Gilmore Terrace, Lee County, North Carolina : an action-oriented community diagnosis
Creators: name: Johnson, Emily
name: Briola, Bianca
name: Wilson, Tara
name: Lafontant, Bithiah
name: Bower, Julie
name: Kruczynski, Laura
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2005

description: This document details the steps and results of the Action Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCD) conducted in the Gilmore Terrace public housing community located in Sanford, North Carolina. The AOCD was performed between September 2004 and May 2005 by six students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Public Health’s Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in conjunction with residents and service providers of the Gilmore Terrace community. The purpose of an AOCD is to explore a community through participant observation and qualitative interviewing and to engage residents in a discussion of strategies to improve quality of life in the community. The student team interviewed both residents of Gilmore Terrace (insiders) and individuals who provide services to residents (outsiders). The interviews were analyzed to identify key themes, or ideas that were repeated by many interviewees (see Appendix I for a complete list of themes). The most important element of an AOCD is a community forum, where residents come together to discuss the themes and begin working towards solutions to issues facing the community. At the forum, the student team presented themes that were determined to be the most relevant and changeable (as determine by a planning committee of residents and service providers). These themes were: 1) there is a lack of established lines of communication between the residents of Gilmore Terrace and the Sanford Housing Authority (SHA); 2) Gilmore Terrace has higher rates of crime than other areas of Sanford, but much of that crime is attributed to nonresidents rather than residents; 3) residents of Gilmore Terrace do not have an official location to gather and hold community events since the neighborhood community center has been rented to the Boys and Girls Club and 4) community members and service providers are concerned that there is a lack of childcare and after-school activities that are affordable and easily accessible to youth and their parents. After the themes were presented to the community, forum participants divided into small groups to discuss what could be done to address these issues. First, a representative of Boys and Girls Club offered 50 summer scholarships to children living in Gilmore Terrace. Residents agreed to fill out applications and consider volunteering at the Club. Other action steps that came from small group discussions included: 1) forming a Resident Council to improve communication with the SHA; 2) working to have speed bumps installed in Gilmore Terrace and 3) converting a unit offline to use for community events. (See Appendix D9 for complete list of action steps.) It is the hope of the student team that the AOCD and enthusiasm generated by the community forum will only be the beginning to on-going collaborative relationship between residents and service organizations in Sanford to address issues in Gilmore Terrace.