Media Advisory
Contact: David Beck, Self-Help, 919-956-4495 or david.beck@self-help.org
Durham Co-op Market, a tenant at Self-Help’s Kent Corner project, celebrates its grand openings this Saturday, April 11. The celebration is all day, with a ribbon cutting ceremony to be held at 2:00 p.m. Durham Co-op Market is located at 1111 W. Chapel Hill Street, Durham.
Kent Corner is a $13 million commercial revitalization project located in Durham’s West End neighborhood, a culturally and socioeconomically diverse neighborhood just outside of downtown. Self-Help began the project in 2013 but it builds on our work with partner organizations over the years facilitating the development of safe, high-quality affordable housing in the surrounding neighborhoods of Southwest Central Durham. Those partners include Habitat for Humanity, Durham Community Land Trustees, the Quality of Life Project, the City of Durham, and Duke University. The project completes a significant step toward implementing longstanding community plans for revitalization of W. Chapel Hill Street. Kent Corner was conceived as a project that could spark new investment in the neighborhood’s business district, providing new jobs, goods, and services to the community.
Durham Co-op Market (www.durham.coop) is a cooperatively owned, professionally managed grocery store that is creating jobs for area residents, bringing healthy foods to an underserved neighborhood, and supporting the local economy by sourcing products from area producers. It also offers programs to make its products and co-op membership accessible to low-income customers. The Market is a full service grocery store, open to all, that features a cafe and a complete range of food products and health and beauty aids with a strong emphasis on local products.
The Center for Child and Family Health (www.ccfhnc.org), is the second major piece of the Kent Corner project, to be completed later this month. CCFH will bring its nationally-recognized mental and emotional supportive services to the community. Since 1996, CCFH has been committed to alleviating the effects of trauma on children through multidisciplinary prevention and treatment services for children and their families. Services include therapy for children and their parents, specialized training for caregivers, in-home services such as nurse visits and home-based Early Head Start, and parenting programs for fathers with a history of domestic violence and support for adoptive parents. In addition to direct services, the Centers extends its mission through statewide, national, and global research and training to prevent and alleviate symptoms of trauma in children.
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About Self-Help
Founded in Durham in 1980, is a nonprofit community development lender, real estate developer, and credit union that works with people traditionally underserved by conventional markets. Self-Help has redeveloped 20 commercial properties in North Carolina and Washington, D.C. Most of the properties are historic redevelopments that bring affordable office space to downtown while preserving community landmarks. Self-Help manages over 1.3 million SF of leasable office and retail space in these buildings. Roughly half of its tenants are non-profit organizations.
In total, Self-Help has provided over $6.4 billion in financing to nearly 87,000 families, individuals and businesses. It helps drive economic development and strengthen communities by financing hundreds of homebuyers each year, as well as nonprofits, child care centers, community health facilities, public charter schools, and residential and commercial real estate projects. Through its credit union network, Self-Help serves over 100,000 families in North Carolina, California and Chicago and offers a full range of financial products and services. Learn more at www.self-help.org.