NC-12 Community Project Funding 2023 Submissions and Rep. Adams’ Financial Disclosure Certifications

Additionally, you can find more information on these funding submissions below.
Requesting Entity/Proposed Recipient | Requesting Entity Address | Project Site Location | Project Name | Requested Funding Amount | Project Description (No more than 1,000 words) | Explanation of why the project is a good use of taxpayer funds |
Atrium Health | 1000 Blythe Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28203-5812 | Baxter Street and McDowell Street, Charlotte, NC 28204 | STEM Learning Laboratory Construction in Charlotte Innovation District | 3,375,000 |
This funding would allow for the construction of a STEM learning laboratory that will be focused on driving STEM training and exposure in area middle and high school students through hands-on learning. Modeled after the Philadelphia Science Center’s First-Hand Program the Charlotte program will require a research wet laboratory. The Innovation District will partner with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools to bring students from low-income area middle and high schools into the laboratory each week to participate in curriculum modules around themes that interest students and align with the Innovation District’s research activities (e.g., machine learning, materials science, artificial intelligence, and surgical device innovation). Students will be matched with corporate mentors from the start-up businesses and corporate innovation teams that serve as neighbors to the laboratory in the research buildings.
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The establishment of a strong, early STEM pipelining program, focused on academic research and innovation (a young and growing industry in Charlotte) will be critical to ensure that the jobs created by the Innovation District can be filled by North Carolinians. A study by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics indicates that females “as early as 5th grade systematically under-estimate their math and science abilities (Weinhardt 2017). This development is then further reinforced by the prevalent lack in female STEM teachers acting as role models for successful STEM careers, which further deters girls from going into STEM tracks (Bottia et al. 2015). After school, women might anticipate gender pay gaps in STEM occupations (Osikominu and Pfeifer 2018).” Recent research from the National Science Foundation indicates that, post-Covid, the delta between race is even greater than that of gender, with lower testing performance and STEM persistence emerging from students with lower-socioeconomic backgrounds (predominantly black and LatinX) who were adversely impacted by a lack of technology in remote learning, in addition to the factors of identity cited above.
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Carolina Farm Trust | 9627 Willow Leaf Ln, Cornelius, NC 28031 | 511 South Hoskins Road, Charlotte, NC 28208 | Local Foods Production & Distribution Center | 4,000,000 | Carolina Farm Trust’s Local Food Production & Distribution Center (LFPDC) is a first-of-its-kind project that is critical to achieving food justice in Charlotte. The LFPDC will source and sell local food items from farmers in surrounding rural communities to residential and commercial (wholesale) customers, including produce, livestock, and dairy. The LFPDC will be constructed on South Hoskins Road in Charlotte's West Side community where 75% of the population identifies as Black or African American (compared to 30.7% in Mecklenburg County), 36% of residents use Food and Nutrition Services (compared with 12% of Mecklenburg County), and Median Household Income is $31,749 (compared to $61,695 in Mecklenburg County).
| Carolina Farm Trust aims to strengthen our local food systems in the Carolinas, from production to consumption. According to a recent poll conducted by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), nearly 100 million Americans either personally face or know someone who faces food insecurity or does not have regular access to food because of financial difficulties. In North Carolina, people in nearly 590,000 households do not have enough food to eat each day. North Carolina has the 10th highest rate of food insecurity in the nation. The result of losing nearly 100,000 acres of farmland to development has led to food insecurity among over 15% of all residents. In Mecklenburg County, 22% of children experience food insecurity.
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Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) | 1330 E Fourth Street, Charlotte NC 28204 | 1425 Elizabeth Ave, Charlotte NC 28204 | Behavioral Health Services Clinic at Central Piedmont Community College | 575,000 | CPCC will use this funding to construct a Behavioral Health Services Clinic. Establishing a clinic to address behavioral health not only provides critically needed healthcare for students but also creates opportunities for work-based learning and service-learning using a “teaching clinic” model. The site will be used as a laboratory for Central Piedmont’s Human Services Technology program, which also offers a specialized certificate in Substance Abuse. Central Piedmont’s Human Services Technology curriculum provides an understanding of the personal, social, psychological, and personal impact of issues, such as domestic violence, child abuse, disabilities, homelessness, mental health, aging, and substance abuse, among many others. When the clinic is fully operational, CPCC anticipates serving approximately 2,500 students per year. Establishing a clinic of this type will remove a significant access barrier to healthcare for Central Piedmont students and enable them to focus on their studies and use their limited resources for housing, transportation, nutrition, childcare and other basic needs.
