Civic Engagement and Community Based Learning

Oge Ibida

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Stacey Riemer

Ending Poverty in Charlotte (EPIC) is a student organization aimed to connect students to homeless neighbors at Charlotte’s Urban Ministry Center through a variety of avenues from relationships to advocacy. EPIC seeks to develop a safe atmosphere within the homeless shelters that incorporate norms of trust and collaboration. My proposal is to create a relational model within EPIC in order to increase student engagement and to better prepare volunteers’ relationship with people with homelessness. To allow EPIC to develop good partnership and increase the flow of communication between the student organization and Urban Ministry that can maximize social and community change.

Josh Martin

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Mindy Adnot

In recent years Charlotte has received publicity for having the lowest upward mobility out of the largest cities in America. Additionally, there is a history of residential and educational segregation that persists today. My project focuses on an often overlooked inequity that exists in many American cities: voter participation. Narrowing in on Charlotte neighborhoods, I studied many factors that are related to voter participation. In an ideal world, voter participation would be equal across all neighborhoods but this is not the case. Through my study I was able to identify the inequalities that exist in voter participation among Charlotte neighborhoods. I found that voter participation in majority-white neighborhoods was more than 10% higher than in majority non-white neighborhoods. I found that the age group with the highest average voter participation was 50s, this group had a voter participation rate of 80%. I observed that as the percent white college graduates went up in a neighborhood, so too did the voter participation. I found that as the percent non-white residents without a college degree went up, the voter participation went down. Employment rate, home ownership, and household income were all positively correlated with high voter participation. Finally, I mapped white and black population in Charlotte as well as voter participation and found the the areas of high white population were nearly identical to the areas of high voter participation. With these findings I concluded that the non-white neighborhoods with lower employment rates, home ownership, and average household income required greater access and incentive to vote.

Finnur Vidarsson

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Mindy Adnot

This poster represents the crime rate in Charlotte-Mecklenburg county from 2011-2016, excluding data from 2014 and 2012. The data was downloaded from the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer website. As one of the fastest growing commuting zone in North-America I found it interesting to research how the crime rate might have changed in the area. There was not a significant growth in the crime rate from 2011 to 2016, however the median crime rate has increased for both violent- and property crimes. Violent offenses include aggravated assault, armed robbery and strong arm robbery, homicide, negligent manslaughter, and rape and attempted rape . Property offenses include arson, burglary and attempted burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft . Areas with higher crime rates tend to be the same from year to year and are located in or around downtown Charlotte. Some areas with higher crime rates overlap areas that have lower employment. That suggests that there might be some relation between higher crime rates and lower employment. Since Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities I was also interested to look at areas that have proportionately increased their residents the most. It turns out that the suburbs of Charlotte have had the most population growth. Most areas in or around downtown Charlotte have a low or negative population growth.

Jordan Reed

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Mindy Adnot

With discrimination by police officers against African-Americans have recently exploded on the news, this is not a new problem but has existed for many decades. With this project I wanted to look at data on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department to see if these trends existed here with police interaction. The data I used showed information on the Diversion program, Traffic Stops, and Officer involved shootings with all three datasets having the demographics of the people involved. What I was able to find was that discrimination is heavily present here with black people disproportionally facing greater police interference. Now that the problem has been addressed, what are the next steps? How do we go about fixing an institution that was designed to hinder the advancement for people of color especially black people?

Ciera Cockrell

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Stacey Riemer

The purpose of this project is to propose program enhancements to a mentorship program for high school-aged Black girls at West Charlotte High School. The goal of this proposal is to provide a more holistic program that will serve to address some of the racial disparities that are present in the CMS system. The racial disparities in education within the CMS system as well as throughout the nation are far too pervasive and strongly disadvantage students of color. Through this program proposal, I am seeking to have a small impact on this large, deeply rooted issue.

Alex Marsicovetere

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Stacey Riemer

Since the Urban Ministry Center and the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte will merge in May of 2019, my project takes into consideration pre-existing programs and services of both organizations and proposes a potential program to the new organization. The purpose of my project is to intellectualize an effective leadership program that the merged organization could use to help improve the economic mobility of those served. During reflections upon my experience at the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte, I noticed a recurring theme of men voicing a strong desire to build a better life for themselves and their families by being more competitive for jobs. Although employment services and economic programs are provided by the organizations, a strong leadership program with routine meetings can help foment the communication, teamwork, and critical thinking skills that are desirable in the workforce. The inspiration behind this project emerged out of research on homelessness, conversations with men from the Shelter, correspondence with staff members, reflections and discussions of course concepts, and personal experience as a Chidsey Leadership Fellow.

Michael Matthews

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Naila Mamoon

Gluteus Medius tears are often difficult to diagnose and treatment protocols for this type of tear are lacking. Our retrospective study was performed in order to determine if surgery results in any perceived improvement in the patient’s postoperative condition compared to conservative treatment. We found that the majority of patients who failed conservative treatment for gluteal tendinopathy found surgery beneficial, and described higher scores for Activities of Daily Living, Sports, and percent improvement compared with their pre-surgical status. Our results provide support that surgery can potentially be the preferred method of treatment over conservative approaches.

Isabella McElrath

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Stacey Riemer

My project seeks to equip women with the skills and confidence to fight homelessness during their 6 month stay at The Hope House Foundation located in Huntersville, NC. Through a brief educational program implemented during their time at the transitional shelter, women will gain basic skills and advice that will supplement the services already being provided by Hope House in order to better secure housing stability in the future for themselves and their family. Through resources shared in the larger community, including those of Davidson College, along with past, present and future donors, women will develop basic computer and programming skills, interview strategies and confidence building seminars while having the security of a safe place to sleep at night. Through observation at Hope House and broader research on homelessness in North Carolina, I have concluded that utilizing the time spent at Hope House to help the women acquire skills and strategies targeted towards furthering their education will put them on a path to receive a higher income, guiding them towards long-lasting housing stability.