The Doing Good – Housing & Neighborhoods category supports 14 partner neighborhoods surrounding the Duke campus with a focus on empowering neighborhood associations. Through a facilitation process, these organizations first identify their key needs and priorities, focusing on overlap and opportunities to support and partner across neighborhoods. Then neighborhood associations have the opportunity to create action plans that utilize these donations to implement solutions to their identified key priorities. Additionally, through collaboration with the neighborhood associations, partners are able to co-create projects that support the neighborhood identified priorities.
Neighborhood work is driven by community voices. DCA acts as a partner, facilitator, and advocate in achieving neighborhood community goals. Gifts made to the Doing Good – Neighborhoods & Housing category support this important work.
Neighborhood Giving Impacts
Our Partners
Our core partners consist of the 14 neighborhood associations close to Duke’s campus. This collaboration, called the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership (DDNP), grounds our neighborhood and housing work in the experiences of grassroots organizations and individuals. In 2020, through a consensus workshop this group identified key needs and priorities that will be the focus of the groups work for the next few years. The broad categories of work include: Equity and Justice, Health and Safety, Community Education, Neighborhood Communication Tools, People First Development, Respect and Preserve History. Funds are used by neighborhood associations to address needs within these areas.
DDNP Core Partners
- Burch Ave*
- Bragtown
- Crest Street
- Lakewood Park
- Lyon Park*
- Morehead Hill*
- Old West Durham*
- Southside*
- Trinity Heights
- Trinity Park*
- Tuscaloosa-Lakewood*
- Walltown*
- Watts Hospital-Hillandale*
- West End*
*Asterisk denotes active neighborhood associations as of Jan 2022.
DCA defines active neighborhood associations as groups with a decision-making body that consists of at least three people who are unrelated and in different households. They must also have evidence of ongoing engagement across multiple demographics (ex: including elders and youth, including new and legacy residents, including homeowners and tenants)
Some neighborhoods do not have active neighborhood association groups. DCA staff continue to support neighborhoods by connecting individuals and offering capacity building support for those interested in organizing toward collective neighborhood empowerment.
DDNP Neighborhoods that Received Funding for Community Requests in FY 2022
All neighborhood associations that submitted a community request received funding. In partnership with Duke Arts, community-led projects that incorporate the arts were eligible for a match.
- Burch Avenue partnering with The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice
- Old West Durham partnering with Bike Durham
- Trinity Park
- Tuscaloosa-Lakewood partnering with Lakewood Elementary PTA
Past Grant Cycles
DDNP Neighborhoods that Received Funding for Community Requests in FY 2021
All neighborhood associations that submitted a community request received funding.
- Bragtown
- Burch Avenue
- Lyon Park
- Southside
- Trinity Park
- Tuscaloosa-Lakewood
- Walltown
Nonprofit Partners that Received Funding in FY 2021
Additionally, partners that support the areas of primary need identified by the neighborhoods, have the opportunity to co-create proposals that bring additional knowledge and capacity to community expertise and lived experience. In FY 2021, nonprofits were identified as the partner group able to co-create proposals alongside DDNP Neighborhoods.
- Amy E. Kelly Foundation in collaboration with Walltown
- Bike Durham in collaboration with Burch Avenue
- El Futuro in collaboration with Tuscaloosa-Lakewood
- Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association in collaboration with Trinity Park
- Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in collaboration with Lyon Park & West End
- Reinvestment Partners in collaboration with Bragtown
- West End Community Foundation in collaboration with Lyon Park
FY 2021 Impacts:
Most neighborhoods and nonprofits have submitted their Evaluation and Reflection Reports. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the circumstances it brought to us individually as well as to the work of teams together, some neighborhoods and organizations have been granted extensions to complete their projects with fidelity and submit their Evaluation and Reflection Reports accordingly. These groups have completed progress reports sharing their accomplishments toward their project goal. Learn more about these accomplishments in the Impact Stories section below. Impact Stories for projects with extensions will be updated when the Evaluation and Reflection Reports are submitted.
The following data represents eleven of the twelve funded projects. One project is continuing work with a grant extension as of December 27, 2022.
These numbers represent outcomes for the following projects:
- Upgrading and Reactivating Community Gardens as Community Gathering Space
- Community Clean Ups
- Social Gathering Events
- A Community Performance Stage
- Spanish Translation of Neighborhood Newsletter
- Community Therapeutic Garden and Play Space: Community Listening and Implementation Project
- African Dance Classes
- Recreation Events
- Neighborhood Sign
- Distributing PPE, Gathering and Sharing Information
- Artwork Labels and Installation
- Rain Garden
- Honoring Community Ancestors and Creating Gathering Space
- South Ellerbe Creek Greenway Invasive Species Removal & Signage
- Traffic Calming: Powered by Neighborhood Problem Identification, Solution Development, and Implementation
- Collecting and Preserving Oral Histories from Community Elders
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