Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation asks Durham County for $25,000 to support boys and young men of color

DeWarn Langley, who identified himself as representing the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation, asked the Durham County Board of Commissioners on June 2 to include $25,000 in the county budget to support programs for boys and young men of color.

Langley told commissioners the foundation has operated in Durham for eight years and that the requested funds would support operations rather than pay staff salaries. “We need $25,000 in this budget, and it only takes 3 votes,” Langley said. He also urged funding for the local My Brother’s Keeper initiative, saying both investments are needed to change outcomes for youth in the county.

Langley cited local justice-system and violence outcomes as the rationale for the request and said the community already pays for those outcomes in detention and other costs. “The only way that we’re gonna change this trajectory is by making investment in evidence based proven organizations,” he said, adding that program participants have gone on to employment and further education at companies and universities including Northwestern Mutual, Microsoft, Duke and UNC Chapel Hill.

The board did not take a recorded vote on the funding request during the work session; staff and commissioners acknowledged the comment and said they would take it under advisement.

The foundation’s request came during the meeting’s public-comment period. No formal motion or budget amendment to fund the foundation was recorded in the transcript.

Langley’s remarks followed a brief procedural welcome and land acknowledgement at the start of the session and preceded a lengthy consent-agenda review.