In studying the history of the Hayti district, and its rise and fall, it was evident that anchoring matters.
In other words, what allowed Durham’s black community to rise to unprecedented success in regards to racial equity was its ability to anchor its growth around strong anchor institutions. These institutions served as the foundation for stronger families, more community confidence, and enduring community upbuilding. These anchor institutions allowed community economic ecosystems to form around collective ambition and collective action. As a strategy of DGEP, both the equity park and the overall DGEP initiative will utilize the creation of anchor institutions to power racial equity.
Some of those DGEP anchor institutions will include, among others:
- EQUITY U: EquityU will be an in-person and virtual educational institution focused on teaching leaders from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors about racial equitable economics and practices.
- LLETE CORPS: LLETE (Life and Leadership Education Through Education) Corps will be a service learning corps of young people who learn a body of knowledge and skills related to racial equity, and then are deployed around the United States and globe to work with organizations and leaders on better understanding what can help them on their equitable journeys. These placements will be two years and those corps alumni will be encouraged to return to equity-related graduate programs or apprenticeships.
- NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY: NCCU will anchor the Equity Park, utilizing all its schools and programs to drive racial equity innovation, research, and development.
- NATIONAL CENTER FOR REPARATIVE JUSTICE: This center will focus on looking at an array of racially-focused reparative justice strategies at the local, state, national, and global levels, including public sector and private sector policies – including voluntary reparations.
- MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The site will host a middle and high school to train young people in entrepreneurship, likely in partnership with Durham Public Schools and their 33,000 – primarily black and brown – student population.
- ONEVOICE INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: This institute will serve as a means for turning the planning, construction, operating, and owning of the site into curriculum for children and families. It will also be a convener, clearinghouse, and organizer of DGEP partnering organizations.
- PROJECT DESTINED: ProjectDestined will continue to be the primary vehicle for apprenticeships and internships for young people associated to DGEP. This program will allow young black and brown underrepresented and low-income students to learn ownership through apprenticeship and internship. The first focus is commercial real state.
- PURPOSE U: Purpose U will be a program designed to help community residents who might not seek higher education but desire to find a meaningful place in the world. The curriculum will be aimed at a broad range of individuals, but primarily focus on low-income BIPOC populations – particularly post-high school. A specific focus will be on helping these populations launch business enterprises bases on their passions, and scaling those efforts to benefit their present and future outcomes, as well as their families.
- STUDENT U: Student U serves 550 students a year from middle school to college who are first generation college, or prospective first year, students. Student U is located across the street from the DGEP Campus giving students opportunity for daily access to site for educational and experiential learning purposes.