| Central Piedmont serves the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Central Piedmont serves the 12th Congressional District by training the workforce, providing local residents with easy access to higher education opportunities, and preparing students for highly-skilled, technical professions. The proposed project is a good use of taxpayer funds, as it will provide Central Piedmont students with direct access to critically needed behavioral health services. Offering clinical services to students will support their success by assisting with hurdles such as stress, anxiety, depression, addiction recovery, and other behavioral health problems.
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Centralina Regional Council | 9815 David Taylor Drive, Suite 100, Charlotte, NC 28262 | Various sites in Northern Mecklenburg County, NC, NC-12 | North Mecklenburg County Housing Preservation Initiative | 1,000,000 | Centralina Regional Council proposes to partner with local governments, housing nonprofits, and homeowners in northern Mecklenburg County to address affordable housing preservation for low- and moderate-income (LMI) elderly, veteran, and disabled homeowners. The University of North Carolina Charlotte 2021 State of Housing Report indicates that the pandemic has further caused housing affordability and single-family home prices in northern Mecklenburg communities to surge. In tandem, corporate buyers are prowling Mecklenburg communities looking for quick sales; their targets are often low- and moderate-income elderly, veteran, and disabled homeowners who face challenges with critical home repairs, weatherization, ADA compliance needs, HVAC upgrades, failing septic systems and other issues. These homeowners often need resources and financial support to improve their home’s condition in order to age-in-place within their communities, yet program participation is often low due to lack of information and lack of trust. Centralina will address this challenge through two complementary activities: a Housing Preservation Program System Evaluation and the implementation of home urgent repair projects for up to 15 low- and moderate-income elderly, veteran, or disabled homeowners in northern Mecklenburg County.
| The North Mecklenburg Housing Preservation Initiative will strategically invest federal resources in improving the system to support housing preservation for vulnerable homeowners in Mecklenburg County while providing direct urgent home repairs for up to fifteen elderly, disabled or veteran low- to moderate-income homeowners in the northern portions of the County facing gentrification and rising displacement pressures. The pandemic amplified the need to better understand the obstacles faced by vulnerable homeowners to age-in-place within safe and healthy home environments. Existing taxpayer-funded programs are often underutilized by these vulnerable groups, especially in portions of the County and in communities with the greatest needed. This initiative seeks to assess the systematic barriers to housing preservation program participation and make recommendations to help improve the local delivery of services and investment of public funds. The Initiative will incorporate innovative ways to inform, engage and implement critical home repair programs to improve the effectiveness of taxpayer-funded housing preservation programs in the County.
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Charlotte Community Health Clinic | 8401 Medical Plaza Drive, Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28262 | 3400 Shamrock Drive, Charlotte, NC 28215 | East Charlotte Expansion - Construction of a Family Practice satellite clinic | 600,000 | Charlotte Community Health Clinic, Inc. (CCHC) would use this funding to establish primary medical care services within a multi-agency resource center for immigrant and refugee families in partnership with ourBridge for Kids. In this project, Charlotte Community Health Clinic will reconfigure 1,200 square feet of existing space within an existing administrative office building to create a medical space with 3 clinical exam rooms. As a result of this project, a same-day Express Care primary care facility will be opened for clinical care 2 and a half days per week. 8 hours per day during the week and 4 hours on Saturdays. Although CCHC received HRSA ARP-capital funding for the program, the cost of construction has increased significantly.
| The multi-agency resource center comprised of ourBRIDGE for KIDS, Charlotte Community Health Clinic, and the Carolina Migrant Network [immigration attorney] is a unique partnership that will address the needs of immigrants and refugees in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County community on the Aldersgate campus in East Charlotte. The investment of taxpayer funds will enable Charlotte Community Health Clinic to provide comprehensive primary and dental services in a high-need area identified in the Mecklenburg County Community Health Assessment.
