{"id":120119,"date":"2025-08-05T05:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120119\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T05:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:54:14","slug":"las-vegas-trail-fort-worth-health-center-opens-aug-5-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120119\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Trail Fort Worth Health Center Opens Aug. 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Fort Worth\u2019s\u00a0Las Vegas Trail neighborhood<\/a>\u00a0the story hasn\u2019t always been one of hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The area over the past three decades has become known more for what it lacked, including viable options for grocery shopping, transportation, and healthcare for neighbors. Since the 1993 closure of Carswell Air Force Base, this pocket on the West Side had become, as City Councilman Michael Crain\u00a0put it, a healthcare desert. \u201cThere was no medical care west of Como and the BioMed Center,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is where you entered the city from the west \u2014 and for a long time, it felt like a place people ended up, not somewhere they chose to live.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That changes on\u00a0Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A first-of-its-kind partnership between Cook Children\u2019s, JPS Health Network, the city of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, LVTRise, WestAid, and a chorus of community stakeholders will officially open a new 40,000-square-foot neighborhood health center at 2800 S. Cherry Lane. The center \u2014 offering everything from pediatric care to behavioral health services, a food pantry, wellness classes, and workforce training \u2014 will serve as a central access point for families who\u2019ve spent decades cobbling together care across the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ribbon cutting for the Las Vegas Trail Neighborhood Health Center will take place\u00a0at 9 a.m. Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a milestone moment, but it didn\u2019t happen overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2021, Crain\u00a0launched LVT 2.0 \u2014 a\u00a0revitalization strategy anchored by LVTRise<\/a>, a nonprofit that grew out of a groundswell of concern after a 2017\u00a0Star-Telegram\u00a0expos\u00e9 laid bare the neighborhood\u2019s deficiencies.<\/p>\n

One of the residents moved by that piece was\u00a0Paige Charbonnet, who lived just 10 minutes away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could read that article and move on with your day,\u201d she said. \u201cOr you could roll up your sleeves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charbonnet did the latter \u2014 volunteering first, then joining LVTRise full time. Today, she serves as the organization\u2019s executive director and helped guide the health center\u2019s creation. \u201cThis is one of our first big transformative dominoes to fall,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen double-digit crime reductions, and education is improving.”<\/p>\n

In fact, in 2017, when Crain\u00a0worked for his predecessor on the council, Brian Byrd, Las Vegas Trail accounted for 4% of the city\u2019s crime rate even though it represented only 1% of city’s population.\u00a0Public safety was the first step, but Crain said he\u00a0knew that wouldn\u2019t be enough.\u00a0\u201cYou can\u2019t arrest your way out of crime,\u201d Crain said. \u201cYou have to invest your way out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Invest in things like this health center.<\/p>\n

Said\u00a0Charbonnet, “This is huge.”<\/p>\n

What sets the center apart isn\u2019t just the scale of services but how they’re delivered: intentionally\u00a0and in collaboration with those who will use them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sky Ramos, a community health worker with Cook Children\u2019s Health Plan, knows firsthand what that means. She once lived\u00a0in LVT. As a new mom, she had to travel across town to McCart Avenue just to get a doctor\u2019s appointment for her child.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I couldn\u2019t even get in. And transportation was always an issue,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cSo when I say this clinic will change lives, I mean it. I\u2019ve lived it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll now work full-time in the building where, not long ago, she would\u2019ve stood in line for care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI take it personally,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially for our Spanish-speaking neighbors. Sometimes they\u2019re scared to ask for help. Now, they won\u2019t have to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The facility will also include a JPS-run women\u2019s health program, adult and family medicine, and same-day pediatric appointments. For local residents like Alexabely Lamper,\u00a0mother of two, who shared her experience during the media tour, the benefits are already real. \u201cI got a vaccine today and booked a follow-up,\u201d she said, beaming. \u201cI felt like I was home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ribbon cutting on Tuesday\u00a0will kick off \u201c30 Days of Wellness\u201d \u2014 a monthlong slate of free events, health demos, and educational opportunities aimed at getting residents in the door and involved in their own care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the money is following the momentum. Crain\u00a0estimated\u00a0that in just three years, roughly $100 million has been invested in the Las Vegas Trail corridor \u2014 with another $70 million expected soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just charity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is about empowerment. And it\u2019s working.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since its formation in 2018, LVTRise has taken that mantra to heart \u2014 evolving from a pop-up community service hub into a permanent force for change. Its Rise Community Center opened in 2020, followed by a Fort Worth Public Library branch the next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, with health and well-being firmly in place as one of its revitalization pillars \u2014 alongside public safety, education, and housing \u2014 Las Vegas Trail finally has the infrastructure to support the people who live there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the people who live there are leading the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about new walls or shiny facilities,\u201d Charbonnet said. \u201cIt\u2019s about meeting people where they are \u2014 and showing them how far we can go together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Fort Worth\u2019s\u00a0Las Vegas Trail neighborhood\u00a0the story hasn\u2019t always been one of hope.\u00a0 The area over the past…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,74776,74777,37816,7371,7372,1142,7207,10763,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-120119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-community-programs","10":"tag-educational","11":"tag-food-bank","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fortworth","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-police","16":"tag-stephen-montoya","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-top-story","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114974612866470248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}