organizations with a stronger focus on equity. The hope is that when the board has a deeper understanding of equity issues in the community, the United Way will be able to craft stronger programs, said Regina Williams, vice president of community investment.
Specific programs or changes to the Tarrant County United Way have not been decided, she said, but the focus will be on addressing the racial wealth gap.
“Whether you’re looking at housing disparities, education disparities or health disparities it is still tied back to the racial wealth gap,” she said.
In December, United Way committed to coordinating health and education resources in Fort Worth’s 76104 ZIP code after CEO Leah King King read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s “Life & Death in 76104” series that was published in September.
The series chronicled life in three neighborhoods south of downtown Fort Worth — Historic Southside, Morningside and Hillside. The series was sparked by a 2019 UT Southwestern study that found residents of the 76104 ZIP code have the lowest life expectancy rate in the state.
On average, people who live in the 76104 ZIP code won’t live to see their 67th birthday and will die 12 years younger than the national average, according to the study. Women in 76104 live on average to be 70 while men live to be 63.7.
Many factors drive the inequity in the mostly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, including a lack of access to jobs and groceries. One of the most glaring disparity is access to health care. Though the ZIP code is in the shadow of Fort Worth’s medical district, prompt healthcare remains out of reach for many residents because of poor transportation and high cost.
On Monday, the sixth of seven United Way training sessions focused on issues related to health disparities and featured Star-Telegram reporter Nichole Manna, who chronicled the disparities in east Fort Worth, and Sandi Pruitt, a UT Southwestern assistant professor of population and data sciences.
Williams said the board training will help the United Way craft programs to address inequity in 76104.
“If we’re not intentional with making sure that we understand diversity, equity and inclusion, we will create programs without understanding where we come from, how did we get here and what is it going to take in order for us to create impact,” she said.