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City of Charlotte | 600 East 4th Street Charlotte, NC 28202 | Charlotte, NC | Alternatives To Violence: Cure Violence Implementation | 1,000,000 | In response to an increase in violent crimes and homicides in Charlotte over the course of 2019, Charlotte City Council adopted its Framework to Address Violence in March 2020. The framework is comprised of five pillars that inform policy and program development: Intergovernmental Collaboration Invest in Community-Led Efforts Interrupt Violence Community Collaboration in Priority Areas Use Data and Evidence Since its adoption in March of 2020, staff and council have worked collaboratively with Mecklenburg County, community members, and other key stakeholders to advance initiatives that address violence and promote safety in our neighborhoods. The cornerstone of the Framework is to “Interrupt Violence.” The City has worked with Cure Violence Global (CVG) to understand how Charlotte should implement their evidence-based program to interrupt violence in identified areas with high relational violent crime. CVG has worked in cities across the world employing their methodology by leveraging data, employing trusted messengers, focusing on the highest-risk individuals, and tracking these key metrics of success: Reduction in shootings Reduction in homicides Reduction in retaliatory violence.
| Violence Interruption is a unique, interdisciplinary, public health approach to violence prevention and an adaptation of the Cure Violence Model (CVM). The philosophy of CVM maintains that violence is a learned behavior that can be prevented using disease control methods. Violence Interruption works primarily with high-risk youth, aged 14 to 25, through regular individual interactions, conflict mediation, and community mobilization. In 2019, more than 100 homicides occurred in Charlotte — an 80 percent increase over the previous year and the city's highest number of homicides since the early 1990s — and hospital emergency departments treated more than 4,000 Mecklenburg County residents for assault-related injuries. In response to the increase in violence, the City, Mecklenburg County, and partners have adopted a new public health approach to prevent violent crime. The success of this project will rely on the selected community organizations and other stakeholders mobilizing community members against shootings and homicides.
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DreamKey Partner | 4601 Charlotte Park Dr., Suite 350, Charlotte, NC 28217 | Druid Hills Neighborhood, Charlotte, NC (Approximately Statesville at Norris Ave.) | Preservation of Affordable Housing | 1,400,000 | DreamKey Partners would like to preserve a 50-unit rental portfolio of affordable (60% AMI and under) duplex and triplex units in the Druid Hills neighborhood in Northwest Charlotte which were originally purchased in the 2004 timeframe. These units of affordable housing were originally built in the 1930s and 1940s and are of a brick architecture typically seen in many neighborhoods in Charlotte. Over the years, DreamKey has lightly reinvested in these housing units as needed, predominately for safety and soundness, and kept them affordable for families earning less than 60% of Area Median Income. This project would preserve this important affordable housing by injecting approximately $28,000 per unit to include new roofs, kitchens, bathrooms, weatherization, and HVAC as well as provide new landscaping and lighting.
| The project is an excellent use of taxpayer funds because the primary use is to preserve 50 units of affordable housing in a traditionally African American neighborhood that is experiencing gentrification pressure.
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Foundation for the Carolinas | 220 North Tryon Street Charlotte, NC 28202 | 230 N Tryon Street Charlotte, NC 28202 | Carolina Theatre Restoration and Construction | 4,000,000 | Foundation For The Carolinas would use this funding to restore the Carolina Theatre, where it will serve as a dynamic civic hub. The Foundation was awarded the Carolina Theatre and its associated land in 2013 by the City of Charlotte. With this gift, the Foundation announced a $50 million capital campaign to launch the formal rebirth of the Carolina Theatre. Carolina Theatre’s primary focus will be civic uses such as lectures, town hall gatherings, annual meetings, symposiums, and panel discussions, with secondary uses to include film, arts, and entertainment. The space will serve as an extension to the conference space in the Foundation’s headquarters and provide the Foundation with an additional offering for its public, private and nonprofit clients.
