CHARP Hosts Neighborhood Campus Forum

May 24, 2013
Categories: College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences, Community Engagement, Student Stories

The Charlotte Action Research Project (CHARP) is hosting a Neighborhood Campus Forum on Wednesday May 29 at 5:45 p.m. in Cone University Center 210. Students, faculty and staff are invited.

CHARP is a partnership between UNC Charlotte and local Charlotte communities. CHARP’s mission is to match UNC Charlotte students with service learning opportunities through action research in challenged Charlotte neighborhoods and, in the process, develop mutually beneficial partnerships.

Neighborhood partners will speak with faculty and students about the research interests they have with regard to their neighborhoods. This is an opportunity to build a new generation of service-learning courses at UNC Charlotte and to forge new partnerships with neighborhoods in Charlotte.

Dinner will be provided. RSVP to Joe Howarth at thowarth@uncc.edu. Learn more about CHARP on its website.

Janni Sorensen,a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, formed CHARP in 2008.  CHARP began as a community-university partnership, as UNC Charlotte graduate and undergraduate students worked with selected local neighborhood associations.  In 2009, CHARP partnered with the City of Charlotte’s Neighborhood and Business Services division. As a result of this partnership, Sorensen was able to hire two graduate students to work on the project as Community Liaisons.  Since then, the project has expanded and is now composed of four community liaisons, a student coordinator, and an Americorps VISTA volunteer.

CHARP is based on the principles of Participatory Action Research, which means, briefly, that neighborhood residents work in partnership with university representatives. Residents identify and prioritize specific tasks to address and, in exchange for access to local knowledge, campus partners work on these projects.

Neighborhood partners have identified five research themes of questions within those themes. The themes are:

  • Neighborhood change
  • Spatial justice
  • Empowerment and citizen rights
  • Communities and schools
  • Neighborhood safety