POV Challenge. Share Your POV to Support North Carolina

2026 POV Challenge

Hosted by Carolina Across 100 during UNC Engagement Week: February 23-27

Your team will win $500

CLE
Approved

Register by
Feb. 10

Q&A Session
Feb. 10

Submissions Due
Feb. 15

Winners Announced
Feb. 25

On the Topic of Youth and Young Adult Behavioral Health

Help us better understand youth and young adult behavioral and mental health needs and challenges in North Carolina as well as the strategies communities are employing to address these challenges. Use publicly available information, like data and existing resources, to research any of the prompts below. Then get creative in sharing what you learned and what you think.

Share Your Point of View

Form a team of 2-5 students and work together to convey your findings and ideas – use any combination of research, data, personal experience, and your own expression, to answer one of the three prompts below:

  • How can communities across the state support youth and young adults? What does research tell us about the prevalence and/or impact of mental and behavioral health challenges?

  • Youth engagement, leadership, and co-design can improve the quality and uptake of behavioral health interventions by ensuring programs are relevant for the youth they intend to serve. What does effective engagement, leadership, and/or co-design look like to you?

  • Across the state, communities have developed strategies and programs to help meet the growing mental health needs of their youth and young adults. What can be learned from these efforts, and how can these strategies be adopted to support more youth and young adults?

Find Examples of Submissions From Previous Years

You can choose how to convey your team’s insights and ideas. For example, your submission could be an infographic, a slide presentation, a data dashboard, or an interactive data visualization. You could also choose to design a poster, create artwork, write poetry, perform music, record a podcast, or offer an interpretive dance. A goal of this competition is to be inclusive, diverse, and creative in the ways that information and data can be visualized and shared.

Your Team Could Win $500

The top two entries will receive a $500 award. While we are offering prizes, we expect that all of the submissions will prove to be invaluable to the partnerships between our campus and North Carolina’s 100 counties.

Your Work Will Inform Community Action

As part of UNC’s Engagement Week, Carolina Across 100 (CX100) offers the POV Challenge to invite undergraduate and graduate students to help analyze and visualize health, economic and/or social impacts across North Carolina. Your efforts in this competition will serve as an important contribution to the campus-wide CX100 commitment to help communities in each of the state’s 100 counties.

Six Steps to Participate

Pull your team together

You are required to work in teams of 2-5 people. Teams may come together within or across any majors on campus and may include graduate and/or undergraduate students.  

Register Now

Registration is now open!

Only 1 member of your team should register on behalf of your group.

Get Your Data

You may use the data that Carolina Across 100 has compiled, linked below.

We also encourage you to find and use other data sets that support your work. Scroll down to the FAQ section for more help with data selection.

Decide on your creative product

We’re seeking creative ways to understand these prompts. (e.g., infographics, story maps, film, paintings, drawings, data dashboards, podcasts, poetry, music, photography, dance, etc.). The options and opportunities are wide open to how you choose to showcase the data you want to share about youth and young adult behavioral and mental health in North Carolina.

Be creative! And please feel free to utilize campus resources such as the Media and Design Center (undergrad library), BeAM Makerspace, or the Morrison Art Studio to support your work.

Attend the Q&A Session

It is strongly encouraged that at least one member of your team attends the virtual Q&A Session Tuesday, 2/10 from 12-1pm. During this time, the CX100 team will provide support on your team’s questions and ensure that all teams understand the submission guidelines. The meeting invitation link will be sent after you register for the POV Challenge.

Submit your creative product

You must provide your submission by midnight, Sunday 2/15.

Submissions must be uploaded through our Qualtrics survey.

PDFs, video files, photos, word docs, etc. are all acceptable. If your creative product is not digital, you may offer a photo or video of it (examples: submit a photo of your artwork or a recording of a musical performance).

You must also submit a link to the data set you used. Be sure the data you’re using can be shared publicly.

Attend the Engagement Week Reception (encouraged)

Winners will be announced during a special Engagement Week reception held on Wednesday, February 25 from 5:00pm until 6:00pm at the UNC School of Government (in the 2nd floor Atrium). POV Challenge submissions will be on display to help our campus and community celebrate your contributions. Refreshments will be served and you’ll have the opportunity to meet POV Challenge judges and members of the Carolina Engagement Council. Let us know if you plan to attend the Engagement Week reception – RSVP here.

FAQs

In the POV Challenge, we will invite you to explore questions related to youth and young adult behavioral health. Through your creative submissions, we aim to promote understanding of the challenges and needs surrounding youth and young adult behavioral health.

When reviewing data and creating submissions, we encourage participants to explore diverse experiences and perspectives. By pairing your understanding of current youth and young adult behavioral health data with your own perspective or point of view, we will gain a deeper understanding of how available data compares to individual ideas and experiences on this topic. As the CX100 team works with collaboratives across the state in learning how to strengthen community connections and better understand how to improve young adult behavioral health, we’re looking forward to learning from your work and creative expressions.

