Introduction

All masters' students (MPH) in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill complete an Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCD) as part of their degree program. The AOCD is a two-semester group project that is the cornerstone of the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education's MPH program. The AOCD project is designed to teach students to work in partnership with communities in North Carolina to identify their needs, strengths, and weaknesses and to facilitate a community discussion of priorities and next steps.

During the 2000-2001 academic year, two teams of MPH students worked with St. Philip's Community Kitchen and Durham Health Partners to learn more about homelessness in East and Central Durham. In particular, students worked to discover how community members in East and Central Durham define homelessness, describe its causes, and think about leverage points for intervention. In the first phase of the AOCD, students reviewed secondary data sources - which consisted of previously prepared or published reports, books, articles, and websites - to gather general information about Durham and the issue of homelessness. In the second phase of the project, the students collected primary data about homelessness in Durham by conducting interviews and focus groups with service providers and community members in East and Central Durham. The AOCD process culminated in a community forum in early April 2001. The purpose of this event was to assemble people whose lives and work are impacted by homelessness, generate dialogue, and identify steps that can be taken to improve the lives of all people who call Durham "home."

In this document, MPH students share the findings from their AOCD. The information is presented in two sections. Section One: Outsider Perspectives summarizes the findings from students' secondary data research and service provider interviews. This section is labeled "Outsider Perspectives" because the information presented has been gathered from documents or persons who have not personally experienced homelessness. Section Two: Insider Perspectives will provide the reader with information from personal interviews and focus groups with individuals who are or have previously been homeless. The authors of this AOCD hope that the information contained in this document will support and encourage community members who seek solutions to the challenge of homelessness in East and Central Durham.

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Definitions of Homelessness