Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

regular session the board met in closed session before this session no action was taken but direction was given to the staff okay and so now we'll open up our regular session thank you all for being here today is already September 14th 2026 and I'll start with the public charts and I'll ask a vice chair alum to read the land acknowledgement and then Commissioner Valentine to lead us in the pledge. The Board of Commissioners asks its members and residents to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner, both with the Board and fellow residents. At any time should any member of the Board or any resident fail to observe this public charge, the Chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed. Vice Chair Lund.

Thank you, Chair Lee. As we convene for the Durham County Commissioner's Meeting, it is crucial to recognize the painful truth of our history. We stand on the stolen ancestral lands of the Catawba, Eno, Okanichi, Shikori, and Tuscarora peoples, whose deep connections to this land predates our arrival. We acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement and violence that occurred leading to the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their homelands. Their resilience in the face of such adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit. May we humbly honor the ancestors and elders of these nations, both past and present, by committing ourselves to fostering understanding, healing and justice for all who inhabit this land. Let us walk forward together with open hearts, acknowledging the past and embracing a future guided by compassion, respect and unity.

thank you vice chair alum and thank you commissioner valentine i will note that commissioner jacobs is she online all right she is online with us she is remote today and so we welcome her to be here virtually the next item on our agenda is the agenda review and approval or agenda adjustments. Are there any changes to the agenda? Okay, I'll accept the motion to approve the agenda as presented.

So moved.

Second. It has been moved and properly seconded that we approve the agenda as presented. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. All the polls, please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. Next item on our agenda are the announcements. Clerk Wallace.

Good evening, everyone. I will read the announcements published in tonight's agenda. Residents seeking assistance from Durham County Department of Veterans Services from Monday, September 21st through Friday, September 25th should note that limited services will be available as staff will be attending their annual accreditation training. The office will resume full service on Monday, September 28th. Customers can contact Veterans Services by calling 919-560-8387 or emailing veteranservices at dconc.gov. The Resources for Youth Success and Empowerment, RISE, Assessment Center supports Durham families with youth ages 10 through 17 through fast screenings and referrals. RISE connects youth through trusted tutoring, mentoring, mental health, workforce programs, and more. Walk-ins are welcomed. You can visit their office at 2432 Broad Street, or you can call 919-560-7661. They also have an email address, ryse at dconc.gov. Durham Next, in partnership with Durham County Government and the Durham Sports Commission, is conducting a feasibility study for Durham County Memorial Stadium. You can share your vision for the stadium's future through this anonymous 10-15 minute survey. Whether or not you've used the stadium, your input does matter. There is a link for the survey and to share your perspective. The Durham County Department of Social Services offers the Low Income Homeowners Relief, LIHR program for eligible Durham residents. The program provides assistance on current property taxes for eligible homeowners. To qualify, you must own your property. It must have served as your primary residence for at least the last five years and your income must be less than or equal to 80% of the area median income. If you think you qualify, you can apply online. There is a link. You can apply in person or you can contact 919-560-8000 to schedule an appointment. All September, Welcome Baby is collecting new children's socks sizes newborn to kids nine with a goal of 6,000 pairs. Donations support families through Welcome Babies Free weekly giving closet. There are several drop-off locations, the Durham County Libraries, that includes Maine, East, North, Southwest, and South. YMCA locations, including Downtown, Lakewood, and Hope Valley Farms. Book Harvest, Durham County Cooperative Extensions. You can also host a private drive or a collection box. You can contact Cindy Riley at 919-560-7319. And lastly, now airing in In Touch with Durham County, host Deborah Craig-Ray speaks with Derek L. Bowings, Director of Elections, about how to, I'm sorry, what to expect for the upcoming general election and early voting. She also welcomes Kathy Everett-Perry, Chief Employment Officer for a conversation on building a strong talent pipeline and fostering excellence across Durham County. You can watch the full episode on the Durham County YouTube channel. That concludes the announcements published in tonight's agenda.

Thank you, Clark Wallace. Are there any other announcements from the commissioners? Okay. Very good. The next item on our agenda, the approval.

Dr. Lee, I'm sorry. Commissioner Jacobs has an announcement.

Okay. All right.

Commissioner Jacobs, if you can hear me, you can go ahead and speak.

Okay, can you hear me now? Yes, yes, we can hear you.

Okay, great. Thank you so much. And I will be here participating for as long as I can. I'm actually at a conference in Toronto, Canada called Impact Transit Plus Community. And I'm learning so much from this incredible city where 50% of the residents are immigrants and refugees. 121 languages are spoken here. 400 people a day are moving to this city, which is the fastest growing city in North America. So I'm learning so much that I can't wait to bring back and share. with Durham County. I just wanted to add to the announcements that I hope people will take advantage of the exhibit that is at Main Library right now until September 20th, which has three rare prints of the Declaration of Independence. It's an incredible partnership with Duke University and David Rubenstein, who is sharing these prints with us. And you can see them until September 20th, Monday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1.30 to 5. And I want to also mention I would like to give kudos to our library staff who have done a wonderful exhibit tying in Durham's history to the Declaration of Independence, and you can see that at the main library as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Jacobs. Hearing none, no other announcements, we'll move on to the next item on our agenda, which is the approval of the minutes on 2026 our work session meeting minutes so moved second it's been moved that we approve the august 3rd 2026 work session meeting minutes any further discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously next item on our agenda are the ceremonial items

uh the first one is the introduction of sheila bratz durham county youth home director good evening dwayne brinson assistant county manager i'm excited to introduce our new youth home director this evening Ms. Sheila Bowens-Bratts, she started with the Durham County Youth Home in October of 1998. And over the period of time, she's held the positions of detention counselor one, detention counselor two, detention counselor three, assistant director, and now she is our Durham County Youth Home director. She is an NC Central alum, also has her MPA, I should say earned her MPA, from the University of Phoenix. And I can tell you, having worked with Ms. Sheila for the better part of this year, maybe extending into last year too, I'm excited about the future of our youth in the youth home, excited about the future of the youth home, excited for the community. i think she's going to be great in that role her leadership the way the staff respects her very excited for the future that we have with sheila in this leadership role so with that i'll turn it over to miss sheila thank you acm brinson good evening commissioners manager hager attorneys acm joanne

Thank you so much for this opportunity. It is an honor to serve as the Director of the Youth Home. My focus is to ensure that every young person in our care is safe, supported, and treated with dignity. We are strengthening daily operations, enhancing trauma-informed practices, and building deeper coordination with our partners in education, mental health, and juvenile services. I'm committed to maintaining transparency, improving facility procedures, and supporting the dedicated staff who show up day every day for our youth. We will continue working to meet state standards, elevate program quality, and ensure families and the community have confidence in the work being done. Thank you for your ongoing support. I look forward to partnering closely with you as we continue building a safer, more responsive, and more effective youth home for Durham County. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Sheila. I did not know, you can sit wherever you're comfortable, how long your tenure has been with the county. So thank you so much for your years of dedication and service, not just to Durham County, but to one of our most vulnerable populations here in Durham. And also serving some of our most vulnerable population from other counties that are sent to Durham County. Knowing now how many years you've been with the county, I'm just really excited to have you in this new role. Thank you for sticking with us. Thank you to the entire team that worked to build up leadership from within Durham County. I would love to see maybe once you've gotten fully immersed into your role, Maybe a way for you to express like what are the ways you've seen the county change even in its service to its youth and ways that we have been pioneers and like leading the forefront when it comes to how do we work in restorative ways to support our youth across Durham County? Thank you.

Commissioner Burton.

Thank you, Chair Lee. And I, too, was so impressed with your dedication to Durham County government and how many years you have worked for the youth home. And because that takes real dedication to work with young people, particularly young people who are going through some severe challenges. So thank you, thank you so much. I am looking forward to working with you and learning more from you. And also I know we're going to take a tour of the youth home because that's a concern of all of us up here. We want to make sure that no matter what the circumstances our young people are in, we know that doesn't define them. And we know that they can move past wherever they're in in this moment. And so we have to have the utmost faith that they will get through this situation. So thank you so much for being an inspiration. And like I said, looking forward to working with you.

Commissioner Valentine. Thank you, Chair. So Ms. Pratt, congratulations on your promotion. Generally, when you think about promotions, people think that you are elevated to more responsibility because of your past accomplishments. But in fact, you're being promoted because of your ability to move the organization forward. And we're looking forward to your contributions, particularly in support of our young people in our community who need it the most. And so I look forward to working with you in your new capacity. in the days ahead. Congratulations again.

