Break the Cycle: A Community Working Together to End Violence

This entry was contributed by on May 23rd, 2019 at 2:12 pm and is filed under , , .

In a fast-growing city like Charlotte (N.C.), many factors can contribute to rising crime rates. There is, however, a common driver that has been identified… individuals who know each other settling disputes with gunfire. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) has numerous crime reduction strategies in place including their launch of a Crisis Intervention Team and Community Policing Crisis Response Team but they also value partnerships across the community that join them in efforts to help keep the city safe. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations is a very strong partner in this work and offers comprehensive conflict resolution training to the community. Putting an emphasis on teaching people how to resolve conflict without violence could have a significant impact on issues Charlotte is experiencing. It is critical that conflict resolution be offered to both youth and adults which is why Community Relations has also partnered with schools to offer peer mediation programs. Continue Reading

Collaboration: What Makes it Work

This entry was contributed by on April 10th, 2019 at 9:00 am and is filed under , .

One of the better and more practical resources on community collaboration that I have utilized over the years is a little monograph published by the Wilder Foundation titled Collaboration: What Makes it Work (authors Paul W. Mattessich and Kirsten M. Johnson). I’ve long appreciated the practical advice, drawn from the research literature and from observed practice, and how well the authors conveyed that information concisely, in a 75 page handbook. So I was very pleased to see a new, third edition of the handbook was published last year, and I am happy to report that the new edition is even better. Here I highlight some of its key contributions, while offering my strong endorsement and recommendation for anyone doing boundary-crossing work to get your own copy of this resource.

Like the previous edition, the new third edition is focused on collaboration as “a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organization to achieve common goals.” The book is organized around 22 collaboration success factors, grouped within six categories of Continue Reading

The Durham Innovation Council

This entry was contributed by on September 23rd, 2015 at 8:42 am and is filed under , .

I am involved with a new group forming called The Durham Innovation Council. It’s a national movement to help small businesses and people of color who want to start new businesses ,or have innovative ideals for new businesses, get support and access to services that they have had problem getting. What is different about what we are proposing to do from what other business support groups are doing is that we are a four city collaboration that shares best practices and ideals that are proven to work in poor and low income communities in the four partnering cities. We also help bring capital and mentorship to the table. The four cities are Durham, Detroit, Cleveland and New Orleans. Continue Reading