Item:
Title
Approval of Contract with DataWorks NC and Durham County for our Hacking into History project in the amount of $40,000
Body
Date of BOCC Meeting: May 13, 2024
Request for Board Action:
Agenda Text
The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is requested to approve contract between the Register of Deeds and the non-profit, DataWorks, NC in the amount of $40,000 for funding of for the historical discovery and education initiative known as the Hacking into History Project. This funding was appropriated within the Register of Deeds FY 23/24 budget and authorized by the BOCC as part of the FY23/24 Budget approval.
Hacking into History is an award-winning public/private collaboration designed to uncover racially restrictive covenants present in Durham County public records, then through community forums, allow subject matter experts to share how these covenants have impacted Durham across several aspects of society into the modern day.
Through this initiative, the Hacking into History Project partners (including Professor Alexandra Chassanoff - UNC Chapel Hill, DataWorks NC, Yinsome Group, attorney Andrew Wagner, and the Durham County Register of Deeds Office) intend to:
SCOPE FOR 2024 - 2025
During the coming year, we will bring together the broad awareness and deep knowledge we have cultivated over the past two years into publicly accessible materials and resources. With support from our volunteer coordinator/event planner and project co-lead the Hacking into History Project Team will:
● Coordinate the development of project data, discourse, and memory into semi-permanent materials that will be accessible on the web and in person. This will include:
○ the final data outputs from deed transcription
○ our workshop presentation materials
○ and the resolution inviting Durham County to address the generational impacts of racial covenants.
● Continue monthly meetups of the community of practice we have fostered during the past 2 years, incorporating their guidance in the design and formatting of materials that foster a reckoning with the legacy of racial covenants.
Reporting and End-Of-Year Deliverables
1. DataWorks will provide progress reporting in monthly project team meetings and end-of-year reporting on project progress to the Register of Deeds Office, along with an end-of-project-year use of funds summary. The end-of-year reporting will reflect activities of the community of practice we foster during the year hosting workshops and convening participants to reckon with the role these records play in our history, present, and future.
2. DataWorks and members of the Hacking into History project team will present information about this project and share learnings with the Durham County Commissioners as requested.
3. The project team will present findings at conferences and organizations whose missions align with the those of the project.
4. The primary end-of-year deliverables for the Deeds Office will include:
a. Printed exhibit materials that can be used by all project team members going forward, but to be stored (on display) in the Deeds office.
b. The racial covenants information staged for publication in the Durham Compass.
Core project materials (data, workshop presentations, etc.) curated on the Hacking into History website for easy public access.
Alignment with Strategic Plan: This effort to uncover racially restrictive covenants and then through community-oriented learning, better understand how they have negatively shaped large portions of Durham’s community falls broadly under Goal 5: Visionary Government.
Resource Persons: J.T. Tabron, Assistant Register of Deeds
County Manager’s Recommendation: The County Manager recommends that the Board authorize the County Manager and Register of Deeds to execute the contract for this project.
Signature
County Manager: ____________________________