Walltown

Earlier in February, as noted on the awesome VISTA calendar Holly put together, I put together several focus group meetings in a neighborhood call Walltown. Walltown is a historic neighborhood, located in Durham, NC, that has gone through some ups and downs over the past 60 years. Cisco, Duke University and One Economy are all coming together to help bring a connectivity project, with affordable internet and computers, into the neighborhood to help improve it even more using 21st century solutions.

The focus groups were co-hosted by members of the Walltown community and One Economy employees. Each Walltown resident host invited 8 other community members into their home to discuss different issues facing the community, what they wanted the community to look like, what role technology played in their lives, and if they saw technology as a resource that would help improve their quality of life and the quality of the community. Although it was extremely nerve-racking calling the community members to recruit them to organize everything and waiting for everyone to show up that night, the group meetings were a huge success. Every meeting's conversation flowed as the neighbors chatted together.

The focus group meetings helped us to hear the concerns and wants of the community and have got us thinking about the best ways our connectivity project can help with some of their major concerns. It was also great getting to have the meetings inside the residents homes and be a part of the hospitality that helps make the community so special.

-Laura Parewski