Okay, and thank you. Thank you so very much and welcome. All right, our next item. I got one.

Oh, I'm sorry. I just want to officially say thank you, Director Bratz. You have been phenomenal in your leadership during the interim period as well as now. And even when you were director, we have such a dedicated group of colleagues who are at the youth home. So thank you for all that you do for the youth and our families in Durham.

All right, and welcome. Okay, the next item on our ceremonial items is a very special one here. We have a resolution from Ms. Carrie Zimmerman Matthews, 95th birthday. And we're gonna have Commissioner Burton read the resolution.

Resolution in honor of Ms. Carrie Zimmerman Matthews' 95th birthday. Whereas Ms. Carrie Zimmerman Matthews was born September 19, 1931, attended primary school in Wilson County, North Carolina, before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from North Carolina Central University, NCCU, formerly known as North Carolina College at Durham. She earned a Master of Arts in Education from NCCU, whereas Ms. Matthews was a reading instructor and undergraduate advisor at North Carolina Central University for over 45 years. and served as a United States Postal Office Clerk. She has also served her community while being a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated, Ada Phi Zeta Chapter, Chapel Hill, North Carolina since 1980. she has served in various leadership capacities for over 30 years specifically she has served as president secretary treasurer national pan-atlantic council representative and undergraduate advisor to the omega iota chapter at the university of north carolina at chapel hill whereas miss matthews is a lifelong member of St. Titus Episcopal Church. She provides dedicated service to the Episcopal Women, the Altar Guild, the Holy Cross Senior Organization, and the Usher Board. She is also actively involved in the community with other organizations, including the NCCU Durham Alumni Chapter. whereas Ms. Matthews was inducted into the 2013 Circle of Elders, sponsored by the Sigma Chi Zeta graduate chapter, Morrisville, North Carolina, of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated. The Circle of Elders continues the African tradition of honoring elders by paying homage to women 70 plus years old that are active in the community, state, and nation, and lead by example. Ms. Matthews joins the over 180 circle of elders members that work tirelessly give up their time, talents, financial support, and other priceless wisdom. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Durham Board of County Commissioners hereby recognizes and celebrates Ms. Carrie Zimmerman Matthews' 95th birthday in Durham County and hereby urge all residents to take note of this observance. This, the 14th day of September, 2026. Signed, Dr. Mike Lee, Chair. Nita Alam, Vice Chair. Michelle Burton, Commissioner. Wendy Jacobs, Commissioner. Steven Valentine, Commissioner.

Thank you so much to the Durham County Commissioners. And I'll be reading something on her behalf. My association with Durham County and the city of Durham began in the early 50s when I started college at North Carolina College of Durham, currently North Carolina Central University. As a longtime resident of Durham, it has been my pleasure to participate in numerous programs and activities and members to impactful organizations. I have been a member of St. Titus Episcopal Church since the 60s and have contributed to the ECW, Women's Association, serving as a member and past chair of the Altar Guild, ushering, hosting coffee hours, fundraising, cooking for the Pancake Supper, and overseeing the Youth Organization Program. Also, I'm a member of the Society of Golden Eagles, Class of 1954, a member of the Durham Alumni Chapter of North Carolina Central University, and I'm also a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated. It has been an honor to be a resident of Durham County and the city of Durham. I have been fortunate to raise my children, form lifelong friendships, participate in many church events, and most importantly, serve God and strengthen my faith. Thank you so much.

Okay, so we'll take a picture here. I really like doing those. I really, really. That's right. Okay. All right, where are we here? Okay, the next item will be the Proclamation for World Alzheimer's and Dementia Awareness Day. This is, oh, there we are.

Good evening, Board of Commissioners and neighbors. My name is Adam Hopler. I am the chair of the Board of Dementia Inclusive Incorporated. Our aim is to build a community culture of well-being, inclusion, and hope for those who are living at risk of or with dementia and their care partners here in Durham County. Creating this type of culture requires work from all of us. Uh, as an attorney regularly working with friends, family, caring for loved ones who can no longer care for themselves, I see the way that dementia creates a void that pulls in friends and family and pulls them away from community. When strong bonds are not already in place, it becomes incredibly difficult to make them under stress. Uh, even personally in my own family, I've seen those bonds when in place stretched by dementia, uh, but thankfully able to hold. And so it's our desire at Dementia Inclusive to empower people to address this very difficult time in their lives as much as possible. So one of the things that our organization does is each World Alzheimer's or around the World Alzheimer's Day in the month of September, we hold a forum. This year it is September the 23rd, coming up next week at the Durham Convention Center. It's from 8.30 until 2.00. It's themed Understand, Act Together. We'll have speakers that are talking about our need to address the effects of dementia, not just on a personal level, but on a community level as well, including one of our speakers being Durham County Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. So all who are here are invited and welcome to participate. You can go to our website, dementiainclusiveincorporated.org, for more information and to register there. Again, thank you very much to the Durham County Board of Commissioners for participating in the proclamation of World Alzheimer's Day, raising awareness of the very difficult needs that arise in our community from Alzheimer's and dementia. Maybe it's appreciated.

thank you any comments from our commissioners okay thank you very much the next item on our agenda is a proclamation for diaper need awareness week 2026 diaper need awareness week 2026 the board is requested to proclaim september 14th through 20th 2026 as national diaper need awareness week in durham county and raises awareness of diaper need as a public health and economic issue affecting local families. The proclamation also recognizes the work of the Diaper Bank of North Carolina and its community partners in providing diapers and other basic necessities to families in need throughout Durham County.

Chair Doherty, I will mail Mr. Sebastian Rowe the proclamation.

Okay, thank you. The next item on our agenda is a proclamation of a fifth annual North Carolina Black Alliance Rooted in Wellness Day.

We have the National Recovery Month before that.

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I missed, I didn't see that at the bottom here, the proclamation. All right, well, since I started with that one, I'll just finish and then I'll come back to the one I skipped there. Proclamation of 5th Annual North Carolina Black Alliance Rooted in Wellness Day. And we do have someone attending virtually for this proclamation.

Good evening, Board of Commissioners and guests in the room. My name is Corita Hitting. I am the Access to Health Care Director I want to thank you all for issuing this proclamation. As a reminder that we all play a special role in helping our communities to be rooted in wellness. And I invite you all to join us this Saturday, September 19th to our fifth annual Rooted in Wellness Day. This is our fifth year doing this event and our fourth year in Durham. And we have a lot of resources and opportunities that will allow community members to practice health and wellness at home and learn more about some of the different health care changes happening across our state and across our country. And so we will be at St. Mark AME Zion Church from 10 o'clock AM to 2 o'clock PM. And we have a special discussion on our health, our power, our vote planned from 12 o'clock to 1 o'clock PM. There's no pause to attend. We just invite any and all community members to join us for a day of health and wellness.

Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. We have it here and it is in our agenda and it can be, more information can be found in our agenda here. The next item is a proclamation for National Recovery Month.

Good afternoon. My name is Michelle McKinney. I work for Recovery Communities of Durham. I am the peer specialist, administrative assistant, outreach coordinator there. I've been working with them about seven years now. I am a long-term person in recovery. I've been in recovery now 15 years. So on behalf of the planning committee, I would like to thank the county commissioners for this proclamation and the ongoing support for behavioral health recovery in the city of Durham. This year's theme is Recovery is Real, restoring every aspect of lives, emphasizing that behavioral health is now recognized as an essential part of one's overall health and well-being. Visible and vocal means that a number of people are willing to forego anonymity and step forward to say, please don't define me by my disability because my recovery is real. it is important to recognize that people in recovery achieve healthy lifestyles, stable homes, meaningful daily activities, strengthen neighborhoods, and contribute in positive ways to larger communities. We will celebrate Recovery Month with our celebration on Saturday, September the 26th. All are welcome from 3.30 to 7.30 p.m. this year. It's going to be at the UMC Fellowship Hall at 1209 North Elizabeth Street, downstairs in the Fellowship Hall. Be prepared to be inspired by personal stories of recovery, participants in activities, enjoy free meal, and join a number of line dancing routines. So we are inviting the entire community to come together to support and encourage recovery Last year we had about 200 people to show up, so it was a big event last year as well. That means people in recovery, people who support people in recovery, and most importantly, people who may be interested in taking the first step towards personal growth and recovery. Thank you.

