Keith Robinson admits that as an undergraduate majoring in electrical engineering at Duke University, he didn’t venture out into the Durham community very often. That changed when, enrolled in Duke Law School, he signed on to volunteer through the school’s Community Enterprise Clinic (CEC) to provide legal service to nonprofits and low wealth partners. Paired with Calvary Ministries of the West End, Inc., which owns a multipurpose family services and recreation center in Durham’s Lyon Park community that is operated by Durham Parks and Recreation Department, Robinson worked with the organization’s executive director to help her interpret the legal implications of forming a consulting business. The Center was built with assistance from the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, which continues to support a variety of activities there. Robinson discovered a bustling hub of activity that opened his eyes to the vitality of life beyond Duke’s campus. “I was struck by how many people use the center,” he says. “In the morning you see parents dropping off children, senior citizens walking laps in the gym, and people preparing for activities later in the afternoon. I got to know Durham so much better – and even learned a few new shortcuts through town! By the end of the semester I was much more attached to the city.” Robinson’s work through the CEC was one small facet of a much larger initiative, the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, launched in 1996 by then-president Nan Keohane. Originally intended to foster collaborations between the university and its surrounding neighborhoods and schools, the partnership has blossomed into a dynamic program that’s active in twelve Durham neighborhoods and seven public schools near its campuses. Ongoing projects include health clinics, affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization, educational and extracurricular programming for youth, and crime reduction campaigns – all of which are priorities identified by residents. Early on, The Duke Endowment recognized this is as a significant and long-term effort to address disparities – real and perceived – between town and gown. Since 1998, the Endowment has provided more than $3 million. In doing so, it has contributed not only to helping communities identify and meet their needs, but also to encouraging Duke students, faculty and staff to make a difference where they live. “Our work is long-term,” says Sam Miglarese, assistant director in Duke’s Office of Community Affairs, through which the partnership is administered. “These are not one-or two- or three program grants and out. The Duke Endowment understands that Duke’s engagement with Durham is ongoing and for the duration. This level of support gives us the criteria and freedom to weigh carefully all the requests and demands that come our way.” That’s not to say that it’s always been easy to get projects off the ground or communities to buy into the partnership. A few years after the initiative was launched, John Burness, Duke’s senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, told a reporter: “There is a historical lack of trust between some neighborhoods and the university. And we knew that. So we decided that we needed to start quietly and follow through on everything we committed to and not seek any publicity. Because of people saw publicity, they would think we were only in this for appearances. And we’re definitely in it for the long haul.” Today, Burness says he is proud of the literally hundreds of positive things that have evolved through the partnership. Still, for those intimately involved in its success – community activists, religious leaders, city politicians, Duke individuals and groups -- “it is very, very hard work,” he says. “It is not linear. We must constantly balance expectations and our ability to deliver.” That explains, in part, why the scope of some projects has evolved over the years. One of the most important factors that contribute to any project’s success, says Burness, is that it addresses needs that have been identified by the community itself, not imposed on communities by what Duke representatives might think it needs. Take the Walltown community, for example. A low-income, mostly African-American neighborhood located just north of East Campus, Walltown had been experiencing increased drug and crime activity in the 1990s, and its residents lacked easy access to health care or housing. Community activists – particularly from local churches -- were clear about what problems needed immediate and long-term assistance. Through the years, Walltown has flourished thanks to ongoing responsiveness on behalf of the partnership to its evolving needs. Among the partnership initiatives that TDE has helped fund in the neighborhood include: • anti-gang and anti-crime programs • community health clinic • affordable housing initiatives • a children’s theater company • the Duke Law School CEC clinic These and other initiatives in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership reflect the involvement of dozens of agencies and thousands of people working in the private, public and non-profit sectors. As such, it brings together people who might not otherwise work together. Duke President Richard Brodhead says this model encourages the kind of interdisciplinary, democratic approach to problem solving that increasingly occurs across the academic community as well. “I’ve been impressed by the remarkable alliances and sense of collegial cooperation I’ve observed,” he says. “There is enormous reciprocity at work. When we work with our neighborhood partners, our students, staff and faculty see first-hand the issues facing communities in ways they don’t in the classroom. By listening carefully, and working purposefully to help our neighbors realize their ambitions, we gain a much richer understanding of putting theory into practice, and what it means to be a good citizen.” Through its affordable housing component, the partnership is making a difference on the individual level and that, in turn, has a positive ripple effect on the community in which that person lives. Martin Eakes is the director of the Self-Help Community Development Corporation, which channels partnership money into affordable housing loans to build and renovate affordable homes in the partnership neighborhoods. From 1996 to 2005, 57 families have been able to buy their first homes in Walltown through the Duke and Self-Help partnership. As a result of the activity, Durham’s Habitat for Humanity has built 14 houses in Walltown – two with major financing from Duke. In the past decade, the percentage of homeowners in the neighborhood has risen from 19 percent to 26 percent. “Most families in poverty find that buying a modest house is their first step on a path to middle class,” he says. “A first home is a bricks-and-mortar savings account where families start to build family wealth and security. For most families, the first step is the hardest. Supporters like Duke University and The Duke Endowment make this first step possible for many families by making the rehabilitated homes in neighborhoods like Walltown affordable. This kind of support can literally transform the physical and social health of a community, providing visible proof that hope is real and that poverty can be temporary.” Durham Mayor Bill Bell, who has been involved with the partnership from its inception, says that the impact to the community cannot be overestimated. (Bell, a former longtime chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, served as a consultant to the partnership’s “silent phase.”) “Any time you do something to improve the esthetics as well as the environment where people live, it improves the quality of live for everyone, and there’s no question that’s what this has done,” he says. “The Duke Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative has definitely fostered a stronger bond between Duke and the surrounding neighborhoods.” For Keith Robinson, now an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Foley & Lardner LLP, working with Calvary Ministries of the West End, Inc., has had a personal ripple effect. He’s providing tutoring and mentoring two third-grade students who come to his office every Wednesday for an hour or so. “One thing that shocked me was that they did not know how to use email,” he says, “so I set them up with email accounts and had several of my friends send them messages. Now, they are learning how to write better and they don’t even realize it!” And from a professional standpoint, he says, interacting with clients while still in law school has proven to be an invaluable introduction to real-world problems facing communities. “Working with CEC was a great platform to prepare myself for entering the field of law,” he says. “I was responsible for taking the initiative to set up meetings with clients, interviewing them about their needs, and working alongside them. It was the one time in my whole academic experience where I got to actually practice a profession with a bit of a safety net. That’s really helping me now.” | 