| There are three main reasons why the project is a good use of taxpayer funds: Funding Shortfall:
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Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC)- Charlotte | 201 South Tryon St Suite 1210 Charlotte, NC 28202 | City of Charlotte, Historic West End neighborhood, zip codes: 28216, 28208, 28206, 28202 | Historic West End Critical Home Repair Program | 1,500,000 | Local Initiatives Support Corporation- Charlotte will use this funding to ill develop and launch the Historic West End Critical Home Repair Program using public and private capital to support 50 senior homeowners, who are on a fixed income, with funds ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to complete critical repairs to their homes. The Historic West End Critical Home Repair Program will target underserved homeowners in the Historic West End Neighborhood of Charlotte who are at risk of displacement, including low-income seniors living on or near the Beatties Ford Road Corridor. The Corridor is undergoing rapid gentrification, classified as a food desert, and has a large senior population that has lived in the community for many years. Despite these challenges, the looming opportunity for economic growth puts fixed-income seniors at significant risk of being forced to move. Channeling capital for home repairs will allow senior community members to remain in their homes and maintain stability and demographic diversity in the neighborhood.
| Resources to address the housing crisis facing seniors who reside in the Beatties Ford Road/Rozzelles Ferry Road corridor in the rapidly gentrifying Historic West End Neighborhood (HWE) in Charlotte, NC are desperately needed. Elderly low-income homeowners and those with special needs have limited finances to preserve their homes and age in place safely. Single-family homes are close to 72% of the housing stock in HWE. The median household income in the neighborhood is only $34,568, compared to $59,268 countywide. HWE residents over the age of 65 represent 10.9% of the population and are particularly vulnerable to missing out on the economic and social opportunities presented by revitalization and growth.
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Mecklenburg County | 715 E 4th Street, Charlotte, NC 28202 | 715 E 4th Street, Charlotte, NC 28202 | Data and Dashboards: Research and Enhancements to Ensure Mecklenburg County's Criminal Justice System | 1,000,000 | Mecklenburg County Criminal Justice Services (CJS) is proposing a researcher-practitioner project aimed at examining the trends in criminal offending and population change in Mecklenburg County over the past several decades, as well as a data enhancement and visualization project to build upon existing data within the CJS Research and Planning Unit. An estimated total budget would be $1,000,000 and would take approximately one year to complete. Upon notification of funding award, CJS would move to secure all needed contracts, Memoranda of Agreements, and/or Data Use/Sharing Agreements with respective partners. If needed, CJS would also move to create any necessary Request for Proposals as required by County or Federal mandates.
| Funding for this project will better enable criminal justice system stakeholders to make appropriate policy and practice changes to reduce racial disparities among those individuals directly impacted by the local justice system. Research on the history of crime in Mecklenburg County, in relationship to population and demographic changes, will provide community members with the knowledge and ability to seek necessary change based on factual data and empirical evidence.
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Novant Health | 200 Hawthorne Lane; Charlotte, NC, 28204 | The Presbyterian Hospital DBA Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center | Remote Patient Monitoring to Enhance Maternal Healthcare among Minority Populations in the Charlotte Region | 216,200 | Novant’s project team will make an initial purchase of 100 PatientConnect tablet kits with PatientConnect mobile applications and accompanying equipment (blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, weight scale). The PatientConnect Complete kits provide a patient tablet with a data plan that is pre-connected to the devices through Bluetooth, facilitating participation with or without an internet connection. Data obtained from this project will provide a baseline for expansion and act as a model for the use of RPM across the entire system. The effort will yield improved maternal and infant outcomes, along with reduced ER visits and hospital readmissions. Patients will make more efficient use of ambulatory care, thus lowering overall healthcare costs. RPM helps to address key social drivers of health including transportation, time away from family and work, and the cost of healthcare.
| Novant Health's remote patient monitoring efforts to enhance maternal health among minority populations in the Charlotte region will yield improved maternal and infant outcomes, along with reduced ER visits and hospital readmissions. Patients will make more efficient use of ambulatory care, thus lowering overall healthcare costs. Remote patient monitoring helps to address key social drivers of health including transportation, time away from family and work, and the cost of healthcare.
