Skip to main content

Grant Will Help Duke Support Community Programs

The Duke Endowment grant will support affordable housing, youth programs, health clinics and nonprofits in neighborhoods near the university campus

A $515,000 grant from The Duke Endowment will help Duke University provide ongoing support for affordable housing, youth programs and nonprofits in the West End and Walltown neighborhoods.

An additional $240,000 will help make health care more accessible to residents in those communities by expanding the Lyon Park Clinic and helping to open the new Walltown Neighborhood Clinic.

The Endowment's most recent grant means the Charlotte-based foundation has invested more than $3.5 million in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership over the past seven years. The partnership, created in 1996, brings together Duke University and residents to improve neighborhoods and schools near campus.

"The Duke Endowment's consistent and sustained support continues to be crucial to our efforts as catalysts for positive change in Durham," said Richard H. Brodhead, president of Duke University. "It enables the Neighborhood Partnership to work on long-term goals rather than mere short-term fixes. We are extremely grateful for the vision of The Duke Endowment, which has made possible much of the progress we have seen."

The Duke Endowment grant helps further several of the partnerhip's priorities, all of which were determined by the residents:

Increase affordable housing

The Self-Help Community Development Corp. will receive $200,000 to support one of the nation's largest university-related neighborhood revitalization programs. Since 1996, Self-Help has been rehabilitating neglected rental houses in Walltown and transforming them into good quality single-family homes. As of this month, 56 homes have been sold to first-time low-income homeowners at low financing rates.  Duke has provided a $4 million loan to Self-Help to extend affordable housing in the Neighborhood Partnership for an additional 10 years.

The Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Committee, which has been working to identify community needs and build cohesiveness in the area's six neighborhoods, will receive $55,000 to support continued facilitation of its grassroots planning process. The group of representatives from neighborhoods, nonprofits and for-profit companies has spearheaded plans to build 13 new affordable houses this spring on Gattis Street in the West End, with help from the city, Self-Help, Habitat for Humanity of Durham and the Durham Community Land Trustees.

"Duke has helped our committee figure out how to approach and partner with these various groups," said Lyon Park Neighborhood Association President Dorcas Bradley, co-facilitator of the group's steering committee. "We couldn't have done it by ourselves."

Support Childhood Education and Enrichment

The grant includes $135,000 for youth programming in the West End Community Center's Teen Focus program; Partners for Youth, an award-winning intensive mentoring and job-training program for young people ages 14-18 in the West End; and Partners for Success, which trains Duke students to be more effective tutors. More than 300 Duke students volunteer each week in the seven Durham Public Schools with which Duke partners.

Additional monies will benefit the Walltown Children's Theatre and Rites of Passage, a program for at-risk youngsters in Walltown that is sponsored by Northside Baptist Church.

Improve Access to Health Care

The grant also includes money to help underwrite the recent expansion of the Lyon Park Clinic, a satellite of the Lincoln Community Health Center, which opened in the Community and Family Recreation Center at Lyon Park in 2003. Duke's Division of Community Health operates the clinic. Duke doctors, physician assistants and nurses staff the site and have had more than 3,500 patient visits. 

In January -- again with help from The Duke Endowment -- a similar clinic is being opened at 815 Broad St., to better serve the Walltown neighborhood. The request came from the Rev. Mel Williams, pastor of Watts Street Baptist Church and a founding member of the Walltown Neighborhood Ministries. Williams approached Susan Yaggy, Chief of Duke's Division of Community Health, in 2001 to discuss the feasibility of establishing a health clinic for Walltown. "At that time the prospects looked rather bleak," Williams said. "But we believe in miracles, and Duke has made that miracle happen."

Eugene W. Cochrane Jr., president of The Duke Endowment, said the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership successfully addresses challenges faced by families and children in local schools and neighborhoods, which is part of the mission of the charitable foundation.

"The Neighborhood Partnership has established an impressive record of real effectiveness," Cochrane said. "The results of The Duke Endowment's investments in Duke University's programs to partner with its neighbors is making a difference in the quality of life in Durham, and we are pleased to be of assistance to this important effort."

_        _        _        _

The Duke Endowment, started in 1924 by industrialist, philanthropist and Duke University founder James B. Duke, is one of the nation's largest foundations. The Duke Endowment supports health care and child welfare organizations in North and South Carolina, rural United Methodist churches and retired ministers in North Carolina, and four educational institutions: Davidson College, Johnson C. Smith and Duke universities in North Carolina and Furman University in South Carolina.

In 2004, the Endowment awarded grants of more than $100million to support agencies and organizations in the Carolinas. Grants since 1924 total more than $2billion.