Community Engagement

Sample Student Projects in Durham

Citizen Experience Lab (CX-LAB)

Image

Sanford faculty members Tom Allin and Blythe Meyer co-teach Sanford’s Human Centered Design course,  the “Citizen Experience Lab.” As a part of the course, Sanford MPP students helped GoDurham improve the customer experience of Durham public transportation. The students worked with customers and employees to test ways to improve the customer experience. The students shared results and recommendations with GoDurham in a HCD storybook that detailed all of the students’ work from the 14-week process.

Durham Partners for Youth Opportunity Project

Students in Lalita Kaligotla's PPS270 Lead the Way Durham course are working on a collaborative project between the organizations Step Up Durham and Durham Partners for Youth Opportunity on ways to better raise funds for the organization's projects. They are making a video about a family who went through some financial training the organizations provided. Watch video>>

Durham Bull Moon initiative

Students in Lalita Kaligotla's PPS270 Lead the Way Durham course are doing outreach and program evaluation work in collaboration with Durham's Bull Moon Rising project/community event. It's being run by the City's Public Arts Program in the General Services office. Read more here. 

Sample Initiatives and Research Projects

The Sanford School has many programs and centers housed within the school that carry out many initiatives and research projects focused on particular policy issues.

Home Buying and Inequality

Durham, NC has a legacy of inequality. Many neighborhoods had "covenants" requiring that excluded non-whites from buying homes. Professor Bob Korstad has been looking into the issue, and his research has been turned into a civic education initiative, Bull City 150: Reckoning with Durham's Past to Build a More Equitable Future. The project culminated in 2019, Durham's 150th birthday.

DURHAM COVID-19 TASKFORCE

Image

The summer of 2020, as Durham City government grappled with the pandemic, Sanford alum Ryan Smith MPP’12, recruited Sanford students and recent graduates to be the research arm of the Durham Recover and Renewal Task Force.

The task force advised Mayor Steve Schewel and County Commission Chair Wendy Jacobs on how to safely and successfully re-open Durham and address longstanding problems aggravated by the pandemic. 

Statewide Engagement Examples

Policy Lab

In Policy Lab, students learn to write a succinct policy memo under the guidance of faculty member Deondra Rose – often for lawmakers in North Carolina. Rose is co-director of the North Carolina Chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network. Through Policy Lab, students gain real-world experience, while North Carolina policymakers receive research, ideas and recommendations at no cost to taxpayers. Last year, students wrote memos for N.C. Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (ways to boost teacher retention rates), Greensboro City Council member Tammi Thurm (how to implement a cost-effective and robust “good repair” ordinance) and N.C. Rep. Gale Adcock, among others. More info.
 

NC Education Data Center 

The North Carolina Education Research Data Center (NC ERDC) at the Center for Child and Family Policy was created in 2000 through a partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to store and manage data on the state’s public schools, students, and teachers. Data can be accessed by researchers and government agencies who meet the established guidelines. Hundreds of dissertations, academic papers, and policy briefs have emerged based on data from North Carolina, benefiting the state and other states across the country. 

Featuring NC Farmers

The World Food Policy Center created a series of podcasts in partnership with the Farm Bureau to increase awareness of North Carolina farming families. 

In the Governor’s Office

In November 2019, Gov. Cooper appointed to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency Board of Directors Adam Abram of Chapel Hill as a member with expertise in public housing policy and chair. Abram is the founder, chairman and CEO of James River Group, LTD, which owns a group of insurance companies. He is the chairman emeritus of the board of visitors of Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy. Gov. Cooper also appointed to the North Carolina Humanities Council Sanford alumnus Christopher Lam of Charlotte as a member at-large. Lam is a partner at Bradley Law Firm and is the managing partner of the Charlotte office and a former Sanford Board of Visitors member. 

NC School Research Partnership 

The Duke University School Research Partnership was established with support from the Office of the Provost and the Center for Child and Family Policy in 2006.  The Partnership links Duke students and faculty members with local schools and school districts that request strategic research that can have an immediate impact on their policies. Read more about the partnership.

NC Resilience & Learning 

The North Carolina Resilience and Learning Project, led by the Center for Child and Family Policy's Katie Rosanbalm, works with high poverty schools across the state to ensure academic success and improve social and emotional well-being of children impacted by trauma. To date, Rosanbalm and her team have supported implementation of a trauma-sensitive educational framework in 24 schools across 14 counties in North Carolina.

Local Area Engagement

Area high school engages with ethics events 

Image

Matt Cone, teacher of social studies class from Carrboro High School, has brought students to many events. Cone often coordinates small group meetings with the speakers, like Nobel Peace Prize-winner Nadia Murad.