We expect submissions to be based on data, research, or other evidence about the subject matter, but encourage your teams to be creative in how you apply and communicate that information in your creative products.

Yes, but with one main caveat – the data must be publicly available. This means data that is available to anyone without restrictions or special permissions. (Publicly available data does not always mean free, though all the examples linked above are both free and publicly available). Examples of these types of data sets can be found here.

  • Deadline to register: Friday, 2/10 at 11:59pm
  • Q&A session: Tuesday, 2/10 from 1-2pm
  • Submission deadline: Sunday 2/15 by 11:59pm
  • Community Partner Review: Wednesday 2/18 – Thursday 2/19
  • Reception and winners announced: Wednesday, 2/25 from 5-6pm

You can register to participate by signing up at this link. The form includes prompts about your team’s info and confirms your participation in the Q&A Session.

Teams can include 2 to 5 participants, comprised of undergraduate or graduate students from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Each team is allowed to make up to one (1) entry.

Yes, but you must attribute any use in your work of words, ideas, artwork, or other content that is not originally your own.  Failure to properly document use of AI will result in disqualification from the POV Challenge.

If you use AI tools in your work, include the following statement with your submission “We attest that this project made use of AI in the following ways…”

In order to submit your creative product for review and judging, it will need to be uploaded using this Qualtrics link.

If your creative product is not digital, you may offer a photo or video of it (examples: submit a photo of your artwork or a recording of a musical performance).

If you have questions or experience any trouble along the way, contact Abigail Holdsclaw at aholdsclaw@sog.unc.edu..

If she is unable to help immediately, she will get you connected to the appropriate support.

Submissions will be assessed based on creativity, clarity, and usefulness.

See the rubric judges will use here: 2026 POV Challenge Judges Rubric.

CARE4Youth team members will review the submissions during their third in-person learning forum at the School of Government. These local leaders are mental health service providers and healthcare, education, government, workforce, and non-profits professionals who support youth and young adults in their communities every day. Their personal and professional expertise will inform their review of the submissions to encourage students to create products that can be used to the benefit of youth and young adults across the state.

Yes. Approximately a week after the competition ends, all teams will receive feedback from CARE4Youth teams.

After the competition, POV Challenge submissions will be used in a variety of ways as the Carolina Across 100 initiative continues to engage with communities across the state. They will be accessible on the Carolina Across 100 website with a discussion guide and brought to community conversations.

All POV Challenge submissions will become part of the Carolina Across 100 Initiative’s materials and individuals/creators will be credited by listing their names, majors and that the content was submitted as part of the POV Challenge. They will be shared with communities to facilitate conversations about youth and young adult mental and behavioral health needs and solutions.

Help us reach a wider student audience and celebrate your contributions to this Engagement Week challenge! Include #CarolinaAcross100 and #EngagementWeek2026 in your social media posts. Tag the ncIMPACT Initiative – find our handles here: https://linktr.ee/ncIMPACT

Yes! Students who participate in the 2026 POV Challenge can earn CLE credit.

Examples of prior submissions can be found here and here.

Campus and Digital Resources

Research Hub YouTube Playlists

Students have free access to many training videos through LinkedIn Learning.

  • BeAM@CAROLINA

    BeAM is a network of makerspaces where you can join the UNC maker community in the design and making of physical objects for education, research, entrepreneurship and recreation. You can participate in open studios, training sessions, workshops, host classes and group activities in spaces equipped with emerging technologies like 3D printing as well as wood and metalworking shops.

  • Makerspace @ KSL

    The Makerspace @ Kenan Science Library enables UNC students, staff and faculty to explore emerging technologies and foster a creative community of makers and making.

  • Carmichael Makerspace

    Carolina Housing has partnered with BeAM to provide a Makerspace in Carmichael residence hall to make it easy and convenient for residents on campus to start making and creating! It also provides a unique space to engage with each other and for staff to put on fun programs and events.

  • Morrison Art Studio

    The Morrison Art Studio is located on the bottom floor of the Morrison Residence Hall and provides residential students an opportunity to unleash your inner artist. The 24-seat studio features free use of all the supplies you’ll need for painting and drawing and an artist-in-residence who is a graduate student working toward their Master of Fine Arts degree. The artist-in-residence serves as a resource to all visitors.

  • Music Practice Rooms

    The Department of Music houses 32 practice rooms in the basement level of Hill Hall with a variety of configurations, resources, and instruments available for student use. Most of the rooms are equipped with an upright or electric piano, mirror, and music stand.

When is the next opportunity to get involved with Carolina Across 100?

Stay connected to Carolina Across 100 as more opportunities for student engagement are announced. Subscribe to regular e-mail updates. Submit a student interest form to explore deeper involvement with Carolina Across 100.