Social Well-Being

May is National Preservation Month. The theme this year is “Celebrating America’s Treasures.” If you are new to the Charlotte Region, you may not be aware of the many historic treasures that can be found in this area. One of those treasures is undoubtedly the City of Salisbury, which is about 45 minutes northeast of […]

Sow Much Good, a local community organization dedicated to empowering residents to improve their health through better nutrition, has created an outdoor classroom and garden at Ashley Park Elementary in Charlotte. Supported through local corporate groups including Wells Fargo, Sow Much Good’s founder, Robin Emmons has worked with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to create a […]

The needs assessment was in response to Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s emergence as what Roberto Suro and Audrey Singer of the Pew Hispanic Center and Brookings Institution termed a “Hispanic Hypergrowth Metro.” Between 1990 and 2000 Mecklenburg’s Hispanic population – as captured by the census – grew by more than 38,000 persons (from about 7,000 to 45,000). In […]

In 2010, a UNC Charlotte research team led by Dr. Elizabeth Racine conducted a Mecklenburg County Community Food Assessment for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Food Policy Council. The results of Phase 1 of that study (posted on this website in September 2010) looked at the presence or absence of food stores in Mecklenburg’s Census Block Groups […]

Chickens are all the rage these days. All the fashionable neighborhoods have them. I recently met a gentleman who’d built a stately coop behind his home in Charlotte’s Myers Park. In Raleigh, residents flaunt their urban flocks during the annual Hen-side the Beltline Tour de Coop. I know these things because my husband has long […]

Today’s public libraries are expected to deliver traditional services in a rapidly changing technological environment . As libraries struggle to maintain high quality programs that are financially sustainable, the impact of the recent recession and the consequent decline in financial support further challenges libraries to find ways to survive while continuing to deliver essential services. […]

City-County consolidation, when a county and the cities within a county merge to form a single government entity, is the most visible and comprehensive change in the local government structure. With an average passage rate of fifteen percent, and only forty total consolidations in the US, city-county consolidation is an extremely rare event. Yet, during […]

Mecklenburg County, N.C., is home to the state’s largest city, Charlotte. Most people living in Mecklenburg County today were born outside of North Carolina. U.S. Census Bureau data estimates from 2009, released earlier this fall, put that number at just over 58%. The new diversity of the county has some interesting twists. For instance, more […]

Mecklenburg County, N.C., is home to the state’s largest city, Charlotte. Most people living in Mecklenburg County today were born outside of North Carolina. U.S. Census Bureau data estimates from 2009, released earlier this fall, put that number at just over 58%. The new diversity of the county has some interesting twists. For instance, more […]

Four years ago, my sister, Amy, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her treatment – six rounds of chemo, two surgeries and 33 sessions of radiation – took a toll on her right shoulder. Her surgeon suggested some basic exercises for strength and mobility. She also started swimming laps. She liked being buoyant in the warm […]