Navigating United Neighborhoods: I-85/Sugar Creek Corridor

Through the United Neighborhoods initiative, United Way serves more than 50 neighborhoods across greater Charlotte. This blog series dives deeper into the history of each United Neighborhoods community and highlights the residents and community quarterbacks that fuel the vision for the future.

The I-85/Sugar Creek Corridor in Charlotte is a community with lots of history, marked by its close proximity to one of the busiest highways in the city.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the construction of I-85 brought both opportunities and challenges to the area. While it provided improved access to the rest of the city and supported local businesses, it also physically divided neighborhoods and displaced residents. As the divide increased, the Sugar Creek area began to face issues common in many urban corridors—declining property values, higher crime rates, and a lack of investment in infrastructure.

Despite the challenges coming to the area, Northside Charlotte was built and began to bring positive change to the community.

“The church was built in 1974, in this place, and it looked very different. The makeup of the church, the community even looked different,” Life Project’s Executive Director Veronica Washington said, “Toward the late 70s and 80s, the community over in Hidden Valley had started to get a really rough reputation around drugs and gang violence. And this church has always been here to serve and be a place of refuge. This church has a deep history in the community; it has been a staple for the people here.”

Life Project operates out of Northside Charlotte and is the community quarterback for the I-85/Sugar Creek Rd Corridor, which was recently added to the communities under United Way of Greater Charlotte’s United Neighborhoods initiative.

Life Project emerged as a way to wrap around residents in a holistic way, whether they are providing mentorship programs, healthcare services, workforce development support or simply a safe space of refuge.

While the I-85/Sugar Creek area still faces challenges, old and new, the community is on a path toward a brighter future. By addressing issues like food insecurity, healthcare and education access, the digital divide and more, Life Project is helping the community transform into a more vibrant, safer place for residents and businesses. The continued collaboration between residents and local organizations like Life Project is key to ensuring the long-term, sustainable success of these efforts.

“We sit in a great spot of what we’d like to call ‘rebuilding home.’ We get to see the church come back to life, again, in ways of serving and being the hands and feet of the Lord,” Washington said.

Meet Veronica Washington as well as Program Director Jenna Knox and learn more about Life Project’s role as a community quarterback.

Learn more about the work United Way is doing through United Neighborhoods today.