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Building Integrated Communities Project Update.
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Staff: |
Department: |
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Loryn Clark, Executive Director |
Housing and Community |
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Sarah Osmer Viñas, Assistant Director |
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Overview: This item provides an update on the Building Integrated Communities (BIC) project, a two year collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Recommendation(s): |
That the Council receive this report.
Overview of the Building Integrated Communities (BIC) Project
BIC is a multi-year planning process that helps North Carolina local governments successfully engage with local foreign-born, refugee, and Hispanic/Latinx residents in order to: improve relationships, enhance communication, and promote civic participation and leadership in local government.
As a result of working with BIC, local governments and diverse community stakeholders gain tools and build capacity to generate locally relevant strategies for promoting economic development and strengthening educational advancement. Since 2010, the statewide BIC initiative has partnered with the municipalities of Greenville, High Point, Winston-Salem, and Sanford to create and implement four citywide action plans for improving the integration of newcomers.
Following a competitive process, the Town of Chapel Hill was selected as one of two municipalities to participate in the BIC project for 2017-2019. The BIC project aligns with the Town’s goals of making Chapel Hill a Place for Everyone, and an Inclusive Community, both of which are goals identified in our Comprehensive Plan and Council Goals.
Project Process & Progress to Date
Over the summer of 2017, an interdepartmental staff team, led by our Office for Housing and Community, began working with the UNC BIC Team to carry out the three-part project process outlined below.
1. Community Assessment (September 2017-February 2018)
§ Establish steering committee
Progress to date
ü The core project team recruited 22 individuals to serve on the BIC project steering committee, who are foreign-born and refugee residents and/or agency staff persons representing 17 different organizations and institutions.
§ Build relationships and share knowledge
Progress to date
ü The steering committee has met five times since July 2017, building relationships with one another and providing direction for the community assessment phase of the project.
§ Conduct research
Progress to date
ü UNC team has pulled demographic data from the U.S. Census, American Community Survey, and local agencies.
ü The project team hosted two multi-lingual community conversations thus far, offered in English, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Burmese, Karin, Arabic, and Russian languages. These community conversations were attended by over 100 Chapel Hill residents. An additional English-Spanish community conversation is planned for February 15, 2018 at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.
2. Action Planning (February-June 2018)
§ Choose issues to focus on
§ Develop town strategies (“action plans”) to improve issues
§ Hold public strategy sessions
3. Implementation ( July 2018-April 2019)
§ Carry out actions
§ Monitor progress
§ Make improvements
§ Prepare to measure impacts
Fiscal Impact/Resources: There is no fiscal impact identified at this time, aside from modest costs associated with meeting materials and interpretation and translation services for the project. The potential costs associated with implementation of the strategies identified through the BIC project are to be determined during the final phase of the project.
Council Goals:
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Create a Place for Everyone |
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Develop Good Places, New Spaces |
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Support Community Prosperity |
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Nurture Our Community |
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Facilitate Getting Around |
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Grow Town and Gown Collaboration |
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Attachments: |
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• Draft Staff Presentation |
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• BIC Steering Committee Roster |
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The Agenda will reflect the text below and/or the motion text will be used during the meeting. |
presenter
PRESENTER: Sarah Osmer Viñas, Assistant Director, Office for Housing and Community
Dr. Hannah Gill, UNC-Chapel Hill
RECOMMENDATION: That the Council receive this report.