Reid Park and Graham Heights honored at the Neighborhood Leadership Awards

At the end of October, the City of Charlotte hosted the first annual Neighborhood Leadership Awards. The Charlotte Action Research Project’s (CHARP) neighborhood partner, the Reid Park Neighborhood Association won the Neighborhood Improvement Award. The award recognizes a neighborhood association that has shown a commitment to enhancing the aesthetics and safety of their neighborhood. CHARP established a partnership with Reid Park in 2009 and has funded research assistants to partner with Reid Park residents for the past several years. These research assistants worked with residents to create a neighborhood planning document, apply for a KABOOM! playground and build the playground, develop an oral history program for the students at Reid Park Academy, implement the Campaign for Change directed at eliminating littering and illegal dumping in the neighborhood, and generate a vision for the forthcoming neighborhood park that has been funded by Mecklenburg County.

Several residents from the CHARP’s partner neighborhoods were nominated for individual awards. This includes Jeff Pharr of Graham Heights and Rickey Hall of Reid Park, as well as CHARP research assistant and geography doctoral student, Joe Howarth.