Enlarge Judy Seldin-Cohen navigates SolveThePuzzleCharlotte.org. Photo by Professional Communications

Posted: February 16th, 2012 Lee Howard

Four steps to solving the homeless paradigm: Prevention, housing and services. But first, it starts with people.

“This is a problem that is impossible to solve individually,” Temple Beth El volunteer Judy Seldin-Cohen this week said to a gathering at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library uptown. “But it is a problem we can solve together.”

We’ve all been there. There’s the shabby fellow standing on the street corner with a “Will work for food” sign written on a piece of cardboard. Under current economic circumstances, it’s not an unfamiliar sight anywhere in Charlotte. You roll down your window, flip the guy a buck before the light turns green, and you’ve done your good deed for the day.

But curing homelessness is much more complicated than handing out loose change. An ensemble cast of experts on homelessness, church organizations and non-profits have launched Solve the Puzzle Charlotte, a project designed to make local homelessness a thing of the past within the next 10 years.

A group of about 60 met this week at the uptown library to view the new Solve the Puzzle Web site (click here for the site).

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Posted: February 15th, 2012 Lee Howard

Some of the news that caught our eye in the last week:

• Churches throughout the area are teaming up with Matthews-based Elevation Church for its third annual LOVE Week. Founded in 2010, LOVE Week is designed to unite the region through volunteer work. This year’s initiative will reach out to a variety of nonprofits, including the Matthews Free Medical Clinic, Habitat for Humanity of Matthews and Thompson Child and Family Focus.
• Gene Robinson, the nation’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop, lead the St. Martin’s Episcopal Church Sunday, singing “We are All Welcome.” But the sentiment was not universal, as demonstrators gathered outside the church to jeer about “false profits.”
• Habitat volunteers are in the final stages of tearing down a 1949, 1,600-square-foot house on South Freemont Street in Matthews. Habitat plans to salvage the materials for resale at the Matthews ReStore or recycle them for other Habitat projects. Matthews Presbyterian Church donated the house, which it had been using as rental property.
• Mecklenburg County commissioners aren't likely to approve up to $30 million for across-the-board raises at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Commission Chairman Harold Cogdell said last week in a letter to the CMS board. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh unveiled the proposal for 3% raises at a Jan. 10 school board meeting. But Cogdell says the plan would result in a 3-cent tax hike, which he says he won’t support.
• Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones acknowledged last week that he's being treated for pancreatic cancer. Jones, 62, announced the illness in an email to county commissioners and staff. In December he said he'd begun undergoing treatment for a serious illness, but didn't specify the condition.

Posted: February 14th, 2012 Carla Hough

In 2012, it may seem a little odd that interracial dating is still a taboo subject in certain parts of the country. It has been almost 45 years since the last bans on interracial marriage were lifted in the U.S., but the topic can still provoke heated discussions. Those in interracial relationships often catch a second or third glance when venturing out, proof that such relationships aren't always viewed as a common occurrence.

A diverse group attended the Feb. 10 premiere of Southern Blend: A Dating Experiment, held at the UNCC Center City Building. Southern Blend, a documentary helmed by producer and director Rod Garvin, focuses its eye on interracial dating in the South. After a reception, attendees were treated to a first viewing of the film immediately followed by a panel discussion.

Garvin, a participant of several diversity initiatives in the city, has worked with Mecklenburg Ministries, Community Building Initiative and Generation Engage. He believes society’s views on interracial dating are a “litmus test for racial progress” and wanted to document a subject that had not been tackled specifically through a Southern lens.  The documentary video project and dialogue series is supported by Crossroads Charlotte.

Weaving reality-style dating experiments with interviews and commentary, the film speculates on whether skin color and cultural differences will ever be viewed as objects of appreciation instead of obstacles to forming relationships.

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Posted: February 7th, 2012 Lee Howard

• Women and minority employees in state government were disproportionately nailed by budget cuts in 2011. Recently released data provided by the state show that 58% of those who lost their jobs in this past budget year were women, while women comprised only 47% of the state workforce. Forty percent of the laid-off workers were minorities, although they only comprised 34% of the state workforce.

• Black History Month: In 1964, Thebaud “T.” Jeffers helped break through the color barrier in North Carolina when he sat down and ate dinner at a Holiday Inn restaurant in Gastonia. Twelve years later in 1976, Jeffers became Gastonia's first black mayor, seven years ahead of Charlotte’s electing Harvey Gantt as the Queen City’s first black mayor. 

• A former junkyard on North Graham Street has been transformed into 85 apartments for the homeless. A four-year effort by the Urban Ministry Center raised $10.5 million for Moore Place

• Some residents of the Elizabeth community, meanwhile, are raising concerns about a proposal to build an 80-unit affordable apartment project in their neighborhood. A public meeting held last week on the project attracted more than 100 area residents, many of whom voiced concern Elizabeth is becoming a haven for the homeless. 

• CMS students spend as many as 20 days a year taking standardized tests. How well students perform is also used to assess a school's performance. A few years from now, how well students perform on standardized tests could be a factor in teacher pay.

• Presbyterian Hospital has been working to improve the health of African Americans and Latinos in the Charlotte region. So far, more than 50 black churches and about an equal number of Latino congregations have joined the effort, dubbed Congregational Health Promoters.