Race & the City: An Interview with DurhamCares Reynolds Chapman

"Our vision is to see communities holistically restored, with churches fully engaged in that process of transformation."

-Reynolds Chapman, Durham Cares

Reynolds Chapman is Executive Director of DurhamCares, whose mission is to mobilize Durham residents to love their neighbors. He is a minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church and actively involved in the Christian Community Development Association. He lives with his wife, Katelyn, in Durham. He is serving as a panelist during our Q&A discussion with local community leaders, directly after Race & The City: A Community Forum w/ Sho Baraka! 

        Why are conversations on Race so important for cities like Durham? 

Race is America's original sin and has impacted every corner of our society, from laws, to industry, to theology. If communities are to be restored, racism, and the entire construct of race, needs to be recognized, repented of, and dismantled."

What is DurhamCares' mission?

The mission of DurhamCares is to mobilize Durham residents to love their neighbors. We do this by providing resources and facilitating events that foster holistic, community-driven approaches to seeking the flourishing of all people in the city.

What makes your work unique?

Our work is unique because we help people reimagine how they engage with their community, and we mobilize them to put healthy postures of engagement into action. Our approach is based on the philosophy of Christian Community Development, which is essentially asset-based community development through a biblical lens.

What is your vision for Durham?

Our vision is to see communities holistically restored, with churches fully engaged in that process of transformation.

Learn more about DurhamCares and our mission here!

                           -Reynolds Chapman, DurhamCares

Michelle Young, Project BUILD

Michelle Young, left.

"The youth we work with often face significant barriers, and we need partners in order to effectively work with them."

-M.Young

Who we are:

Project BUILD is a youth gang intervention program that operates out of Durham County. We utilize an evidence-based model (the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model) to serve individuals, ages 14-21, who are active and former gang members, or who are at high risk of joining a gang. Each young person is connected with an outreach worker, who meets with that youth 2-3 times a week and maintains nearly constant contact with the youth to help them find their way through the different problems that these youth face in their lives, whether these problems are in their home life, school, employment or other areas.  

Unique focus: 

The unique focus of Project BUILD is on individuals and families with gang and criminal involvement.  The staff of Project BUILD are extremely knowledgeable about local gangs, are skilled in navigating the criminal justice system, and we assist individuals who are on probation/parole.  We also excel in working with other systems such as the mental health system through Alliance Behavioral Health and the educational systems in Durham County.

ReCity Collaborations:

"We really appreciate the partnerships available to us through ReCity, because they make it so much easier for us to connect these young people to the help that they need." -M.Young

We utilize collaborations through ReCity to connect the youth and young adults that we work with to supplemental resources,  such as youth employment or training opportunities,  supportive programs like Step Up and Partners for Youth Opportunity, or  with emergency resources such as funds for housing or immediate family needs (ReCity and Summit Church have both helped us out in several very difficult circumstances). 

We also have used our collaborations through ReCity to develop opportunities for the youth we work with, such as a trainings on employment readiness that will be taught by Step Up in April, or a pre-employment class that will be taught by PFYO and Step Up in June.  We also utilize the space at ReCity for weekly groups, bi-monthly multidisciplinary intervention team meetings, trainings, and other meetings.  We really appreciate the partnerships available to us through ReCity, because they make it so much easier for us to connect these young people to the help that they need.

Lessons learned:

One lesson we have learned is that the youth we work with are engaged in multiple governmental and social services systems. Navigating those systems is complex.  The youth we work with often face significant barriers, and we need partners in order to effectively work with them.  We would like to do everything for the kids we serve, but that is impossible!

Ways to connect:

What we can offer to partners is our expertise in working with gang involved youth and families, and knowing how to navigate the governmental systems that these youth are involved in.  We also have a lot of strong connections to the local community, particularly individuals living in high-crime neighborhoods who may not be easy to connect with for outside agencies.  Our most pressing needs right now are employment opportunities, both for the youth and young adults that we serve, and for the individuals who will be served by our partner program, Bull City United.

Learn more about Project BUILD and our mission here!

-Michelle Young, Project BUILD

Syretta Hill, StepUp Durham

Syretta Hill, Executive Director of StepUp Durham, trains people on how to obtain and maintain employment. Her guilty pleasure is binge-watching TV shows and fun fact...she has been sky diving!

By SYRETTA HILL: MARCH 13th, 2017

Everything hinges on employment. That is a quote that one of our Employment Counselors made over one year ago, and it has stuck with me. 

I came to StepUp after 8 years of working for Habitat for Humanity of Wake County. When I started at Habitat, I was working with individuals. By the time I left the organization, I was leading an initiative that focused on communities. From my work, I was able to observe many communities and households, predominately communities of color, with employment challenges. Even some of our Habitat families, though now living in affordable and decent housing, still struggled from paycheck to paycheck. 

I met StepUp’s former CEO at a racial equity retreat. With a StepUp in Raleigh and Greensboro, he was looking to launch a Durham site. He wanted to create something different, an organization that had been invited into the community serving from a racial equity and asset-based approach. His description of what would become StepUp Durham resonated with me both personally and professionally. 

StepUp Durham, which focuses on employment training and placement for those with challenges to employment, opened its doors in October 2015. I was introduced to Rob even before we facilitated our first workshop. With a small team, 4 full-time staff and 4 interns, we were looking for a way to have a community presence and impact beyond our staff and financial capacity.  Since joining the ReCity collaborative, we have exceeded our expectations. 

Our first win came in 2016, when we were able to work with Partners for Youth Opportunity (PYO) to help provide employment training. They, in turn, were able to focus on placing and sustaining their youth’s summer employment. We hope to expand this partnership to serve more youth this summer. Our second success has been with Helius. Some of our graduates come to StepUp with the passion to start their own business because they have significant challenges in finding traditional employment opportunity. Though StepUp Ministries, our sister organization with a 27 year history in Raleigh, has an entrepreneurship program for this population, we knew we did not have the resources to offer this service. 

By being in the ReCity collaborative, we have been able to use our limited resources to concentrate on core programming and send entrepreneurs to Helius, an organization focused on necessity-driven entrepreneurship. We are working on the expansion of this relationship as well, with Helius serving as a partner on our efforts to engage the Latino population in our work. Project Build has been a significant partner, referring their clients to our workshop. We have trained Michelle’s team, and they continue to help us think through ways to broaden the scope of who we serve in Durham. And in April, we will launch the next phase of our work called Step2 with another ReCity partner, REAL Durham. 

We believe that everything hinges on employment. We have been able to extend our reach in the 18 months since we opened our doors to the employment of youth, gang members and entrepreneurs. ReCity has allowed us to have a larger footprint in the community. If an organization is able to make your work more effective and efficient, it makes sense to partner. ReCity has done that and much more for StepUp Durham. 

Learn more about StepUp Durham and our mission here!

-Syretta Hill, StepUp Durham