All right, thank you, thank you. Comments from our commissioners? Okay, Commissioner Burton.

Yes, thank you. If you could just repeat when the event will be.

It's going to be the 26th of September. That's on a Saturday from 3.30 to 7.30.

And the location?

1209 North Elizabeth Street. That's the big church on the corner of Trinity and Elizabeth in the Fellowship Hall.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. all right let's see make sure i'm not skipping anything don't get called out here okay i think that's the end of our ceremonial items and we will move on to consent to the consent agenda now there's two items that we're going to need to pull because we have public comment on the two items one is the adoption of the cultural roadmap plan pending modifications and considerations by upper management. Yeah, that's the item there. And then, now that's 260448. I think we have eight speakers on that. And then we have the, what's that, 260479, which is the violence reduction working group resolution. We'll pull on that one as well. Okay, we'll have to, assuming that we approve the consent agenda, we'll have to vote on those separately afterwards, because we're pulling those off. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna move that before the new business item that we have, so we can vote on that, and then we'll go into the new business, the presentation that we have. Okay, good. Okay, so we have the consent agenda absent, the 260-448 and 260-479. What say you?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda barring those items. Second. Second.

It's been moved and properly seconded that we approve the consent agenda absent of 260448 and 260479. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please use the same sign. Passes unanimously. The consent agenda, that is the consent agenda passes unanimously.

Okay, so now we've had the pool.

The next item technically is the other business but we're going to handle the consent agenda items that were pulled off like we just mentioned so we have 260448 which is the cultural roadmap item and we have eight oh no six sorry we have six speakers we'll do three minutes Call three up at a time. We have Aya Shabu. We have Katie Wyatt. And Trish... Lemon? Lem, okay, all right. I wasn't sure there, okay. You can just line up over there. We'll put three minutes on the clock for you, and welcome.

Yeah, thank you very much. I am Aya Shabu. I'm a local artist and business owner. I'm coming before you because I want you all to approve the budget for the Durham Cultural Roadmap. We all know that Durham's history started with tobacco. It was tobacco that put Durham on the map. And it was the arts that put Durham on the map for me. Baba Chuck Davis, the artistic director and founder of the African American Dance Ensemble, recruited me from Cambridge, Massachusetts to move south. I have no family here in the south. I would have not come south or known of the south any other way had it not been for the arts. Since working with Baba Chuck Davis, I was able to not just perform as an artist, but to bring art through arts integration into the schools. So introducing young people and even elders as old as the young woman who received the proclamation or the celebration for her 95th birthday. I've also been able to bring the arts into nonprofit work and into social justice work. So as we have heard today, we've heard about Dementia Inclusive Durham, we've heard about Wellness Day, the arts cuts across every aspect of our society. The arts provides access, provides awareness, even the event for substance abuse recovery. That's a lot about storytelling, and the arts do that really well. They create space for people who are marginalized, who wouldn't otherwise have a platform to be able to share their story, and in a way that's very impactful. So I stand here before you as someone who has benefited greatly from the arts community. I've made my life as an artist, been able to support my family through my art, been able to purchase a home, which is pretty remarkable, especially in Durham. But I am grateful because of the community, and what's needed now is an infrastructure to support the work that artists have been doing. We've been holding the door open all this time, and now Durham is a very popular place for many people when it wasn't that popular. And so now that it's becoming unaffordable, we need the resources to keep us here in Durham, keep us telling our stories, keep us amplifying the voices of the marginalized and creating opportunity. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Good evening. Thank you so much for allowing us to speak a little bit about our passion for the arts and for the cultural roadmap. I'm Katie Wyatt. I'm the pretty new executive director of the Durham Arts Council. I've just finished my first year. I am also a violist with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. I'm a violist with the Durham Symphony. I've I've been an adjunct faculty member at Duke University, and one of my greatest points of pride is that I'm one of the co-founders of Kids Notes, which is North Carolina's first El Sistema-inspired program. One of the other co-founders, Lucia Poe, passed away a few years ago, and if she had been able to be here tonight, she would have told you and pulled all of you aside with great vigor about the power of the arts. to change our community. Her name, of course, comes from her former husband, E.K. Poe, which was one of the first schools that Kids Notes launched. And we were in Eastway, Whitey Smith, and E.K. Poe Elementary. The coming up for the Durham Arts Council is Centerfest this coming weekend, and we're going to have more than 50,000 people downtown. And I bring it up, of course, to invite everyone, but also to point it out as an amazing example of collaboration of the arts organizations and community-based organizations of Durham. This year we're partnering with Durham Parks and Recreation, the city's cultural and public art program, Durham County Sheriff's, Durham's Police Department, DDI, Discover Durham, and of course Duke Arts. The theme of this year's Centerfest joins with Duke Arts' We the People theme and is celebrating all of the peoples of America. Centerfest and the work that we do in collaboration across the community really hits the four pillars of the cultural roadmap as they have been proposed. Cultivating leadership, balancing asset distribution, inspiring evolution, and fostering collaboration. We also, I want to especially put in a word of support for a management structure for the city and the county. to be able to have a seat at the table and a voice in the room, ensuring a thriving, creative Durham community. Because when we support the arts and culture, we support our community's humanity. It is the way we bring together. It's the arts that bring us together in celebration, in grief, in mourning. We just had an incredible September 11th performance with the Durham Chorale over at the Armory and the Durham Symphony. That is the way we pass our lives and honor moments in time that mean more to us than anything. It is through the arts. Thank you so much for your support.

Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Trish Lim with the Museum of Life and Science. I'm a Durham resident, a Durham parent, and an employee of the museum for almost 20 years. And on behalf of the museum, I'm here to express our strong support for the Durham cultural roadmap and its vision for thriving arts and cultural structure in our community. The roadmap builds on many of our Durham goals, economic development and tourism, Educational access, which is dear to us. Neighborhood vitality and community well-being. Arts and culture are an important part of all these efforts. At the museum, we see every day how art, science, creativity are connected and shape the next generation of creative thinkers, of scientists, of innovators. And we're very proud to partner with many artists and cultural institutions throughout Durham. Recently, we commissioned local artwork for our new sustainability exhibit from here on, Shaping Our Future. We collaborated with the North Carolina School of Science and Math on their Art of a Scientist exhibit to host that and are always proud to partner with the many artists in our community for our programs, our public events. in our workshops. These partnerships always make our work stronger. Art offers another avenue for us into scientific inquiry, encouraging many of the things that science depends on, like observation and curiosity and creativity. and a willingness to see the world in new ways. This is a big year for many places in Durham, including the museum as we celebrate our 80th anniversary. It reminds me of the importance of celebrating and preserving Durham's cultural history and investing in our future. Supporting arts and culture in Durham means investing in our vibrant community, attracting visitors and strengthening our economy and giving people like me a place I'm proud to live and work. and raise my family. Thank you for your investment in Durham's cultural community and consideration of the proposal.

Thank you. The next three speakers on this topic is Margaret McNabb, Tim Walter, and Yvonne Coleman.

Good evening, commissioners. I am so pleased to be with you here tonight. I'm Margaret McNabb, chair of the Durham Cultural Advisory Board. I'm a longtime resident at Durham Public Schools, parent and advocate for freelancers and independent workers, strategic advisor to entrepreneurial support organizations and cultural institutions, and voice of the innovation community. I got my career started in the music industry as a publicist, so speaking for the musicians. So I'm doing my best in this role to continue that work and speaking for artists and creatives that have been a part of my whole career and certainly my whole life here. I want to express my support for the Durham Cultural Roadmap. thousands of artists and creatives and residents came together to weigh in on this plan. That's in addition to so many people who volunteered their time and energy, the people before me on the Cultural Advisory Board, on the Cultural Roadmap Planning Committee, and then Public Art Committee. Gosh, I could go on and on. And then also I wanna recognize our city and county staff who moved this whole process forward. It's been an incredible effort. And then, of course, MJR Partners, our consultant who was able to come in and work with our community to come up with a plan, a shared direction, a vision for investing in arts and culture as actual infrastructure for our community, a way to put artists and creatives to work doing what they do best, which is solving problems, keeping things interesting, and bringing us all together. I was really excited by your comments at the work session this last week and hearing how the arts have touched all of your lives and what you see as possible for our community and the ways that we can maximize the resources that we already have and use the arts as a multiplier. So I want to thank you for your consideration today. and uh and i i think that so much of the excitement will come in the implementation phase um i'm really looking forward to that um if you all are to to approve this plan today um and i feel like this is just the beginning of something really really exciting for our community so thank you all thank you

