DURHAM — A team of Meharry Medical College students won first place and $10,000 in the Compassion Challenge. The students developed a proposal for community investment and governance to prevent displacement along the planned $56.7 million Durham-to-Roxboro Rail Trail in North Carolina.

The team developed a displacement prevention algorithm to identify residents at risk of displacement before an eviction. They also created a dashboard to track displacement at individual, neighborhood, and city levels. The solution proposes creating an endowment to invest in the community before development activities increase property values, including freezing property taxes for seniors.

Jaylin Dyson, a Meharry Medical College student, said, "The challenge was an interesting opportunity that isn't directly related to biology or clinical applications of data science." She added, "We identified funding sources from the state pension fund, bank investments, grants and philanthropy." Michael Paul, also a Meharry student, said, "In addition to the Community Investment Trust, the Co-Governance Board is one of the most important components of our proposal." Paul said, "Often when urban development happens in neighborhoods like Hayti, the local inhabitants get no stake or equity in the profits generated from the new development." Markis' Hamilton, another Meharry student, said, "I believe this part of the proposal resonated with many people because it created a sense of inclusion and ensured that community members had a seat at the table to discuss how proposed changes would benefit them and future generations." Dyson said, "With our data science background, we understand how to predict outcomes from data, which the judges found very interesting." Dyson, Sade Graves, and Judith Dike plan to meet with a developer in Atlanta regarding the final phase of the Beltline, a 22-mile loop of trails, parks, and mixed-use development.