Data That Are Needed to Advance Human Rights in Chapel Hill and Carrboro

Information/Communication:

According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, only 29 percent of school-age children in households with annual incomes of less that $15,000 use a home computer to complete school assignments, compared to the 77 percent of children in households with incomes of $75,000 or more. Information as a human right is something that needs to be emphasized.

Cultural Pluralism:

Everyone has the right to celebrate their culture, and this right should be respected and protected by all members of the community. But, how can the community respect and protect underrepresented cultures if they do not know they are there? In order to promote and protect cultural pluralism in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, it is necessary to know what cultures actually are represented. What people live in the area and what types of things are important to them? It would be beneficial if the town provided information about the demographics of the population and cultural facts that might be interesting.

Education:

My topic for the semester was discrimination in the educational systems of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. It is important that the community learns about the educational gap in the school systems. By learning this information, governmental officials, school officials, and the community as a whole will be able to create a plan to ensure that every student achieves at the same level.

Only 44 percent of black students passed both reading and math end-of-grade tests at the elementary level, which is far below the district's 93 percent average for white students. (Chapel Hill/Carrboro end of the year report card).

Children:

The website for the town of Chapel Hill/Carrboro needs to include a section about recreation.

Housing:

How many homeless people are from Chapel Hill or just come here for the homeless shelter? How many people have been homeless for a year or long? How many people have been chronically homeless? What is the relationship between substance abuse and homelessness? How can the homeless shelter accommodate all the homeless people in Chapel Hill? It only can accommodate 30 people (only 30 beds). What can the local government do? How can the citizens participate in this endeavor?

Healthcare:

It is quite clear that the citizens of Chapel Hill and Carrboro need to be more informed about healthcare in order to empower themselves and advance the human rights of everyone. The healthcare problem with Chapel Hill and Carrboro is that the problem seems to be non-existent - we need more awareness! Residents need to understand that there are a significant number of low-income and unemployed residents that lack adequate healthcare.

Women:

Some important and necessary pieces of information to uncover would be: what is the exact average wage gap of Chapel Hill/Carrboro? What percentage of businesses provide child care? Maternity leave with more job security? Paternity leave?

Refugees:

It would be very beneficial to the community to learn about the holidays and festivals celebrated by the local refugee community, in particular those of the prevalent Burmese refugee population. It would be neat for these celebrations to take place in the public schools where children of the local Burmese refugee community are enrolled. Additionally, a public celebration of a holiday, for example the Burmese Water Festival, once a year in Chapel Hill or Carrboro would not only engage many members of the community, but would raise awareness about the diversity of our community and the existence of the Burmese refugee population.

Rogers/Eubanks Project:

I would like to know the legality of the Rogers/Eubanks dump project. They claimed that they would shut it down ten years after opening it, but have not kept their word. Are there any laws prohibiting their current actions? What percentage of the Carrboro population is affected negatively and positively by the dump and what is the racial spread on those figures?

Police:

Something that we need to know is out of all the youth that will enroll in the Police Venturing Crew program, how many will/ might have possible conflicts with their work schedules. Some kids especially from low socioeconomic backgrounds might miss out on this opportunity, how can we ensure that they benefit from this program as well. The program focuses on 14-21 years old, and will allow a relationship between the resource officers and the youth in the community.

~Compiled by Kaila Ramsey