Durham City Council outlined a new partnership with Duke’s department of orthopaedic surgery to address gun violence and discussed the effects of National Institutes of Health and U.S. Agency for International Development spending cuts during its Monday meeting.
Partnership to reduce gun violence
Mayor Leonardo Williams announced a partnership between the City of Durham and the Duke Orthopaedic Trauma Section aimed at reducing the number of young men entering emergency rooms due to gun violence. The initiative, titled the Durham Impact Project, focuses especially on young Black men, according to Williams.
The project is supported by a grant from Johnson & Johnson in partnership with Duke Health. It seeks to leverage community resources, namely by working with local barbershops to foster meaningful conversations among community members.
“Our barbers are underrecognized [for] the impact that they have on our community, socially,” Williams said. “And so this program will engage our barbers to engage with our young men to try and steer them [in] a different direction.”
The grant also supports the Bull City Future Fund, which focuses on developing resources for nonprofits providing Durham’s “most vulnerable young people” with access to productive, non-academic programs, reinforcing the city’s commitment to reducing violence.
“Oftentimes I see many young males, even teenagers, who are victims of gun violence,” said Malcolm DeBaun, program lead and assistant professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery, in an interview with Duke Health. “… We want to be part of the solution, starting with leveraging existing resources within Duke Health and the Durham community.”
Duke University Hospital already operates a Violence Recovery Program to support gun violence victims, which will also collaborate on the new initiative.
Impacts from D.C. to Durham
Williams emphasized that he is “fully aware of what's happening in Washington” and the impacts of the Trump administration’s policies on Durham.
Some of the top contractors for USAID, which has faced steep cuts in the first weeks since the Trump administration took office, are based in North Carolina. As home to several major research universities funded by NIH grants and many USAID contractors, the Triangle has been particularly impacted.
“We have about 2,700 workers here,” Williams said. “We have 300 that have been laid off and furloughed who don't know where their next paycheck is coming from.”
He shared plans to invite furloughed workers to City Hall to offer support and discuss potential private and public sector job opportunities.
“I want our residents to know that we're going to stand up, for them and with them,” Williams said.
In a Sunday CNN interview, he argued that as a result of the funding cuts to federal health agencies and USAID, “these jobs are gone.”
“That means I have one less resident that can’t contribute to our economic vitality here,” Williams said in the interview. “That means I have one less resident that could support the small businesses here locally. That’s one less resident that can contribute to the tax base.”
Williams believes Durham’s community is the city’s strongest asset in navigating such difficult situations.
“I do believe the strength of this nation should be built from the bottom up,” he said. “… When I think of America, I think about what it looks like here in Durham. … How we interact with one another, that's what matters most.”
Williams urged Durhamites to “be proud of who [they] are” and “be proud of the city [they] live in, because this is what [they] can control.”
In other business
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The council unanimously voted Monday to permanently close Clegg Drive to allow for the construction of a multi-family residential development.
Councilmember Nate Baker inquired whether the development will require additional street dedications in the future to comply with the Unified Development Ordinance’s block length standards. Planning staff clarified that no further public right-of-way dedications would be required.
Mayor Pro Tempore Mark-Anthony Middleton recognized March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. He noted that the affliction disproportionately affects those aged 45 years and older and historically marginalized populations, including racial and ethnic minorities.
Rebecca Fan is a Trinity sophomore and a staff reporter for the news department.