Hey there, I'm Tim Walter. I'm a Durham native, was born in Duke South in the 60s. I returned here in 2013, 14, bought the building we know as The Fruit now, formerly Durham Fruit and Produce Company. And I learned on Tuesday that y'all didn't, or last Tuesday, y'all didn't actually know a whole lot about The Fruit, but we do offer free studio space, mentoring, we offer grants, we offer subsidized performance space and professional services. So we're doing what's in this plan. I'm anxious for the government to up its game in the arts sector. In the four years that this plan has been surveyed and what you see before you, my team and I, the value of those grants and the like that we've done is $1.2 million. So if you wanna know how serious I am about the arts, that's a big number to me. The recommendations that you're going to vote on are not controversial. Norfolk, the city of Norfolk, wrote into their plan the idea of incubation neighborhood based funding and equity as key americans for the arts speaks eloquently on arts as infrastructure and civic infrastructure and discover durham's 20-year plan includes celebrating and funding arts programming that reward that notices our history and celebrates our heroes. So this is, this is, um, safe. Okay. What you're going to vote on. There are two things that if, if that's the case that I want to highlight though, one is I think you're, I don't think that the funding request is based in reality. I think it's well censored and people are just trying to feed you something that you'll be comfortable with. I know that when we look at the size of the arts and culture sector that the Arts Council puts together, they come up with like $140 million. The number is easily three times that if you include what goes on in the private sector in the education world and the like. The last thing I'll say is this plan The last public meeting on this was in September a year ago, and then the staff and their advisory boards and the Arts Council and some other groups took it private, and we still don't even have a proposal publicly available on the Roadmap website. Thank you.

good evening I'm Yvonne Coleman I am honored to have represented you the county commissioners on the Durham cultural advisory board for six or seven or eight years but I'm here to say thank you I want to thank the chair the vice chair members of the commission but especially the manager when we started this process laura ritchie and i came to you and with a crazy idea that it was time to do some additional planning and i want to lift up laura ritchie's name because she would be standing here because we were tired at the hip for over six years in pushing this plan forward i just want to say thank you Thank you for thinking about long-term infrastructure. Thank you for thinking bigger than today. Thank you for being open to what will happen and the possibilities of tomorrow, and for recognizing that arts and humanities and our history and culture is a very important part of Durham's infrastructure. I want to thank Steve Shule and Zena Powell for being our co-chair. and thank Commissioner Burton for jumping in and being such an excellent representative on behalf of the county. And lastly, to the staff, Perry, I know you didn't always think that we were making sense, but you hung in there with us for over the last 10 years and we appreciate your support and Brenda's support. So thank you very, very much for recognizing the importance of supporting infrastructure.

Thank you. That was the last public speaker on this topic here, the 260448. We'll go ahead and vote on this one. Did you have any comments from the commissioners?

I had to leave the work session, so I wasn't able to share comments. But I just wanted to first take a point of personal privilege to congratulate Ms. Coleman on being cancer-free and for going through that journey and for her healing. Thank you. Congratulations and thank you for being dedicated to Durham County and continuing your service through the Cultural Advisory Board and also, you've left us now, but the Memorial Stadium Authority Board and so many other ways that you serve Durham County, so thank you. And I'm really excited that this is coming forward to us and I know we're reading through the Sorry, the report, I saw there was conversations or parts about education and youth development plans. I'd love it maybe in this conversation if there is staff president or members of the advisory council to share about it. But I've just seen myself as a mom now of two youngins wondering how we're bringing in more of Durham public schools. into this because my kid who's two now, he's in speech therapy at his daycare and a big portion of what's helped him in his speech therapy has been his therapist sitting with him with art and drawing and helping him learn words that way. And so wondering, you know, what ways this roadmap is working within Durham Public Schools and also other health-related pieces, because I think arts goes beyond just its own sector. It touches so many other pieces of our lives. I don't know if there's anyone who would be able to answer that question. And also, Ms. Komen, if it makes you feel any better, I think Perry also doesn't understand, thinks that some of the things I say don't make sense all the time.

Good evening, Commissioners. Rebecca Holmes with the City of Durham. Thank you for having us. We do really value that educational component of the arts in this plan and education. We're actually forging a partnership right now with Durham Arts Council for next summer to provide youth programming during those after school or during summer months. But we really see this as a core point of how we're going to impact our next generation of creative thinkers. So we're working with our participatory budgeting staff and at the city side to help build some murals at schools. So we're hoping to continue to forge that relationship with DPS so that we can figure out more ways to get artists and local artists involved in the plan.

Wonderful. No, that's wonderful and great to hear. And also maybe like in those conversations related to the guidance counselors within DPS and like building relationships there around like healing and restorative work with our youth of helping them cope with, you know, stress, anxiety, learning in different ways through art as well. Agreed. Thank you.

Commissioner Burton.

Yes, thank you so much, Chair Lee. And I just wanted to piggyback on what Vice Chair Alam said with regards to our youth definitely partnering with Durham Public Schools. And I know the DPS Foundation gave away grant. They give away grants. But I remember one year, I believe when I was on the board, they gave a grant to Hillside High School where the students painted a beautiful mural of Pauli Murray. So, yeah, I like that idea of really working closely with the schools but I wanted to ask manager Hager I know that we're supposed to do like youth grants and things like that and I was wondering when is that going to come about since we're talking about youth and things like that we will give the board an update on those grants at the next meeting our intent is to share updates the process will look very similar

to the strategies used when we did the American Rescue Plan Act grants, similar framework, and we're excited. Because of budget limitations, we only were able to allocate $400,000, but they would Entities that are eligible could apply in several focus areas, including areas that are arts related. Youth programming is very important to all of our board members as well as myself. And I know that for many of us, we're anchored in the arts from our background. So we're grateful for that.

Yes, and I'm really excited about the cultural roadmap, so thank you to the cultural roadmap team, and thank you, Rebecca, for all your hard work, so thanks.

Commissioner Valentine.

Yes, I just want to say thank you again to the Durham Cultural Roadmap Committee and the time that they have put into this endeavor. I would like to just say that I think that we don't truly know the economic impact with respect to the arts. And so I look forward to the implementation. The question that I have, however, from one of our speakers, they talked about the proposal not being publicly available. Can we have someone speak to that point to give me a little bit more context?

Good afternoon or good evening again. We have the plan posted publicly on creativedurham.org along with some quick guides on what Margie and her team worked on. So all that information is on creativedurham.org.

Thank you.

i just was reminded of another comment from commissioner burton uh mentioning dps foundation i have to highlight i'm sure this is already going to be part of y'all's programming but like integrating with the dps a night to shine which is usually in the beginning of the year every year that highlights uh durham public school students they put on an amazing show of singing um the last time i went i definitely i cried i It is beautiful to watch these elementary and middle school students perform. And if you even come to my office, they weren't selling them, but I nagged and nagged them until they let me buy one of the students' artwork. So if you come outside my office, there's a painting of a, it's called Happy Tiger. a third grader from Durham Public Schools painted and I encourage everyone to participate in DPS at night to shine and support our you know our Durham Public School students showcasing their artwork and talents okay and I just looked up creative Durham org and I see I have it up the plan here

The presentation, yeah, no, this is the plan. This is the plan. The presentation and stuff will be in our agenda. You'd be able to find it in our agenda.

There is a presentation from our August 17th meeting, which also has the recording of Margie sharing that presentation, and those slides, I think, are on the resource page of that same website.

Okay, resource page, okay.

all right very good yeah yes actually i do see it here you had a resource page yeah okay very good uh any other comments no i see the resource page i see the presentation in the reports is the but sorry we keep asking you to stand up is the budget in one of those presentations is can you upload like a standalone budget document

We are absolutely capable of doing that, and we'll be happy to do that tomorrow. We do have slides from Margie's presentation, which I believe includes some budget figures for the year one, two, and three. They're just further down.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay.

Very good. Okay. I'll accept the motion to approve the cultural roadmap. Go ahead. You can make the full motion.

I make a motion for the board to approve the cultural roadmap plan for Durham County and City.

Second. It's been moved and properly seconded that we approve the cultural roadmap for Durham. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. Thank you all. Thank you. Okay, the next item that was pulled off of the agenda was 260479, and that is the Violence Reduction Working Group Resolution. And we have one public comment. Thank you, thank you. One public comment, and I apologize, I can't, the name. Kalila. Yeah. We have very good, Kalila Donahue. Please come forward. And we'll do three minutes as well.

