We Are In This Together
The Carolina Across 100 Initiative will extend the University’s reach and, in collaboration with local leaders, address longstanding challenges exacerbated by and the new challenges associated with COVID-19. Charged by Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz, UNC School of Government faculty member Anita Brown-Graham and her team are leading a five-year initiative to partner with communities in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
North Carolina is home to many who have borne a disproportionate burden related to COVID-19. Shuttered small businesses need a path to reopen, some workers will need retraining to return to the post-COVID workplace, and focused efforts must be made to save youth from long-term effects of learning loss.
Carolina Across 100 will exemplify the University’s mission to “enhance the quality of life for all people in the State” by creating meaningful partnerships with communities across North Carolina to respond effectively to opportunities and challenges facing communities. This is an opportune time to remind North Carolinians that we are in this together.
Original wooden map created by students in the BEAM Maker Space to help students show our collective connections across the state.
Why some of our students and survey respondents say they’re proud to be connected in North Carolina
UNC-Chapel Hill has a responsibility as The University For North Carolina
I was born and raised in Person County!
My hometown of Rowan County hosts a CHEERWINE festival each year in Salisbury, NC, to celebrate the origin of the tasty southern soda!
Stokes County is home to the Stokes County Purple Sweet Potato
Guilford County is my hometown and where I worked a non-profit partnership.
I’m from the beautiful mountains of Cherokee County.
Our county went online with parenting classes during the pandemic
Our local community center opened and operated as a food bank during the pandemic.
Our community was in constant communication and conversation to help us come together during the pandemic.
Support for the local Tribal Community increased during the pandemic.
Our county saw cooperation between healthcare organizations and systems to provide uninterrupted patient care.
Zoom meetings and remote education have been a big help to our community.
Our community offered grants to small businesses and non-profits during the pandemic.
Our community is full of helpers, but more are needed.
Local leaders began vaccination campaigns to help our community.
Zoom really helped our community cope with pandemic changes.
The Work
Carolina Across 100 will focus on cohorts of communities that come together to work on common challenges. This five-year initiative will bring people together in communities from different sectors, geographic boundaries, and perspectives to tackle the most pressing challenges. The University will contribute broad-based interdisciplinary teams of faculty, staff and students to support community goals.
The School of Government’s ncIMPACT Initiative will coordinate this effort, providing an effective model. In 2018, ncIMPACT extended an invitation to North Carolinians to engage in a two-year peer learning effort to support an emergent community crisis. As a result, the Opioid Response Project touched ten communities, representing 16 counties. The School offered each team targeted support and lent expertise and evidence-based strategies for productive collaboration.
Carolina Across 100 will facilitate development and peer learning across communities requesting support. Teamwork will help local collaborators learn from each other and their University partners. Results and success stories resulting from Carolina Across 100 will be published for all communities to access.
Learn more about the work of ncIMPACT, providing information and data to policymakers in local and state governments to inform decision-making.
