BREAKING GROUND
Learn about the inaugural recipient of Chapel Hill Magazine’s Social Impact Award Photography by Cri t i cal Focus Creat ive, J ohn B ol l enbacher
ew to our Best of Chapel Hill issue this year is the honor of presenting Chapel Hill Magazine’s first Social Impact Award to The Partnership for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s Big Bold Ideas Committee on Affordable Housing. This distinction recognizes people and organizations making a large, positive social impact on our community. There are so many doing good, and it was a difficult choice. We landed on the committee working to tackle affordable housing because it is a unique cross-sector community collaboration that models that when we work together, we can identify and solve problems better and faster. It’s an initiative that has involved and convened hundreds of people and organizations – and it’s working. This award belongs not just to The Chamber and its Partnership, but to its many members and organizations working on the initiative. While the Big Bold Ideas includes other community initiatives that are doing important work, we are honored to shine a spotlight on the affordable housing committee.
Overview What Big Bold Ideas
is a communitywide goal-setting and goalaccomplishing venture and includes several initiatives, including the Social Impact Awardwinning affordable housing initiative. Why To make a substantial, positive and collective impact on our community Who The inaugural Big Bold Ideas Steering Committee was made up of forty community leaders from diverse backgrounds and all sectors. Five hundred individuals participated to agree on community priorities, and more than 100 business and community leaders have worked on committees and task forces to advance the shared objectives. Right Now There are a few objectives and committees in progress. The Big Bold Ideas Committee on Affordable Housing
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Business and community leaders came together from diverse backgrounds and sectors to talk out the priorities for the Big Bold Ideas.
chapelhillmagazine.com
July/August 2023
(chaired by Jennifer Player of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County) has established bold community strategies and measurable objectives. What Next 2023 is about building the coalitions needed to accomplish the objectives, measuring the success and pushing for faster change.
Making Progress We asked Aaron Nelson, president/CEO of The Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro, about the work that the committee is doing. He says, “The Big Bold Ideas Committee on Affordable Housing spent a year convening leaders across sectors and industries to adopt a big, bold, communitywide affordable housing goal. The committee adopted the goal of creating 1,500 units of affordable housing over five years (by end of 2026) with 20 action strategies, focused on generating more funds to create the units, identifying the land where affordable housing can be built, making affordable housing easier to build, increasing the role of local employers in employersponsored or employer-supported housing, increasing the local acceptance of rent-support vouchers and increasing overall availability. More work needs to be done, but with local government investments and policy reform, major institutions and developers stepping up with new resources and new strategies, and the talented for-profit and nonprofit housing developers working together, we can get more affordable housing faster.” Jennifer Player, chair of the Big Bold Ideas Committee on Affordable Housing, emphasized the importance to the community of having more affordable housing and the dedication of the committee members. “Local employers say