Dr. Ronnie McGee, representing the ESMU project team, told the Dallas Veterans Affairs Commission that the team has made substantial progress on the geospatial portion of the veterans well-being assessment and is nearing completion of that phase.

"They are getting very close to finishing out that part of it," McGee said, describing mapping work that compares veteran residential concentrations with the location of services. He said Dr. Jesse Zarzaga is leading the geospatial effort and that the full team hopes to present a detailed update at the commission’s December meeting.

McGee said the project is behind schedule on coding the VIIF (veterans input/feedback) text data and forum responses; that work was expected to be complete in September but remains underway and is expected to finish within a few weeks. He said he has been analyzing available data and will update commissioners once the coding is finished.

The team has consulted measuringcommunities.org, an online resource maintained by Purdue University’s Military Family Research Institute, for county- and city-level graphics; McGee said he found data for Houston and some statewide resources but did not find an obvious Dallas-specific dataset there. Commissioner Scott Chase and others suggested reaching local veteran service organizations, and one commissioner identified the Veterans Resource Center at 4900 South Lancaster Road (ZIP 75216) as a local nonprofit resource that can provide on-the-ground information and said the center is holding an annual Veterans Stand Down on Oct. 23 from 9 a.m. to about 2 p.m.

McGee said the project team also plans to analyze social media (including Reddit) and integrate multiple data arms as schedules permit. He noted difficulty scheduling a full team meeting because of conflicting calendars and said he and the team will continue trying to coordinate a presentation for the commission in December.