Good evening.

Good evening.

County commissioners and community members, my name is Kalila Donald and I just want to say I learned about this meeting on CBS 17 this morning, their TV show. And so I just want to kind of discuss some things that I think is important about violence reduction and how my ideas may be useful to your commission and going forward. So I wrote some things out. I wrote, when the conversation is about guns, safety is Durham, North Carolina's mission. I think we probably would all agree on that. Gun safety is important. Our lives are important. Your knowledge is powerful. And rewrite change is necessary. Why do we think the young generations will not follow our footsteps? Why do we think the younger generations will not follow in our footsteps if we continue to use tactics that do not speak to their present circumstances? People use guns to solve problems. Our government uses guns to solve problems domestically and internationally. The entertainment industry creates visuals of crimes committed by people with guns to entertain our society. The National Rifle Association supports laws that give people the right to protect their property and family. Therefore, why would our youth and young adults not solve their issues without gun violence? Violence is surrounding their communities, TV programming and communication valleys every day. As a concerned member in this county, I would like to suggest my recommendations for supporting what the Durham County Commissioner Michael Lee and Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams suggested in their summit on saving lives to work with what's already here. What is already here is a disproportionate number of youths, Young adults and adults who are serving time in the Department of Corrections facilities for crimes committed with guns. These valuable people have the knowledge necessary to help your leaders and advocates understand the mindset and needs they had during those moments when they committed those offenses. In my opinion, it would be an important opportunity to create a conversation about people understanding how to communicate, debate, and negotiate their needs without guns to help them solve their issues. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, that was the only public comment on 260479. Are there any other discussion? Is there a discussion on this? Okay, I'll accept the motion to approve the Violence Reduction Working Group Resolution. So moved.

Second.

It has been moved and properly seconded. We approve the Violence Reduction Working Group Resolution. all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously thank you the next item on our agenda we move into other business we have 45 minutes allotted for the durham county community health assessment county-wide survey results this item for those For all the millions of people watching, we didn't get to this in our work session, and so we moved it to our regular session. This is why we're having a presentation like this tonight. Dr. Jenkins.

Good evening, Chair Lee, Vice Chair Long, other members of this great board, Manager Hager, and executive staff. One of Durham County's top priorities is the overall health and well-being of our residents. We are grateful for the trust that this board has in the Department of Public Health. Through our valued partnerships, innovation, and strong belief in the principles of public health, We proudly serve more than 330,000 residents in a community that is constantly growing and welcoming to new individuals on a daily basis. Our work in public health requires us to provide data and other information to help address current and future needs, priorities, challenges, and opportunities that will eventually make Durham County healthier for all. The Durham County Department of Public Health Partnership for Duke Health collaborated on the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment. Tonight, we are pleased to present our findings from our countywide health assessment. Our new, innovative approach yielded the highest response rate ever. To present our findings, we have Public Health Epidemiologist, Savannah Carrico, and the Partnership for a Healthy Durham Coordinator, Brea Miller. I will certainly yield the floor to those who do the most work. Ladies?

Thanks, Rod. Good evening, Commissioners. We're very excited to be here and present the results of all our hard work. I'm Savannah Carrico, and I'm the Public Health Epidemiologist for the Durham County Department of Public Health.

Good evening, everyone. It is a pleasure to speak before you again. My name is Brea Miller. I'm the Partnership for a Healthy Durham Coordinator. I've been in this position for about five years. And before we get in it too far, I just want to say thank you. This is a robust process, and it is very much rooted in our community. We would not have the success that we have without all of these Durham County residents participating in this process. Excuse me. So as some of you may know, or this process may be newer to you, we conduct this community health assessment process every three years. As Dr. Jenkins said before, we do this as a collaborative approach with the health department, Partnership for Healthy Durham and Duke Health. We are required as a local health department to do this every four years. But since we are partnering with Duke Health and they're required to do it every three, we operate on their cycle. We had a number of community partners as well to be a part of this process from the beginning to where we are in the middle, and they will continue to be partners, thankfully, throughout the end. This helps us to gather both quantitative and qualitative information for our community, and this is considered a trusted source of information here in Durham.

okay um so as dr jenkins mentioned this is actually a new innovative process that we did on this past cycle so we actually hired contractors this time that were paid and we were able to take them to events they were able to sign up on their own schedule for the events they were able to make rather than relying on volunteers as we have done in the past in 2022 our community health assessment survey collection process did not yield the results that we were hoping for. We just didn't have the manpower and we were up against the clock with daylight savings and getting dark early. So we didn't go door to door this time. Instead we met community members and worked with local organizations that were throwing events in the community and we would attend those with their permission and we would go and collect surveys there. We would have the contractors, they had an iPad, and they would ask the questions of the person. We did have paper surveys available for people too and we did also offer a QR code if the person wasn't able to take the survey at that point. So the cool thing about tracking the events and what we were doing with those was we were able to watch the demographics of who we were reaching in real time. Our data scientist, John Palzitta, created a fabulous dashboard that allowed us to do that. We looked at race, ethnicity, income, gender, employment status, and employment positions. And so that really helped us try to reach the broadest and most Durham County residents that we could find. So we did, well, let me back up. So when we do door-to-door surveys, it's considered a random sample. So every person in Durham County has an equal probability of taking the survey. And because we didn't do that and we did what's called a convenience sample where we went to specific events, we aren't able to weight it, at least we haven't been in the past. And weighting just makes it generalizable to the general Durham County population. So we can say instead of, Survey participants, we can say Durham's general population. However, there's a new package that came out in R, which is a free statistical program called Non-Prob Survey, allows us to weight this data. However, we did still see selection bias in the results, which is just the nature of this type of assessment. and methodology, so there is still some selection bias. For example, people that went to a 5K are more likely to be involved in fitness or may really be passionate about the cause for the 5K or even just have transportation to go to the 5K. So the changes we made mostly was the methodology, going to different locations and events, and then we also decreased the number of survey questions. We had 60 last time in 2022. You could kind of see the light leave people's eyes around question 25. So that really reduced the time the survey took to about 10 minutes, which helped us collect a lot.

Okay, and what you see here on the slide is a list of some of the key locations that we were able to go to to collect this information. We had our community health assessment team, which is part of the population health group. We also had a number of volunteers and contractors to go out to different locations in Durham. In addition to going to all of the Durham County libraries, which are beautiful places, we were also able to go out to places like farmers markets, and to different resource fairs. This also offered us a really neat opportunity, which was for community members to invite us to places. And that helped us to build, and in some cases, actually restore trust with community members. It was fantastic to interact with people in different locations throughout Durham. OK, so we have quite a few topics that we are going to cover throughout this presentation. For example, we'll talk about the demographics of survey takers, especially by their level of education income. We'll also go over some data about the top health priorities. So those are just as a reminder, affordable housing, access to health care and health insurance. community safety and well-being, mental health and physical activity, nutrition and food access. We were also able to ask some questions about emergency preparedness, opioid use, and the quality of life. We also were able to speak with older adults and talk about the things that they need or would really like to see in this community, as well as the supports that all people in Durham need who are over the age of 18. I apologize, this is me too. There are so many things that we could have said about the information that we gathered, but we were tasked with writing a short story to encompass the things that we learned. In just a few sentences, what we would say is that Durham is thriving and is rich in resources, has good infrastructure, and a diverse community. However, under the surface, there are populations not doing as well in Durham, mainly based on income. These populations face barriers to systems such as housing, healthcare, food, mental health, and more.

