By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM — Wanda Boone, co-chairwoman of the East Durham Children’s Initiative, summed up the purpose of its Thursday night meeting soon after it started.

“The voice of the community is essential,” Boone said. “I don’t know how to stress that enough.”

Plenty of community voices were heard Thursday night, even if some of the sounds were swallowed by the echoing acoustics of the Holton Career and Resource Center gymnasium. Free food and the promise of input into a fledgling venture lured perhaps 100 people to the initiative’s community conversation.

The conversation’s topics were threefold: what is working in East Durham, what problems is the neighborhood suffering and what can be done to address those issues.

Actually, make that the conversations’ topics. As happened last month, when the Durham public school system hosted a similar public event to discuss how to improve academic outcomes for black males, the audience was divided into groups sitting around tables. A moderator led each group and an assistant made notes as relevant points arose.

At moderator Howard Machtinger’s table, there were plenty of positives to be discussed. Irene Dwinnell, a mental health provider who works with many East Durham residents, and Michelle Bertuglia-Haley, who live and works with children with behavioral issues in the neighborhood, both praised HOPE VI, a federal housing program that has helped revitalize parts of the area.

And, Dwinnell noted, “this part of the Durham just has a really, really active voice that has a will to get what it needs done.”

Bertuglia-Haley said she sees numerous Hispanic families involved in local programs, unlike in other communities where she has worked. “They’re really engaged, which is very exciting.”

Machtinger said he has met with the principals of the two neighborhood elementary schools and found both to be dynamic individuals. “I think that’s a real asset.”

When the talk turned to problems in the area, folks at another table also had plenty to say.

“One of the challenges that I’m aware of is that the kids in the schools are hungry,” said Kim Winson, a pediatric nurse practitioner who works in Cary and lives in southern Durham. “The only place they get food is at school.”

Several other issues were named as Gayle Harris, the county’s public health director, led the discussion. Absentee landlords. Unkempt properties. Teen pregnancy. Lack of after-school programs. Parents illiterate in both English and their native language.

A straw poll showed the table’s top concerns to be the need for more mental health care, the prevalence of poverty and low home ownership rates.

Later in the evening, Machtinger’s table struggled to pare their list of solutions. “If you look at most of these things, they’re all variations of the same thing,” Machtinger observed.

The group ended up circling a note that read: “building relationships with parents/community/children (builds trust).”

Other solutions were promoted when a representative from each table summarized his or her group’s discussion. Aidil Collins, the chairwoman of Uplift East Durham and a denizen of Harris’ table, suggested offering tax credits to prompt mental health providers to work in the neighborhood — perhaps using the newly renovated Holton Center as a base.

Once everything wrapped up, County Commissioner Ellen Reckhow, a co-chairwoman of the initiative, expressed satisfaction with the event. “People were excited about the initiative and ready to roll up their sleeves and help,” she said.

“It was a great kickoff.”

EDCI DETAILS

The East Durham Children's Initiative is focused on improving the childhoods and life outcomes of youngsters in a 120-block area of the city.

The target neighborhood is bounded by Alston Avenue on the west, Holloway street on the north, Miami Boulevard on the east and Hoover Road and N.C.-147 on the south. The area has about 7,900 residents. In 2000, their median income was around $11,200, or about half of citywide income levels.

Several programs in the 1.2-square-mile area have either started recently or are gearing up to do so. The programs mainly fall under the rubric "the Incredible Years" and are meant to teach parents how to raise healthy infants, pre-schoolers and elementary-schoolers.

There is also an after-school tutoring program for 50 Y.E. Smith Elementary students selected by the principal, said Ellen Reckhow, a Durham County commissioner and a co-chairwoman of the East Durham Children's Initiative. And the initiative has attracted interest from a volunteer group that will soon launch a schoolwide reading program at Neal Middle, she said.

The next big step for the initiative will be to hold another community meeting later this year.

"This was about what needs to happen," Reckhow said. "We want to discuss how it should happen."

Reckhow and three other co-chairpeople guide a steering committee that distributes e-mail messages to about 70 people; it draws about 40 people at each meeting. The group has nine subcommittees working on various issues.

The initiative has no paid staff, Reckhow said.