Browsing by Subject "Durham, North Carolina"
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Item Open Access An Evaluation of the Food Desert Definition in Durham, North Carolina(2012-04-25) Parsons, SarahUrban food deserts are low-income communities located more than one mile from a vendor that supplies affordable, healthy food options. According to the USDA, 11.5 million Americans nationwide live in food desert areas. Before policymakers can effectively address food deserts, however, the parameters of food deserts need to be more clearly defined. This research challenges the two primary criteria currently used by USDA to define food deserts, distance from a grocery store and community socio-economic status, and presents new characteristics, which are vital to a redefinition. Additionally, it highlights the many barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables in low-income communities, and how these barriers can be used to more comprehensively define food deserts within the context of Durham, North Carolina. This study conducted eight focus groups in low-income communities in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina to determine barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables. Additionally, this study used geospatial (GIS) analysis to locate food deserts in Durham, using the USDA’s criteria. The GIS map in this study used finer scale census block data to locate food deserts. Twenty-four major barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables emerged from the data. These barriers were found through researcher memos and qualitative coding in NVivo, a qualitative analysis software. From these twenty-four barriers, fourteen criteria were created to redefine food deserts. Each criterion was chosen based on how easily a local policymaker could access the data associated with the criterion. GIS results found that food deserts, when mapped with finer scale census block level data, more narrowly located food desert communities in Durham. The fourteen criteria used to define food deserts in this study, coupled with the GIS map produced from the study, could help Durham policymakers more accurately identify food deserts and help them devise more comprehensive policy solutions to eradicate them.Item Open Access Coming Home to Bull City: A Program Evaluation of Durham’s Local Reentry Council(2021-01-19) Dowrich, TheaSince the 1970s, the U.S. has seen a 500% increase in its total incarcerated population. Not only are people formally incarcerated, but as of 2016, there were about 6.6 million individuals under any kind of criminal supervision, including parole and probation. Although sentencing policies have changed such that people are facing longer sentences, more than 95% of them will eventually be released. Re-entry programs are designed to help returning citizens acclimate to society after their period of incarceration. Their goal is to decrease recidivism, maintain public safety and save money. Many re-entry institutions provide employment readiness training and access to post-secondary education. North Carolina began its efforts to aid formerly incarcerated individuals in 2009. The state’s programming for reintegration is led by local re-entry councils (LRCs). As of 2017, there were 14 re-entry councils serving 20 counties. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice, local reentry councils are meant to “coordinate resources in the community for formerly incarcerated people and their families that will facilitate a successful transition from the criminal justice system back into society.” Looking specifically at Durham County, I sought to investigate how well its local reentry council is fulfilling its mandate to help justice-involved individuals reintegrate into society. Durham’s LRC does not effectively collect data, as such it is virtually impossible to determine their success rate. Therefore, I am recommending that the LRC adds a data analyst and begins collecting data at person-level, rather than the offense-level.Item Open Access Community Bonding: Rebuilding Duke University and Durham, North Carolina to Promote Sexual Autonomy(2019-12-19) Sara, StevensMy central question asks how universities can engage with local communities to work towards increased sexual safety on campuses. Specifically, I first argue that universities can improve sexual safety on campuses by incorporating ideas about consent and sexuality from alternative sexual communities into safety initiatives. I then argue that universities can further improve sexual safety on campuses through engagement with off-campus business that are central to student life. Student activists and university administrators must reach outside the university to engage with local communities and unite against all forms of sexual misconduct. I cast a wide net in Chapter One to look at the various notions of safety, consent, and gender in contemporary BDSM (bondage, discipline (or domination), sadism (or submission), and masochism) communities in hopes of finding new ways to restructure modes of though around sexual assault and harassment prevention. I find that the normative response from Duke University (and their peer institutions) against sexual assault and harassment prevention to add more policy and review boards is not working. Chapter two brings readers back to the relationship between Duke and Durham to evaluate how restructuring sex education and community engagement can form a better response against sexual misconduct and improve sexual justice at its core. My research led me to realize how important sexual