Okay, now we'll get into the fun stuff. So I'm gonna try and blitz through this as much as I can, because we got a lot to cover, even though we reduced the questions to half of what we have. So age was pretty representative. We didn't hear from as many young folks in the ages from 18 to 29, so while we were doing the events and trying to reach out, we did keep that in mind. But just the nature of the events we went to, that demographic was underrepresented. Not surprisingly, we saw a much more stronger female response because this is pretty typical of surveys. But we did get a 3.5% other gender representation from the survey participants, which is pretty in line with the literature and what's already out there. based on other surveys that other people have done. Income is interesting. Durham County, in the blue, we did survey, or I'm sorry, Durham County census, so the general population skews to higher income. We actually surveyed people of lower income, so that did skew the results a little bit, but it does really provide a valuable insight to what is going on within different income brackets. Okay, so we did see a wide berth of educational attainment for survey participants. We did see a heavy amount of graduate or professional degrees and bachelor degrees, which is actually not uncommon or not unusual for the Durham County education range, just given the resources we have with the amazing NCCU College, Duke University, and all that. For race and ethnicity, we did get a pretty representative sample of black or African Americans and Hispanic or Latinos. You can see the green and the blue bars for those are pretty in line. Surprisingly, we got an underrepresented sample of white non-Hispanics. But again, that kind of goes down to the events we went to. I broke it. I'm sorry. Okay. So the new question we asked, we were really excited to put on the survey this year was we asked people to describe Durham in one word, which people found more difficult than we would have thought. But, you know, we work in Durham, we've been in Durham and population health for five years. So we're always thinking of these things. But I am very happy to report that the vast majority of responses to how to describe Durham in one word are positive. You can see up there that diverse is the number one that people came up with, followed by home and good and beautiful. However, we do see dangerous, we see bad, we see sad. So we did end up seeing a couple negative responses, but overwhelmingly very positive. Health and housing, about 15% of survey participants said they experienced barriers to finding housing. When we looked at it a little bit closer, it was pretty much survey participants, if you were under the age of 50, you were struggling with securing housing. And we can see here to the right, lack of finances was primarily the biggest issue that people ran into when trying to find housing.

One of the questions we asked folks is, how does housing impact your health? And, of course, most people said it impacts my health in a very positive way. They talked about how helpful it is to their physical as well as mental well-being, and they also said it provides protection from the elements. And while having housing does positively impact people's health, A lot of folks were also very concerned about the cost of housing. Um, some people said that they don't have money for very important repairs that are needed or that they aren't able to afford insurance for their homes. And sometimes they do lose sleep over that. It's a big worry and stressor for them. Um, they also specifically named that it can be very difficult to find housing that is both affordable and healthy conditions. Um, the quote here actually mentions mold specifically.

Okay, when looking at access to care, we saw that almost 20%, so almost one in five survey participants reported that they had a lapse in health insurance or coverage in the past 12 months. And 90% of the people that said they had a lapse in coverage made an annual household income under $75,000. And I just want to be specific because we do mention household income multiple times. That is annual household income, not just an individual person's income. So just keep that in mind. So the top barriers to seeking healthcare was definitely cost. Other people found that the wait was too long to get an appointment. And then people just couldn't get an appointment in general. But the places that people found the most difficulty getting care was their primary care provider. So someone that should be able to be there for them and address the most common questions about their physical health and mental health. But survey participants that had an annual household income less than $50,000 had the most difficult getting care from their primary care providers and the dentist. Okay, so when accessing healthcare from their primary care provider, that was the most commonplace people went when they were seeking care. But again, like I said, it's the most difficult place to get care as well. Most participants reported seeking medical attention for their physical health always, most of the time, or sometimes. And that's 83.5%, so a significant number of people report going to the doctor for their physical health. Respondents that rarely or never go to a healthcare provider make an annual household income less than $75,000 per year.

as a part of this process we also conducted community listening sessions so the partnership for healthy durham el centro hispano and idealisms reached over 150 durham county residents from april through june of this year all people who participated were were given an incentive and if they were in person they got a meal except for one group who decided they would prefer to have ice cream instead So whenever we talked to them about access to healthcare and health insurance, people for the most part said that they felt respected and they felt heard when they went in to speak to their providers. However, they felt like their appointments were quite rushed. People are also quite concerned with the use of AI in their medical visits. They talked about how they weren't sure where their information went when their doctors were inputting information, and they were also concerned when the doctors would consult with AI when diagnosing or treating them.

Okay, moving right along. This is our third top health priority. It's actually new. We identified these in the beginning of 2024 and they will stick with us for the next six years. So we did want to address this because in 2022, violence came up quite a bit in the survey. So people that were making under $75,000 a year prioritized more walkability and sidewalks, better lighting, and better traffic law enforcement. Those making greater than $75,000 prioritized a sense of community and connectedness. So you can see kind of the priorities between the income brackets there. And most people when asked about school security and concerns about school, more mental health resources was number one, followed by addressing school bullying.

And this is going back to some information we gathered through our listening session process. Our seniors definitely want a property that is well maintained and well lit. They also talked about how sometimes they get some visitors who they didn't necessarily want to see or have. We have other people who talked about how where they feel safest in the community is inside their physical homes.

overall though whenever we ask people to imagine what a safe Durham would look like they talked about how they wanted a place that would be connected that's well balanced in a place where everybody had access to good opportunities okay mental health this was the that most questions were in this section for the community health assessment what was interesting to see was almost 60% of survey participants reported experiencing feelings of depression or anxiety in the past 12 months, and about 66% or two in three people experience stress make an annual household income less than $75,000 per year. And you can see the kind of breakdown there. It is kind of spread out, but we can see the difference is still there. When we were asking about community support, so if they thought their community would support someone with a mental health problem or crisis, the vast majority, 87% of survey participants said, yes, I do believe my community would support somebody experiencing that, which is just another positive that we take away from this survey. So when looking at the top five priorities of stress, the top three, work, finances, and personal relationships, were the same as we saw in 2022 and 2019. I wanna be specific though, we can't technically compare that to previous surveys, this survey, because we just used a different methodology. But I was not too surprised to see that these also made an appearance.

Okay, so looking again at our listening session data, and I do apologize for the typo, on this particular slide. Whenever we talk to people about mental health and supports and what they would like to see in the community, I think a really good way to sum it up is what's in the middle. Supply is not the problem, distribution is the problem. So people are aware that there are mental health services in our community, they just don't think that they are accessible to everyone who needs them. Um, there were also some concerns that were raised by students. So one neat thing about the listening session process is that we were able to speak to community members who are under the age of 18. But unfortunately, some of those young folks said that they, um, didn't quite feel comfortable talking to some school staff about the issues that they were experiencing or about their own mental health health concerns, um, out of fear that their information would be shared with others.

Okay. So we asked two new questions. So we had a follow-up question for people that said that they felt depressed or anxious in the past 12 months. They said how they feel with that is talking to friends or family, exercising, or talking to a mental health provider. We also asked after that, what makes you happy? What promotes your mental health? And people said overall taking care of themselves. And what we meant by that is eating healthy, getting enough sleep, um, you know, taking, just taking care of yourself in general, followed by being outside or in nature and exercise. So we also asked about food insecurity. Um, so we asked if someone worried about, uh, if their food would run out before they got money to buy more. Um, and we can see here that about 81% of people who worried their food run out before they got money to buy more, made an annual household income. less than $50,000 per year. So that's pretty stark. And you can see, we said that people were sometimes worried at the top there and people were often worried at the bottom there. And you can just see that blue really takes over when we're looking at food insecurity. For exercise, a lot of people said that they exercise regularly, actually 75% of survey participants. Regular exercise was split relatively evenly across income brackets with annual household incomes below $50,000 a year being slightly higher for regularly participating in exercise. And the barrier for the other 25% of people that said they don't regularly exercise was they didn't have time, they were too tired, or they were injured or disabled and weren't able to. When we ask the most common types of exercise, again, as in previous years, we've seen walking being the number one, almost 90% of people, followed by lifting weights and gardening. So that concludes the sections we did on the top five health priorities. So this is about quality of life in your community. People said the number one issue that they said was affecting their quality of life was lack of affordable housing, which turns out to be our number one health priority, followed by cost of food and homelessness. Nearly half of participants were concerned about basic human needs for survival, so just looking at shelter and food. So we also asked diseases and conditions which are most important to you, mental health, came up and was by far the most common response to this question, followed by cancer and then alcohol and drug addiction. Okay, when we were thinking about accessing healthcare and financial needs, these are most important for adults over 50 years old. So people felt that the best way we could support that population is financial assistance for medical expenses, including medications that wouldn't necessarily, medications followed by housing again we're seeing that and then health services not covered by traditional Medicaid Medicare anything like that so we can see the top three things to support those 50 years and older are all income related when we asked about how to support kids under the age of 18 keeping students active and safe are key so most people said that they want more recreational activities available especially after school and on weekends for kids followed by affordable childcare, and then increase in safety around school. So again, the top three things to help kids under the age of 18 are money-driven and safety-related. I keep breaking this. I'm so sorry. We also asked about emergency preparedness. So three out of four participants reported having the resources to shelter in place for about 72 hours during a widespread emergency. best way that people prepared for emergencies in their household was signing up for emergency alerts so we also promote alert durham when we're out in the community followed by they do have a household emergency plan they make copies of important documents discuss the plan with household members etc i won't go through all of those lastly i know i've been talking so much um we asked about the top five ways that durham county can better serve residents that use opioids or know someone that or are close to someone that uses opioids, we actually had these five options. We asked them to rank them from most important to least important. Number one was definitely more places where people can go to help recover from addiction. So having accessible treatment programs. I think, you know, this also goes back to what Bria said about mental health, having the support is there, but the distribution just isn't. Followed by better educational programs for kids. Then we see providing job opportunities and skill building to help people get back on their feet. I know we have programs in the community like TROSA that help people with that. Tools to keep people safe. So there's people are seeing that making overdose reversing medications such as Narcan. and clean supplies available, such as our safe syringe program that's available at the Health and Human Service building just down the road. And then the last one that people said, but that doesn't mean it's not important, was stronger teamwork between schools, police, health workers, and community groups just to tackle the opioid epidemic. So like I said, income is definitely the best indicator to look at the health and well-being of all Durham County residents. Household incomes that were under $75,000 were more likely to experience barriers to securing housing, finding health care, and are more likely to experience depression or anxiety. Durham County, like we said, is very rich with resources. But once you look closer, there are clear gaps in the health and well-being of residents.

