SMU team to map Dallas veteran needs; city-contracted assessment launches May 10 forum

A team from Southern Methodist University, working under a contract with the City of Dallas, outlined a data-driven assessment of veteran services in Dallas and said it will launch a one-day Veterans Innovation and Insight Forum on May 10 to collect first-hand perspectives from veterans and service providers.

Moni McGee, associate professor of statistics and data science at SMU and principal investigator for the project, told the commission, "we have an official contract with the city of Dallas to perform the services that we're talking about today." The SMU team described a three-pronged approach that combines the forum, analysis of existing survey data and a geospatial mobility and services map intended to show where veterans live, how often services are offered and how accessible they are.

The project team said the forum will gather qualitative input from veterans and stakeholders through hands-on exercises and facilitated table discussions; SMU plans to invite roughly 80 to 100 participants and run the event as a full-day session. Jessie Zarizaga, associate professor in civil and…