Social Well-Being

You don’t attend many conferences where the first question you are asked is, “What’s your favorite dataset?” However, that was the question we heard when we represented Charlotte at the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) conference in Denver. The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, along with the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, partnered to join […]

It’s a simple concept: Focus on fewer goals and bigger results. That’s the idea behind the Collective Impact approach United Way of Central Carolinas has adopted. For United Way, that goal for the next 10 years is to increase the graduation rate among the more than 13,000 at-risk children who receive services from 16 United […]

An economic meltdown threatens America’s middle class. UNC Charlotte sociologist Scott Fitzgerald’s most recent book, Middle Class Meltdown in America: Causes, Consequences and Remedies, co-authored with Kevin T. Leicht, examines the political, economic and cultural changes that have created today’s situation. Fitzgerald will discuss the issues at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in a free […]

Wilmore resident Kris Steele knew his neighborhood was a food desert, an area with little access to fresh food. But it didn’t hit him what that meant until he saw neighborhood kids streaming in and out of the corner convenience store carrying bags of candy. To get there, the kids walked past a rusting chain-link […]

A 10-foot-wide asphalt path that officially opened Tuesday offers a glimpse of what could be a more pedestrian- and bike-oriented future for some of Charlotte’s least pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares. The path, 0.9 miles along University City Boulevard from Mallard Creek Church Road to UNC Charlotte’s main entrance at Broadrick Boulevard, is the first bike-ped trail along […]

What are the characteristics of Mecklenburg County’s homeless population and how has it changed over time? To try to answer those questions, Mecklenburg County each year performs the Point in Time (PIT) Count, a federally mandated act to determine the prevalence and characteristics of homeless people in the United States. The PIT Count helps communities […]

What are the characteristics of Mecklenburg County’s homeless population and how has it changed over time? To try to answer those questions, Mecklenburg County each year performs the Point in Time (PIT) Count, a federally mandated act to determine the prevalence and characteristics of homeless people in the United States. The PIT Count helps communities […]

Home. The word means many different things to many different people. For some, it might be a house. For others, it might be a park bench or a tent behind a supermarket. Just as homes can take many forms, so can homelessness. I was forced to reflect on this last month, as a volunteer with […]

Will Americans continue to be suburban creatures? The question has been widely debated by developers, planners and the press since the Great Recession. Surveys showing preferences for urban, walkable, in-town neighborhoods have been called fads by some, or hailed by others as the end of suburbia. Ultimately, it will be the attitudes of the Millennial […]

The Collective Impact Baseline study is part of United Way’s pilot initiative to increase the graduation rate over the next 10 years for the community’s most vulnerable youth. This data will form the baseline against which United Way and its agencies will be measured in the goal to increase the graduation rate for at-risk children […]