And just a little bit about where we are now in the process of this community health assessment because it is always rolling. We actually do something unique here in Durham and we engage in a collaborative writing process because we have lots of subject matter experts throughout our community. So we are in the thick of that right now, and that will go through March of next year. And then in the spring of next year, we will have a lovely and full assessment to present to the community. It will be open for public comment for one month, and then we will finalize that information. In the meantime, our community organizations, Partnership for Healthy Durham, our public health department are still at work on those community health improvement plans. And after we wrap up this community health assessment, we'll get started on creating new plans.

I think that's all we have for you. Yeah, thank you so much.

All right. Any comments from commissioners? If I share alone.

Thank you all so much for all the work and effort you put in. Really got to see the different ways that you've been engaging with folks outside of just the traditional come into the public health department and service, which is really great because a lot of times people don't even know we have a public health building or social services building. So really glad to see you out in the farmer's market and everything. Wondering also- And what is the time periods that you all conducted this survey?

Yeah, so we actually did it last spring. So we were there, I believe March 17th was the first date, and we closed the survey on July 11th.

And is it usually like your surveys are usually in that same time period, or do you vary on like what time of the year you're conducting?

It does vary. I think it kind of just depends on the way that the cycle is is handling. So, for example, in 2022, we did it in the fall. So September through November. But again, we had that hard stop November 5th because daylight savings. We just didn't want people out after dark doing these surveys. So so that was one one consideration we made when we were deciding to do it in the spring. Also, well, June was rough with the heat, but otherwise the temperature wasn't too terrible and we were doing outside events like farmer's markets, and so it was okay.

and to complete the survey i'm just exposing myself that i did not complete a survey myself um do you have to like does a county staff member you all have to be present for a person to conduct the survey or is it like available if somebody goes on the public health website and they can fill it out themselves yeah um so because we wanted to keep it to people that were only at the events we went to we handed out qr codes little flyers with qr codes and we didn't see as much of a response rate with those but people did complete it online Okay, now I was just wondering more curiously if it had to be the county staff or if there were ways Like I was thinking of the point in time count that we do and if there's a way to like integrate it into that so that we can get more information from our unhoused population around. We already know that they're vulnerable when it comes to public health access, but if there's a way to capture that information when the volunteers go out to conduct those surveys or if there's like a I don't know, data sharing that they could share some of their results into public health to factor in or even working. I noticed another thing was the access to care with people saying the emergency room or their primary practitioner. Does primary practitioner already, is that including in like linking community health and the public health department if people wanted to specify that that was, is there a way to like pull that information out?

Yeah, so to your first point about housing, so I don't forget, we did ask if people had housing at the time that we took the survey, and it was six-ish percent, I think it's six to seven, did not have housing at the time that we asked them. So we did want to be conscious of that because we also wanted to capture that community as well. And then your second point to finding out if someone had difficulty at the health department, we did not ask, we didn't get that granular this time. We just asked, you know, and it was whatever their interpretation of their primary care provider would be, whether or not it's, you know, a family doctor or an OBGYN or something like that. We didn't get that granular, but we did also offer an other option on all the questions. So if people wanted to fill in and explain further where they had difficulty, they were able to.

maybe like there's a lot of other community clinics also out there but in the future if we have like an option that's just simply like community clinic um that could kind of capture linking community health public health department and the other free community resource because i think that is separate from a primary care practitioner because of the challenges that you'll face at Lincoln Community Health is you're probably gonna have longer wait times or issues just because it is a publicly funded resource that we're trying to put as many resources into than an individual who has access to a typical primary care doctor.

Commissioner Burton.

Thank you. Thank you so much for this report. It is really relevant. I'm reading a book, well, I'm almost finished with it, that talks about the working homeless. And these same kind of issues come up because they're working, but they're working jobs that are low pay, trying to secure housing, but they're not caught up in the point of time count because HUD has a specific, definition of what homelessness is so you could be a person you know you know going from home to home with relatives or friends etc and you're not considered homeless right and it's stressful and it takes a toll in many people because they can't secure housing they can't secure you know food it takes a toll on your mental health your physical health the stress and that was exhibited in the stories that I was reading. Just trying to figure out what we do or what we can continue to do as Durham County government to ensure that people get housing, they get healthy food, they get the healthcare that they need, that we look at ways to support people's mental health and stuff because This report clearly shows it. The book that I'm reading is showing it. It's coming up everywhere. So yeah, I think that's, I really just have my comment because it's how do we help people get through this stress? How do we get people the things that they need to be successful and they can thrive? So I really appreciate this, that you all do this work, so.

Commissioner Byrd, I'll just say I appreciate your comment. To this board, I'll just say I've been in about three different counties and I'll just say Durham is perhaps the most progressive. um as you were listing them i'm saying to myself this board touches on mental health they touch on public health health care they touch on homelessness they touch on affordable health care i mean there's there's but so much you can do because you know the county has a lot of needs but i do think that this board does a good job of hearing the problems and trying your best to address it with limited funds and when you think about um how much from the federal and state government are starting to roll to local governments, that becomes even more difficult because there's so much need and so little money to go around. But I think this board does a really good job of dealing with those high-touch, high-pressure things as best you can.

Well, thank you for that, Dr. Jenkins. And I'm also thinking about now with the, you know, SNAP rules, we're already seeing people being affected by that. And then also thinking about Medicaid and those rules, you know, with the 80 hours of work requirements, volunteering, trainings, all those additional burdens that are coming down the pipe out probably will impact what you shared with us. So I guess we just have to keep working, figuring out solutions. You know, I'm just gonna say this. We really need to increase the minimum wage in this state and in this country to make sure that people make decent wages, right? And that they can support themselves and their families in childcare. That's another issue. So we can go on and on. So thank you for your work on this. This is really great.

Commissioner Valentine. Yeah, thank you, Chair. So I just have several questions. Thank you. This is hard work. You had talked about changing your methodology. In the past, you've worked with volunteers and you moved to contractors. The information that you provide here indicates that you were able to capture more data. What was actually the impetus from the very beginning for changing your methodology?

So after 2022 we realized that I think I believe we only got 205 surveys after two months of going door to door and trying to get people to take the survey. I mean, and when we were relying on volunteers, sometimes we'd have two volunteers that day and we would obviously send people in pairs for safety and you know, I think the record for surveys in a shift was seven. So really just not productive days. Volunteers, you know, it was right after COVID. I think we had just dealt with Omicron at that time. And it just, the volunteer power just wasn't there like it had been in 2019. In 2019, I believe we had over 150 volunteers. And in 2022, we had about 60. So that definitely impacted it.

And I'll just also add during that time, there was a lot of fear. We had some people who historically had volunteered but their workplaces actually had policies that would prevent them from going door to door also whenever we would go to the homes people were very hesitant to even come to the door i can recall a couple of times when i heard the door moving and i was like oh good they're coming to answer and they were actually locking the doors because they didn't want to speak to us so this was us like being mindful listening to our community and saying this doesn't work well anymore so we need to pivot

Uh, you also, uh, made a point to share with, uh, share with us around selection bias. And so moving forward, how, how do we deal with that?

