Abbey Court gets newspaper

A group of UNC students have created a newspaper to support one of Carrboro’s underrepresented communities.

Students in Judith Blau’s social and economic justice class developed The Abbey Court Chronicle to target the needs of children in the mostly Latino community.

The students worked on the first edition throughout the fall semester, and the six-page product was available in December.

Newspaper designer Evan Bell said part of Blau’s course was exploring the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Bell said after learning about the article in class, she and her classmates were able to apply the ideologies to the real world by offering a vehicle of communication for the community members.

“It’s a human right to have freedom of expression, and we took that as the background for the paper,” Bell said. “It’s maybe not the nicest place, but (Abbey Court) is a wonderful place where wonderful people exist who are doing great things.”

Abbey Court Chronicle writer Ben Knoedler said though the newspaper was mostly geared toward the children, his article on fair trade was intended for parents.

Knoedler said he wrote the article because Blau emphasized the topic in class, and he wanted to take what he learned in the classroom and apply it to his service project.

Knoedler said he and his classmates also wanted to focus on the children of the community because they wanted to inspire them.

“One of the reasons why we were doing it for the kids was to express our gratitude for giving us the opportunity to work with them,” said Knoedler.

Emilee Bunker, another writer for the newspaper, said she liked the opportunity to give a community that doesn’t normally get much attention a chance to be represented.

“Sometimes, there are so many service projects that we overlook people who are right around the corner,” Bunker said.

Blau’s students are required to participate in one of 26 different projects throughout the semester that mostly revolve around the neighborhood.

Blau, who runs the Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill and Carrboro out of two Abbey Court apartments, said she chose to focus efforts on the community because she wanted to foster participation and involvement in its culture.

Blau said she hopes the newspaper can be continued by future students as well as Abbey Court residents. Eventually she would like the newspaper to reach the larger Latino community.

“As parents, we know that the real changes come from our youngsters,” she said. “If this becomes part of the fabric of Abbey Court, the residents will be invited to contribute to it. We want them to be empowered so that they take charge of their lives.”

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