Holiday Letter

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November 2018

Dear Friends:
The Marian Cheek Jackson Center Neighborhoods are the building blocks of civic life and ours are growing stronger by the day. What does a strong neighborhood look like? A few snaps:

  • Our Community Compass Group (composed of residents from every block in the neighborhood) rallied with neighbors, staff, and partners to make one of the oldest, artisanal stone houses in the area the 31st property in the Northside neighborhood land bank. Stories Blew about the ancestors who built the house and the historic families who lived there, tying its much-anticipated future to a common, proud past.
    In a glorious culmination of our “Porch Revival Tour,” four next-door neighbors joined together to host a Halloween block party that drew over 40 kids, many of whom are brand new to the neighborhood. Dancing in the street and racing across yards, they might as well have been shouting “this is HOME.”
  • Through a grant from our tax mitigation program and critical house repairs made through our Promise of Home program, a neighbor who has lived in and worked out of her house on West Rosemary for over 90 years can now not only stay there safely but can continue to live by her principles: she rents her small house next door to an elderly couple at well below cost because, as she says, “people need affordable housing.”
  • Led by members of our Community Mentor Team, 20 principals from across the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district sampled the “freedom walk” we offer as part of our Learning Across Generations k-12 curriculum. Starting out from the new Freedom Fighters Gateway, many remarked that they just “didn’t know” about the generations of Northside residents who built our towns, led civil rights action, fought urban renewal, and continue to struggle to live in their homes. In the spring they’ll bring back over 1200 students to learn this is their history too.
  • Care. Connection. Leadership. Mentorship. Claiming the past for the future. Practicing diversity. Showing generosity of word, mind, pocket, and pantry. These are only some of the hallmarks of a great neighborhood becoming ever better.

Word is getting out. In the next few months, we’ll be working with neighborhoods in Charlotte and Gainesville to help them make the kind of community-first change that is making history here. Make a gift today to keep elders in their homes, a new generation rising, and the legacy of Northside neighbors alive and well. support, we will set a model for rare and abundant communities everywhere.

Thank you for your own, inspiring generosity.

Gratefully yours,

 

Della Pollock

Executive Director

 

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