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OurBridge | 3925 Willard Farrow Drive, Charlotte, NC, 28215 | Charlotte Center for Newcomers | 1,300,000 | ourBRIDGE, Inc. would use this funding to help construct Charlotte Center for Newcomers, a much-needed hub for the services that we identified immigrant and refugee families ask for the most: Education, Wraparound Support, Health care, and Legal Representation. ourBRIDGE will use the space as the headquarters for the three other locations where we offer afterschool and summer programs. We will continue providing English classes, Know Your Rights workshops, food distribution, accessibility to affordable housing, guidance for families as they navigate the school system, etc. The Healthcare aspect will be covered by Charlotte Community Health Clinic (CCHC), a community-centric organization that is mission-aligned to ours that will offer physical, dental, behavioral, and vision care. CCHC is requesting funding separately for their space in the building we will share.
| The well-being and prosperity of Charlotte immigrant and refugee families is crucial for the well-being of the entire community. The Charlotte Center for Newcomers will ensure accessibility to resources that will create a strong foundation for their acculturation to our wonderful city.
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Town of Huntersville | 101 Huntersville-Concord Road, Huntersville, NC 28078 | Huntersville | Huntersville Affordable Housing Land Acquisition | 2,000,000 | The Town of Huntersville will use this funding to The Town of Huntersville is seeking funds to support a broad land acquisition initiative to acquire parcels and related infrastructure development to increase the supply of local affordable housing stock. Huntersville has several areas that remain undeveloped and/or where subdivisions were approved many decades ago by Mecklenburg County that have been slow to develop due to lack of infrastructure. These areas have proven fruitful for local nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity and Hope House seeking low land costs to more easily facilitate creation of affordable housing opportunities
| This project is a good use of taxpayer funds because the primary use is to develop affordable housing in areas that have not been previously developed and/or are facing gentrification pressure. Lack of development and infrastructure provides lower land costs to acquire lots for this purpose.
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University of North Carolina (UNC) System | 140 Friday Center Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27517 | University of North Carolina System schools | UNC System Suicide Prevention Program for Students and Student Veterans: Question, Persuade, Refer | 230,000 | The UNC System Office, in partnership with its 17 institutions and the Association of Student Governments (ASG), will launch QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) training over the 2022-2023 academic year. Individuals trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to receive help. QPR is the most widely taught Gatekeeper training in the world. The UNC System Office will offer instructor training to faculty and staff at UNC System institutions and these 85 instructors will then train 130 faculty and staff from their institution to become certified in QPR. Additionally, since approximately 1,100 college students die by suicide each year, we would also provide QPR training to 1,100 undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students across the UNC System. Student Veterans: The UNC System has a significant number of veterans enrolled at our institutions. In coordination with the UNC System Military Affairs team, we would also provide the QPR course for Veteran Care Providers. This six-hour training program is designed by veterans and its single purpose is to prevent suicide amount veterans, soldiers in our National Guard or military reserves, and active military warriors. The UNC System is also seeking to partner with the NC Governor’s Working Group on Veterans and Veterans Bridge home, which offer comprehensive wraparound support services to veterans in North Carolina.
| On average there are 130 suicides per day and suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2020, 45,979 Americans died by suicide, and more startling, it was estimated that there were 1.2 million suicide attempts in 2020 (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention).
From 2001 to 2019, the average number of Veteran suicides per day rose 4.5%, from 16.4 in 2001 to 17.2 in 2019 (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2021). Moreover, the suicide rate was 1.5x higher for Veterans than for non-Veteran adults over the age of 18. Data from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention found in 2020 that 86% of communities in North Carolina did not have enough mental health providers to serve residents according to federal guidelines.
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WeBuild Concord | 4 Barbrick Ave SW, Suite 10, Concord, NC 28025 | 3400 Shamrock Dr. Charlotte, NC, 28215 | Affordable Housing Land Acquisition | 2,000,000 | This funding would allow WeBuild Concord to build 50 to 60 affordable homes on 15 sites for residents between 30 and 80 percent of the area's median income in FY 2023. Those who benefit from the program earn between 30 – 80 percent of the area median income to promote stability and wealth to working-class, low to moderate, and socially impacted residents and communities. The sites acquired by WeBuild are in areas with lower ownership rates or regions closer to new economic and educational development.
| Housing impacts your environment, proximity to amenities and economic opportunities, schools, and overall ability to develop stability and wealth. In other words, housing is an essential part of talent development for our future. Affordable housing makes our neighborhoods and communities more competitive in a global economy and is critical to America's leadership ability.
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