BACKSTORY
​BTG began on the porch of Board member Missy Julian-Fox’s house with Chapel Hill native and philanthropist Sandra Wilcox Conway. “The Porch Sisters” meet weekly with love, laughter, and determination to ensure a sound education for all children in Chapel Hill. Sandra seeded the money in 2020 to begin building the program, and board member Bonita Joyce made the first deposit in 2022.
Our
VISION
Vision Statement
For generations, Chapel Hill has had the second largest racial academic achievement gap in the nation—a direct result of systemic inequities, not ability. This gap has persisted for far too long and we believe is a central reason that Orange County also has the greatest wealth gap in the state.
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We exist to change that.
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Our vision is a pre-K to college pipeline that provides the descendants of the enslaved people who built the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the education, resources, and opportunities they have long been denied. By confronting this history head-on, we are working toward a future where academic success is no longer predetermined by race, but made possible through justice, investment, and community.
Our
mission
Mission Statement
We are motivated by a lack of local historical materials centered on the experiences of the generational Black community of Chapel Hill, as well as the continued inequalities this community faces in an otherwise prosperous town.
Community history work is built on relationships and earned trust. The result is that people who were once reluctant to share their histories become eager collaborators.
Each project grapples with the partially hidden histories of Black Chapel Hill using a combination of archival research and Critical Oral History methodology—which writes and rights history. Participants, both interviewers and narrators, aim to contextualize stories and make voices and perspectives heard and listened to.
building
community together
what we're doing
Education & Youth Empowerment
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Anchor the James Cates Scholars, a youth program
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Provide college prep sessions and ACT & SAT preparation
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Designed the community’s first reparative college scholarship by a local church
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Work with local faith and community scholarship programs for young people in the community
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Document experiences of veteran local and national Civil Rights activists to transform into K-12 Civil Rights curriculum components
Historical Justice & Public Memory
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Resurfaced the memory of James Cates, a young, local Black man who was the victim of a racial murder on campus in 1970
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Prompted a case review by the US DOJ and a permanent memorial to James Cates in the center of the UNC campus
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Works jointly with local and state educators to grapple with disparate educational outcomes
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Collaborated with UNC project on “Jim Crow in Chapel Hill”
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Partners with UNC Commission on History, Race, and A Way Forward
Community Engagement & Advocacy
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Facilitated initial and ongoing program exploring racial medical disparities in the community for medical students
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Organized 8 community book club sessions to learn and talk about the wealth and achievement gap
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Presented the stories of local Black women essential to the Civil Rights Movement in a digital exhibit, “I Was Still Singing.”
more about us
Bridging the Gap is a registered nonprofit based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We are a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. Our EIN is 86-3985222.
We are proud to receive Guidestar's seal of gold transparency. A Gold Seal status is the leading symbol of non-profit transparency and accountability.​​
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