Children / Child Welfare | Health
Get to know the CARE4Youth Collaboratives
June 26, 2025
by Abigail Holdsclaw, ncIMPACT Lead Community-Based Researcher
CARE4Youth seeks to equip participating teams with tools, training, and strategies that can be tailored to their local context to improve youth mental health. Along the way, we will publicly share what teams are learning and doing through webinars, reports, and other resources. Together, we can support the mental health of youth in all regions of North Carolina so that young people, their families, and their communities can thrive.
The Challenge
Across North Carolina, youth and young adults are reporting worrisome challenges with depression, mental health, and suicidality. These circumstances impact young adults through an increased likelihood of school dropouts, chronic health conditions, and decreased life expectancy. Families of these young people are also affected through feelings of stress, stigmatization, and relationship strain. The communities of youth and young adults struggling with mental health challenges encounter higher rates of youth using drugs, engaging in risky sexual behaviors, increased isolation of youth and families, and increased healthcare expenditures.
The Response
Carolina Across 100 is seeking to address these challenges. In Spring 2025, CARE4Youth (Community-Driven Approaches for Resilient and Empowered Youth) was announced as the sixth program in the multi-year initiative to partner with communities to respond to challenges created and exacerbated by COVID-19. CARE4Youth is a three-year (Spring 2025-Spring 2028) commitment to implement community-based strategies to improve youth and young adult mental health.
This project will be led by Carolina Across 100 with leadership from the UNC Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program (CHAAMP) at the UNC School of Psychiatry to provide subject-matter expertise, and the ncIMPACT Initiative at the UNC School of Government to provide expertise in community collaboration. provided funding through its initiative to address youth mental health challenges.
Who Are The CARE4Youth Teams?
Ten teams representing 18 counties make up the CARE4Youth cohort. Four teams previously participated in the “Our State, Our Work” program, and six previously participated in the “Our State, Our Wellbeing” program.
CARE4Youth Cohort Primarily Consists of Western Rural Counties
Of the 18 counties, 14 are rural, three are suburban (Henderson, Iredell, and Alamance), and one is urban (Wake). While mental health challenges are experienced nearly equally in rural and urban areas, the outcomes for rural residents are often worse due to limited access to specialized providers, underutilization of care, limited internet access for online services, and stigma.
Six of the 10 teams hail from the western region of the state. This geographic focus was intentional. While the mental health challenges youth and young adults face are widespread across the state, one goal of the CARE4Youth program is to support the recovery efforts of western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.
In September 2024, the region was affected by historic amounts of flooding and wind from Hurricane Helene, which led to extensive damage and destruction in communities and over 100 lives lost. In recognition of the potential long-term impacts of this event, the CARE4Youth program prioritizes supporting this region’s youth and young adults. The service areas of these six teams—Henderson, Transylvania, Burke, Cleveland, Ashe, Alleghany, and Iredell counties—are all federal disaster areas that felt the impacts of the storm.
Local Partnerships
As with past Carolina Across 100 programs, teams will benefit from the resources, knowledge, and perspectives unlocked through cross-sector collaboration. Teams’ most frequently reported partners were nonprofit organizations, especially those focusing on youth and/or mental health, followed by K-12 school systems and healthcare providers. Across the 10 teams, there were 68 reported partner organizations, a testament to their prior efforts to establish collaborative teams in their communities.
“Fostering mental wellness among youth begins with creating safe spaces that support their emotional growth and resilience. By equipping education systems, leaders, and educators with effective tools and strategies, we can address the unique needs of our diverse communities, bridging divides and building stronger connections.”
– Team 3, Cleveland County
Why Did These Teams Join CARE4Youth?
All CARE4Youth teams previously partnered with Carolina Across 100, and each is motivated to continue the momentum, build on lessons learned, and focus more specifically on youth mental health throughout the three-year program. When asked about aspects of the CARE4Youth program that the teams are most interested in and excited by, they shared that they are:
- Most interested in the technical support, connection to other teams, access to resources, forums, and centering youth voice and experiences in their work.
- Most excited by expanding on their previous CX100 work, building and sustaining youth-focused programming, participating in the cohort model, and the length of the program.
“We are excited to join others who are working in the trenches and work on solutions for this new environment we find ourselves in now. We want to be a part of shining light in dark places and we stand ready to serve!”
– Team 8
Addressing Important Concerns for Youth Mental Health
In their applications for CARE4Youth, teams identified several common challenges impacting their ability to provide high-quality mental health supports for young people. These concerns included:
- Funding: Funding sources are too small or time-limited to do meaningful work.
- Accessibility: Communities need more readily accessible digital/telehealth options or other alternatives for in-person services.
- Workforce: Communities have too few trained providers focused on youth, and staff turnover is high in these professions.
- Stigma: Youth and families are hesitant to engage in care due to stigma.
- Training: Certification in evidence-based interventions is expensive and/or time-consuming.
- Evaluation: Teams have trouble collecting information that helps them know what is or isn’t working.
- Cultural sensitivity or “fit”: Evidence-based interventions are not aligned with the needs of diverse youth or require adaptations that are difficult to implement.
Teams are seeking to address these and other concerns through:
How Will CARE4Youth Support Teams’ priorities?
To ensure that the teams receive effective and appropriate support for their community, the activities of the three-year initiative will be responsive to the self-identified assets, opportunities, challenges, and priorities of the 10 teams. In partnership with CHAAMP and other UNC and statewide partners, CARE4Youth will support the teams through:
On June 24, 2025, the group met for the first time as a cohort during their kickoff webinar. They spent time getting to know each other and sharing their aspirations for the next three years. Teams reemphasized how excited they are to be a part of the cohort model and to connect with other teams and content experts over the next three years.
The issues the teams seek to solve are challenging and vary by context. However, they and we feel confident in our Community Sync model to facilitate cross-group learning and enable them to make progress together.
What’s Next?
The CARE4Youth teams will gather for their first in-person learning forum at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government on August 13-14, 2025.
After this engagement and other program gatherings, the Carolina Across 100 team will share important takeaways, resources, and data on the CARE4Youth site. We hope communities across the state can benefit from this work and apply the information in their local context.
We look forward to your joining us in this work.
Carolina Across 100 is a five-year initiative, led by the ncIMPACT Initiative, seeking to support community-driven recovery and build sustainable efforts in all 100 counties by providing human resources, data insights, coaching, facilitation, coordination efforts, and program design. “Our State, Our Homes” is the fifth program in this larger initiative. Carolina Across 100 is funded by the Office of the Chancellor and private foundations.
The ncIMPACT Initiative coordinates Carolina Across 100. ncIMPACT is a statewide initiative launched by the UNC School of Government in 2017 to help local communities use data and evidence to improve conditions and inform decision making. Visit ncimpact.org.
