The Charlotte Action Research Project (CHARP):

A Model for Direct and Mutually Beneficial Community-University Partnerships Janni Sorensen, Ph.D., Elizabeth Morrell, M.A.

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences
Graduate Student Work
Tara Bengle
Using participatory planning processes, I practice neighborhood-based action research to engage residents in social learning and social mobilization. Informed by critical theory, my research seeks to develop a deeper understanding of power dynamics between elites and non-elites. The application of popular education in planning processes facilitates the exploration of the causes and maintenance of systems of oppression, while participatory action research increases residents problem solving skills and community organizing enables the confrontation of systems of oppression. Within my role as researcher, I juggle multiple other roles including program developer, program manager, and program evaluator. Without an assistantship that overlapped my research to the degree of this one, I would not be able to pursue such time intensive research. The added benefit of service-learning projects in undergraduate and graduate level courses has also contributed to my ability to complete surveys and other related research which likely would not have been possible without the additional manpower.

Types of Community-University Partnerships (CUPs)

PAR
Increased institutional infrastructure required.
Relationship building Long-term engagement Community-driven research questions

Melissa Currie
I employ a mixed-methods approach to explore the resiliency of starter-home communities, so called due to their appeal to first-time and workforce homebuyers. Commonly known as cookie-cutter subdivisions, they are characterized by nearly identical homes lacking choice in price, size and style. This development model proliferated across America in recent decades, but is it one that can produce resilient, sustainable communities? I analyze Charlotte, NC starter-home neighborhoods built between the years 2000 and 2010 to capture the effects of the recent Great Recession. Many communities are already distressed, with some requiring significant reinvestment; others have remained stable. What made the difference? And, did the Great Recession disproportionately impact these developments? From this study, I aim to develop a set of criteria that can be used by planners and policy makers when assessing potential developments. This tool can also be used in the rebuilding process following community collapse whether due to economic or natural disasters thereby introducing an element of resiliency that is missing from the current development model. Having a research-based strategy available can lead to stronger, better-equipped communities that coalesce into more equitable, healthy growth.

CommunityBased Research Service Learning

Partnerships with community Short- or long-term engagement Researcher-driven research questions Usually short-term partnerships Tied in with coursework Student-, rather than communitycentered Short-term

Angel Hjarding
I am a conservation biologist and currently a Ph.D. Student in Geography and Urban Regional Analysis at UNC Charlotte. I have a Msc. in biology from the University of Copenhagen and have worked as a researcher for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF.org), Birdlife International, and IUCN. My most recent work has included protected area mapping and species assessments for the Red List of Endangered Species. My current research interests are in urban biodiversity conservation, biogeography, environmental justice, and social sustainability. My dissertation research will investigate pollinator biodiversity in Charlotte, NC, and the use of citizen science as a learning and conservation stewardship tool. I am also involved in research on environmental justice and neighborhood safety issues in Charlotte.

Joe Howarth
My research interests focus on social justice and equity in urban contexts. I explore the mechanisms of power and governance that benefit the few to the detriment of low-income communities of color. My research interests have grown and evolved through working directly with residents of these communities and seeing how policy and economic forces have placed severe disadvantages on these urban neighborhoods. Through this broad research interest, I have become interested in the neighborhood-level research topics of affordable housing, re-use of foreclosed and vacant property in neighborhoods, and neighborhood organizing for social justice. At higher scales I am interested the ways neoliberal governance has shaped urban landscapes and how people can contest neoliberal manifestations.

Volunteerism/Internships

How PAR Works

Liz Morrell
I am a human geographer who uses mixed methods and critical theory to explore issues of urban restructuring and neighborhood change currently impacting cities and their inhabitants. I was the first student hired to work with CHARP, and my current research agenda has been largely driven by my experiences working directly with residents in Charlottes neighborhoods as a Community Liaison and, later, Student Coordinator for the project.

The CHARP Model

Implications for CUPs

Be explicit and reflective about the type of project you wish to implement. Funding source matters and should be compatible with partnership goals. Find the sweet spot where university and community needs overlap.

Artie Pryer
Evaluation

Reflection

My research interests are in the areas of social inequality and geographical equity within the urban restructuring regime. My research and work with CHARP were in tandem working as a community liaison in Reid Park, one of CHARP's neighborhoods. Working directly with the neighborhood gave me invaluable experience and the opportunity to work as a neighborhood stakeholder, rather than a researcher analyzing from the top down. Working closely with those rooted in their neighborhoods offered opportunities to work at the ground level to identify potential My Masters thesis project, Differentiated Poverty Experiences and Neighborhood social injustice issues and then apply what was identified towards neighborhood Trajectory: An Intrametropolitan Comparison in Charlotte, North Carolina, was based change. on qualitative data collected from the resident partners with whom I worked as a Community Liaison for CHARP. My dissertation, currently in progress, titled Subprime Action research is not only beneficial for the researcher, but everyone (neighborhood Charlotte: Trajectories of Neighborhood Change in a Globalizing New South City, is an stakeholders). My tenure in Reid Park was only three years, but due to prior expansion of my thesis work and likewise catalyzed by my experiences with CHARP. partnership with another CHARP liaison in Reid Park, the neighborhood has a lifetime Through working directly with residents and city stakeholders as I have with CHARP, I partnership with CHARP. Utilizing action research to focus on positive assets rather have witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of neoliberal urban policy, mortgage than the negative lifts up community members to take action. The combination of market financialization, and territorial stigmatization through discourse on our citys partnerships created via CHARP, action research with neighborhood stakeholders, least affluent neighborhoods. I credit CHARP with opening my eyes to such issues and ample community organizing, Reid Park received a grant to build a KaBOOM! and strongly believe that all students can benefit from direct engagement with Playground. CHARP and Action Research not only got Reid Park a neighborhood communities. playground, it brought together a once segmented neighborhood, and strengthened their community to take on neighborhood change and continue to revitalize.

Establish Research Question

Community Organizing

University Funded Institutional Infrastructure Paid Graduate Student Staff

Popular Education

Implementation

Planning

Participatory Action Research