Registration Open for Battle of the Bands

Are you ready to rise up and rock? The 2013 Triangle Corporate Battle of the Bands is searching for the band whose rock rules supreme to benefit the East Durham Children's Initiative. The EDCI has a revolutionary approach to creating a pipeline of services to children, from cradle to college and career, to improve lives and communities. So get ready, because the rock is coming.

EARLY BIRD BAND ENTRY DEADLINE: May 15, 2013
THE BATTLE: September 21, 2013
RAIN DATE: September 22, 2013
Location: American Tobacco Campus - Durham

Durham advertising powerhouse McKinney produces this event.  The pick the best band, and the most creative.  The latter will be judged on things like mixing genres, unconventional ways of playing instruments, and even remixes of familiar songs.

Proceeds from the show will benefit the East Durham Children's Initiative. Founded in 2008, EDCI's goal is to change the expectations and outcome for youth in a 120-block area in East Durham. The nonprofit provides early childhood interventions, family support, after school and arts and summer programs.

There is a discount for early registration, so bands interested in participating can save a few dollars by registering early. Companies and organizations without bands can sponsor the event and get information about doing so on the event website.

Learn more about the music scene in Durham online.

Durham Named One of 100 Best Communities for Young People

Durham is a now a three-time winner of America's Promise Alliance 100 Best Communities for Young People. In an event in Washington, DC, Durham was lauded for its progress in helping young people achieve their potential, by working collaboratively to keep kids healthy, safe and better prepared for the future.

One of only two counties in North Carolina to be honored, Durham was selected from a pool of more than 300 communities in all 50 states.

DCVB headed up the effort to collect the data needed for the lengthy application process with assistance from the City of Durham, Durham County, Durham Public Schools, Durham's Partnership for Children, the East Durham Children's Initiative and the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce.

Read the full release here.

Hirsch Family Foundation Awards $300,000 Grant to East Durham Children's Initiative

Education is a big deal in Durham, NC and has been for a long time.  Public schools here have taken a variety of innovative approaches to education and learning, and the results are evident.  Another of Durham's programs has now gotten a massive financial support that will help propel it forward for the next three years.

East Durham Children’s Initiative (EDCI), a “cradle to career” program modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, announced today that it has received a grant of $100,000 per year for the next three years from the Hirsch Family Foundation. This support is unrestricted and will be used for a variety of purposes that will help further develop the EDCI model. The Hirsch Family Foundation is a private foundation based in Dallas, Texas, that supports novel social service organizations in hopes of strengthening local communities.

“East Durham Children’s Initiative is very gratified for the significant support given by the Hirsch Family Foundation,” said Barker French, co-chair East Durham Children’s Initiative. "The Foundation believes the cradle to college and/or career model developed by EDCI will transform the lives of children in East Durham, and EDCI is committed to helping Durham’s children succeed.”

“The Hirsch Family Foundation is impressed by EDCI’s ability to forge collaboration between Durham’s various non-profit organizations in order to more effectively help the families of Durham. We believe EDCI has the potential to create lasting, generational change, and we hope that our donation, in conjunction with that of the Oak Foundation, will help it grow and reach its potential in the coming years. We are honored to be involved."

Proof That Festivals Can Leverage Community Improvement And Help Change Lives

Durham blogger and President Emeritus of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau shares his thoughts on the social and economic impact of home-grown festivals.

Proof That Festivals Can Leverage Community Improvement And Help Change Lives 
Bull City Mutterings
Reyn Bowman


We learn to expect the close partnership, such as the one between the world-acclaimed Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) to culminate with a publicizing of input-output-based estimate of economic impact including local tax yield.

But Full Frame’s executive director Deirdre Haj is proof that Festivals can be leveraged even further to improve lives and communities in other ways.

She’s a firm believer that, as an apprentice profession, filmmaking and particularly documentary filmmaking could be a perfect fit one day at Durham’s Holton Resource & Career Center. She’s partnering with the East Durham Children’s Initiative on a pilot project with the help of some grants from Durham Rotary Club (Downtown) and Durham-based Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and GSK.

Her passion and dream for an eventual Documentary Film Trade School in Durham, a community with an already significant resume as a film location, is informed by solid independent third-party research conducted on a program by the Adobe Foundation.

The research showed that after involvement in documentary filmmaking, “at-promise” youth, a term Ms. Haj prefers to “at-risk:”

• 84% of youth reported learning more about important issues of their own choosing,

• 86% of participating youth believing their work could make a difference,

• 91% saying their opinions matter, and

• 91% of participating youth are interested in continuing their education after high school.

Durham is fortunate to not only have a wider range of signature festivals than other communities but the fact that the majority are homegrown contributes to the community’s unique-sense-of-place and personality.

And as Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is proving, the difference they can make doesn’t stop there!

And DCVB’s role in this partnership is proof to those in the community/destination marketing arena that fostering and nurturing the sustainability of uniquely, home-grown festivals is a very relevant part of what visitor-centric economic and cultural development is all about.