autonomy is to community health. As it currently stands in the United States, policies, laws and ideologies around appropriate sexual conduct damage sexual autonomy. Our autonomy forms how we interact with our outside community, not just intimately but socially. Therefore, if Duke University wants to strengthen sexual justice on campus, they need to first invest in sex education to re-build students’ sexual autonomy.Item Open Access Do Evictions Cause Income Changes? An Instrumental Variables Approach(2019-04) Mok, GraceEvictions are an important aspect of the affordable housing crisis facing low-income American renters. However, there has been little research quantifying the causal impact of evictions, which poses challenges for academics interested in understanding inequality and policy-makers interested in reducing it. Merging two datasets both new to the literature, I address this gap in the causal literature by using an instrumental variables strategy to examine the impact of evictions on household income over time in Durham, North Carolina. Exploiting gentrification-related evictions as an instrument, I find a 2.5% decrease in household income after eviction. This is a small, but significant decrease in income given that median household income for households at time of eviction is about $15,000.Item Open Access Durham, North Carolina: A 21st Century Case Study on Gentrification, Artists, and the Creative Economy(2020-04) Ritchie, Laura JaneArtist communities both generate, and coalesce around, sites of cultural significance and aesthetic intrigue. In doing so, artists and artist-run spaces impact the cultural and socioeconomic value of place. The connection between urban transformation and artist communities is not a new concept but, as American cities adapt to post-industrial economies, economic development strategies increasingly leverage artists’ cultural capital to regenerate disinvested urban areas. Over the last decade, Durham, North Carolina was ranked as the top creative class metro in the country, exceeded national medians in arts economic impact studies, and scored in the highest percentile for arts vibrancy. Durham’s new creative economy has led to a rapid period of real estate development that now threatens to fragment and erase its local arts ecosystem. In spite of its top performance in national metrics, almost half of Durham’s independent arts venues have closed or relocated outside of the downtown core. This project investigates the history of Durham’s transformation, considers its influences, and measures its impacts on artist communities and artist-run spaces during the time period of Durham’s Cultural Master Plan, 2004-2019. Complementing current academic theories and original research with a decade of experience with Durham’s artist-run spaces, the author concludes with a series of observations and recommendations for the city’s cultural workers and policymakers.Item Open Access Financing a Pre-K Expansion in Durham: Lessons from Other Communities(2017-06-19) Quarton, KatherineA growing body of evidence suggests that public investment in high-quality preschool programs improves school readiness, and produces significant and lasting impacts on children across a wide variety of outcomes. Research suggests that the impact of high quality preschool services is especially robust among children from disadvantaged backgrounds, including low-income children and English Language Learners. Analysis of Census data suggests that there is an unmet need for preschool services in Durham County, North Carolina. Of the approximately 2,000 4-year-olds in Durham living below 200% of the Federal Poverty level, only about 800 received preschool services during the 2015-2016 school year. This suggests that there is an unmet need of approximately 1,200 low-income 4-year-olds in Durham each year. Durham elected officials charged the Finance Subcommittee of the Durham Community Preschool Task Force with providing information about financial models that can support preschool expansion and eventually universal preschool in Durham. This Masters Project supports the Subcommittee’s efforts by presenting case studies and analysis of how communities around the country funded preschool expansions at the local level. The goal of this effort is to develop insights for the Task Force drawn from the real experiences of communities that are leading the effort to expand access to high-quality preschool ahead of state and federal efforts. This paper is broken down into several sections. Chapters one through three introduce the challenge facing Durham, address contextual factors affecting preschool access in Durham and North Carolina more broadly, and overview preschool financing strategies available to local governments. Chapters four through eight provide analysis of five case studies of communities that increased access to preschool with local funds. Findings are based on in-person and phone interviews and analysis of primary and secondary reports. Each case focuses on a unique financing strategy and identifies barriers and keys to success. Two communities studied (Denver and Boston) have pursued universal programs, while the other three (Forsyth, Wake and Salt Lake County) have expanded programs in a targeted manner. These include: 1. Salt Lake County, UT – Pay for Success 2. Denver, CO – Sales Tax and Sliding Scale Tuition Payments 3. Forsyth County, NC – Philanthropy 4. Wake County, NC – County Budget 5. Boston, MA: Mixed formula (with emphasis on district funds) The paper concludes with implications for successful funding strategies in Durham.