CHARP at UNC Charlotte

Residents of Graham Heights and UNCC students from Mu Tau Beta, an honor society for counseling professionals, hit the streets in support of The Great American Clean-up. We greatly appreciate the efforts of all of our volunteers. The weather held up and we made Graham Heights a beautiful place to be.

On Saturday, April 14^th, Albemarle Road Elementary School staff, Hands On Charlotte, the City of Charlotte, volunteers, and families of Farm Pond partnered together for the Neighborhood-School Partnership Summit. The Summit consisted of various activities for participants, in which individuals were able to share their stories, ideas, values, and interests; ultimately, the participants all worked together and collectively created a community vision statement and plans to help reach this vision.

On Saturday 4/7, the energy was alive in Farm Pond! There were two events that occurred--one was a cleanup, and the other was an Easter event, both of which took place at the Eaglewoods Apartments clubhouse.  UNC Charlotte undergrads (Courtney Hathaway, ‎Madelyn Riddleberger, Stafford Farmer, and Joshua Marks) joined Farm Pond neighbors and volunteers, as well as the property manager, Jorge Montoya, and myself (Community Liaison Sheree Harper) to clean up around the neighborhood.

Graham Heights received a $500 A.C.T. for their upcoming Spring Festival Block Party. A big thank-you to Crossroads Charlotte and the Foundation for the Carolinas for their support of the event. The Graham Heights Neighborhood Association hopes this event will bring people across all age groups and backgrounds together within the community to build human and social capital. The block party will have great food and entertainment from local church bands and step dance teams.

This  month, the Windy Ridge HOA and CrimeWatch installed signs to discourage littering and other distasteful activities.  The signs were purchased with funds from a City of Charlotte Neighborhood Matching Grant and were installed by Fausto Alfaro, HOA President with the help of Keihly Moore, a Master’s student with a dual major in Urban Design and Architecture, who has worked with the Windy Ridge neighborhood for two years.

Please enjoy the newest edition of our CHARP newsletter. This issue contains updates about our neighborhoods, notably our new partner in the Logan Neighborhood of Concord, NC. Also enclosed is a state-of-the-project address by CHARP Director Prof. Janni Sorensen, a notice about our forthcoming “Cultivate Food Forum” on Feb. 23rd, and photos from our partner neighborhoods’ events.

February 2012 Newsletter

On January 21st, 2012, residents from Farm Pond came together at the Hickory Grove Recreation Center for a neighborhood meeting, which occurs on the 3rd Saturday of every month. City of Charlotte Southeast Service Area Specialist Charlenea Duncan, Code Inspector Marta Carson, and Lieutenant Childs from CMPD (including 2 other officers) were all in attendance. All shared some insightful and beneficial information to the residents of Farm Pond. Marta Carson addressed questions/concerns the residents presented about code enforcement.