Austin-Travis County public-health partners on Nov. 5 presented findings from the 2025 Community Health Assessment (CHA) and accompanying Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), laying out shared priorities and next steps for coordinated implementation.

The presentations—by Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White Health, St. David’s Foundation, Central Texas Food Bank and Austin Public Health—described methods that combined hundreds of secondary indicators with extensive community input, and converged on similar priority areas: access to health care, mental and behavioral health, social determinants of health (including housing and transportation), maternal and child health and food security. The commission approved minutes from its Oct. 1 meeting by voice/hand vote before the presentations.

Kelly Lovelace, community benefit director for Ascension Texas, described Ascension’s regional approach. "People don’t stop at borders of counties," she said, explaining that Ascension’s CHNA covered an 11‑county service area and combined county‑level indicators with subcounty mapping and focus groups to surface geographic disparities. Lovelace said Ascension’s four prioritized needs for the next three years are health care access and quality, mental and behavioral health, social determinants of health and maternal and child health, and that hospitals in the region will develop coordinated strategies to address them.

Nicole Edmonds, who oversees the Community Benefit Department at Baylor Scott & White Health, said her system collected more than 840 survey responses, conducted focus groups and integrated claims data via the Texas Healthcare Information Collection. Baylor’s leaders and community advisers prioritized access to care and behavioral health, Edmonds said, and the system plans to align grantmaking, expand partnerships (including a mental‑health access partnership with Geode Health) and post an interactive community data atlas with claims and stratified indicators by Nov. 15.

Jesse Simmons, senior evaluation officer at St. David’s Foundation, said the foundation led nine months of community engagement before producing a single Central Texas report (five counties) intended to be a living, interactive resource. Simmons said St. David’s collected more than 130 community stories and organized priorities into three broad categories—health care access, economic stability, and community and belonging—emphasizing qualitative findings to guide strategic funding and program changes.

Beth Corbett and Emily Foxman of the Central Texas Food Bank presented a 21‑county food‑access needs assessment and reported that an estimated 18% of Travis County residents face food insecurity. They described program responses that include medically tailored meal pilots, an expanded mobile grocery ("grocery store on wheels") program serving health sites, school pantries, home delivery and a new Central Texas Regional Food System Council to coordinate upstream solutions such as retail and producer supports.

Shirley Aldana, planning coordinator for Austin Public Health and the CHA lead for Austin‑Travis County, summarized the county’s preliminary findings: roughly 1.3 million residents, large racial/ethnic diversity and significant inequities (ALICE households and poverty) that correlate with disparities in health outcomes. Aldana described an 81‑indicator assessment across nine domains and said the process prioritized special populations (older adults, LGBTQ+, veterans, people with disabilities) and unincorporated areas where data are weaker.

Commissioners asked presenters how the commission could most usefully support implementation. Questions focused on measurable gaps (for example, how many rides are needed annually to close transportation barriers), opportunities to coordinate with existing city/county initiatives and how to track referrals and appointment completion when transportation programs are used. Presenters pointed to joint implementation planning among hospitals, shared dashboards and pilot program evaluations as ways to measure impact.

No ordinances, resolutions or other formal policy actions were taken at the meeting; the only formal action recorded in the transcript was approval of the Oct. 1 meeting minutes by voice/hand vote. Presenters invited continued engagement and announced a partner summit in January 2026 (listed in the presentation materials as 01/23/2026) to share final CHA findings and begin strategy work.

The CHA/CHIP presenters repeatedly urged that implementation succeed only with cross‑sector alignment—linking health, housing, transportation and funding—and with sustained investment in community‑driven programs. Several presenters emphasized the value of disaggregated, subcounty data and ongoing qualitative engagement so the assessment functions as a living tool rather than a one‑time report.

Planning and implementation materials cited by presenters—Baylor Scott & White’s community data atlas, St. David’s online interactive CHNA and Austin Public Health’s forthcoming CHIP materials—are available or forthcoming on the organizations’ websites (Baylor’s implementation plan and data atlas were said to be posted by Nov. 15). The commission asked staff to compile follow‑up questions for presenters and indicated transportation for rural areas as a priority topic for future discussion.

Ending: The commission closed the meeting after establishing next steps for the commission’s retreat and follow‑up on transportation and community health worker recommendations; the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:00 p.m.