Yeah. Um, so, I mean, it's kind of like, uh, it's sort of kind of a double edged sword, right? Because we were so successful with this new methodology. I mean, we got five times the amount of surveys that we pretty much ever gotten. Um, so, you know, I think we're going to continue this methodology and have it be the precedent. I will say that the package that is available in R is pretty new, so there could be updates to it that could help narrow down and perfect the waiting process with that. So I'm curious to see what will come out in the next couple of years with that. But, yeah, so that's kind of the struggle that we're dealing with with selection bias. I think what we really tried to do to counteract that was track the demographics in real time. So, you know, initially when we were going to the libraries, they were doing, I think, some tax help, property tax help with them. we noticed our average age was like 65. so we were like okay let's pivot like we need to try and access some more younger folks and so unfortunately we weren't able to go to every event we wanted to someone get cancelled but we really did our best to try to counteract the the pro or the possibility of selection bias

and just just for awareness with the selection bias it's about going to diversity of events right so you know instead of going to all the 5ks races you go to the farmers market you go to you know center fest right where people aren't exercising right so you get the diversity there so i think That sounds like it played out in the methodology as it is there, so maybe kind of filtered out that selection bias.

You also mentioned the listening sessions, and so you also, if my mind serves me correctly, at the moment you talked about the places where these listening sessions occurred, or was that generally the capturing of data? Can you share with me about these listening sessions? I just want to know more and understand exactly what's happening at these listening sessions.

Sure. So we were able to reach over 150 people. Partnership for Healthy Durham, Idealisms, and El Centro Hispano all reached about 50 each, so for a total of 150, and they were hosted in different places throughout the community. There were a couple that were also hosted online on Zoom because that's just what people preferred. But we had some that were at libraries. There were some that were hosted like at an actual ice cream shop. There are also some that were at places of worship. So it was really diverse throughout different places and spaces. And we made sure to, um, share the information with folks, um, through different channels. So of course, like we like to use social media, but word of mouth is very powerful. Um, so we thankfully have some trusted community members who are more like champions and they would invite folks out and say, Hey, this is a really great opportunity to participate. For example, there was an evening where we met in a fellowship hall of a church and we had about 40 people to come to that particular event because they heard about it from other folks and people wanted to come and talk about what they're seeing in Durham and share about their own experiences.

I just want to add to that. We had very positive feedback when we were surveying people. I know you mentioned the online option to take the survey. We did find that the results were most valuable when they did take it with a person. because you can talk to that person, have an explanation of what's going on, and the person can talk however much they want. And we can record that qualitative data while we're taking the survey, too. But many people would come up to myself or the contractors and say, thank you so much for being out in the community. I feel like I never get these opportunities to take surveys like this, things like that. And we also made sure that we had some bilingual contractors as well. So we were able to reach a Hispanic population that was primarily Spanish-speaking as well.

and finally two two questions i'll give them both to you at the same time you had mentioned that uh responses from the community were around dorm being safe a safe dorm and opportunities can you encapsulate what what that means

Are you referring to the one about kids under the age of 18 or just in general?

Just in general.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so safety definitely came up again. And that's why we wanted to acknowledge that in the previous survey and develop that new health priority, community safety and well-being. And people had a lot to say about their safety. You know, we also asked a question, too, about what a community supportive of community well-being would look like for people. And safety, again, came up there as well. And we saw it pop up in the school questions, too. So we wanted to make sure that we were asking those kind of questions. We did want to make sure we were not duplicating the questions on the city neighborhood survey. I believe it's the city. So we wanted to make sure we weren't asking the same questions there, so we came up with what we had. But the more opportunities, I think, just, I mean, I'm still blown away by that quote that Bria shared about how the support's there, but the distribution's off. And so I think that's kind of where people, we notice when we're interviewing people, they're like, oh, well, I don't have transportation, I can't get there, or I don't have the opportunity to leave work and take care of this or something. So I think what people were getting at was they want more community, a sense of community, and I think they want to have more accessible resources.

And lastly, this is for you, Dr. Jenkins. And so as we gather all this data, how do we integrate that into sort of larger policy goals and aims?

That's a good question. Community Health Needs Assessment is that tool that many, many in our community and beyond use in order to develop those policy goals, those things that they want to see happen. And they rely on us. Sometimes we get lots of requests for audiences and speaking engagements to really help them along the way. And I'd be remiss. Of course, I'm the biggest cheerleader for these ladies in my agency as a whole. So this is an award-winning process. It has been hardwired, and just about every four years we receive some type of accolade, some type of award that we love to bring to you all. But to get to the crux of your question, we hope that the community is listening. Special thanks to Manager Hager for putting this inside her newsletter on last Friday. We hope they're listening. We hope that we can get them to participate in an effort to bring change. That's the reason why we do this assessment. We want Durham to be the best. And we also know from an economic perspective, People want and industries want to come to an area that has their wellness, has good crime is low. So with that, that's the overall overarching goal for us to really use this as a tool in order to evoke change and make policy changes as well.

Thank you. thank you all for this I am one for statistics I appreciate a good presentation with lots of numbers and data and all that but I am curious so the the survey questions were essentially direct questions is question answer and that's good and we saw a presentation we saw information about that But what can we as leaders infer from what's not being said? Okay, and here's why I'm asking. There was a slide where it was a food insecurity, I think, graph. And at the bottom, the blue got bigger with the lower income, right? So when I look at, especially with this hat on, I look for where can we as governing officials interact with this data? It's well and good, people are feeling happy and they're feeling healthy and things of that sort, but it seems like there's some underlying inferences that we can take and where policy or programming or so forth can use this data or the inferences from this data to figure out what we can advocate for from this dais. You know, budget priorities, budget approvals or appropriations of what it may be. And this may be a little bit on the spot and this may be something for us to kind of sit down later on, look at the data. Because I wanna, this is really good information, this is really good surveying, I know how difficult getting survey data is. Writing my dissertation, I struggle to get qualitative data. So I understand that. But it looks, just from a cursory view, It looks as though there's some really good information that could drive policy and how we help extend some, or not extend, but maybe mitigate some of the challenges that we're seeing and maybe was not necessarily shown. Looks like some of this data was made more on the positive side, but maybe some of the underlying struggle data can be seen and used as we move into our budget cycles and so forth. So maybe that's a conversation for us to sit down and just kind of have a deeper conversation about the data. I don't want to really put you all on the spot and say, what didn't we see? That's a little bit hard to explain, but I would really like to do something like that, Dr. Jenkins.

Indeed. And, Chair Lee, I would just welcome you personally to sit down and have a conversation with my population health division. That is my brain trust, to lack of better terms, the data nerds. Those are the ones that I really rely on to help me move the needle. You talk about using the data and you see it and it's all correlated. What the challenge has always been for us is to really transfer that data into words and stories. that hopefully our governing board can use based upon what we have painstakingly made and created. But again, that challenge is there. We would love for you to come to 414 East Main Street and sit down with us. But I just say, one slide that really stuck out for me, and that's how you can connect it to all the different areas, be it DPS, be it the Sheriff's Department, DPD, for all of us to get on the same sheet of music. I know from time to time, there are these joint board meetings. That data could be used, and oftentimes, Manager Hager is challenging us to, hey, I need for you all to present. What are you doing, public health? How is this going to help move the needle with student learning and everything? So I think that's what we always aim to do, Chair Lee and other members of this board, to really craft this. and really have something so accessible, so easy to just grab and put it in work. So when you are at these different events, you have it at your disposal, if that makes sense.

Thank you. Thank you. But thank you all for this presentation. Yeah, thank you. Very good. We have monitors right here. I was kind of glued to that. I love statistics. I love seeing that. So thank you all very much.

are there any other comments from our commissioners i just wanted to say thank you y'all know i'm a frustrated data analyst but i i do do want to say thank you for your hard work and get into the pulse of our community from a health lens and As Dr. Lee has challenged us and our board members have challenged us to look at going forward, how do we integrate this to test what we're investing in? Because as I looked at it and I saw things arise, I thought, wow, we invest this much in this area. but is there enough in this other area? So as we work towards the budget season, I am sure we will call on you to help us as we interpret. But again, thank you for your excellent work.

Thank you all.

Absolutely. Thank you very much. Is Commissioner Jacobs still with us? No? Okay. All right. Thank you all very much. That is the last item that we have on our agenda tonight. So I'll accept a motion for adjournment. So moved.

I think we all want to stay here. Second.

It's been moved and probably seconded. We adjourn. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, please use the same sign. We are adjourned. Thank you all very much.