School of Government hosts four events for Carolina Engagement Week
Carolina Engagement Week is back in 2024, showcasing partnerships between UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina communities. Held on February 26–March 1, 2024, the week will feature research presentations, skill-building workshops, panels, and more.
The School of Government will host three events exploring financially distressed local governments, community development opportunities for local governments, and community partnerships for youth mental health. The School will also host the closing reception for Engagement Week.
In addition to these events, Carolina Across 100 is sponsoring the POV Challenge, a student-focused competition that captures student insights and ideas on a pre-selected optic. This year’s challenge prompts explore mental health and suicide prevention as part of the “Our State, Our Wellbeing” initiative. Student submissions will be shared with participating program teams to inform their community collaborations aimed at improving mental health and reducing suicide.
Read on to learn about learning opportunities and events hosted by the School. To register, click the event title.
Forging a Path to Financial Success: Local Government Partnerships with the School of Government
Monday, February 26 – 9 a.m.
Knapp-Sanders 2402
Developed by Rebecca Badgett and Bill Rivenbark from the UNC School of Government, the Unit Assistant List (UAL) training sessions were tailored to meet the needs of counties and municipalities facing financial hardship. With the support of Lead for North Carolina Fellow LaShonda Sousa, Badgett and Rivenbark undertook a statewide tour, delivering five comprehensive UAL training sessions to more than 70 municipalities.
Join us to learn more about the significance of UAL training and the strategic approach to measuring success over the years, aiming to track units on their journey off the List.
Read more about how the UAL training team promotes fiscal responsibility from the classroom.
How Local Governments Can Leverage Public Data to Find Community Development Opportunities
Wednesday, February 28 – 10 a.m.
Virtual
Local governments collect, create, manage, and visualize data to make decisions that increase the quality of life for citizens. One way this data is often underused is to identify community development opportunities, such as identifying sites suitable for affordable housing or deciding which blocks to prioritize when revitalizing commercial space downtown. In this session, staff from the UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative (DFI) will discuss how local governments can combine their public data sources through maps, dashboards, and other tools to make community development decisions. They will demonstrate challenges and opportunities local governments face when identifying community development projects using case studies from Kinston, Wilson, and other communities across North Carolina.
Learn more about DFI’s projects in communities across the state.
Working in Communities to Improve Youth Mental Health
March 1, 2024 – 4 p.m.
Hybrid, Knapp-Sanders 2403
Youth in North Carolina and nationwide are experiencing alarming trends in mental health and suicidality. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 43.4 percent of North Carolina high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for more than two weeks, and more than 1 in 10 reported attempting suicide. Our state’s schools and other youth-serving community organizations are critical partners in addressing this challenge. In this session organized by Carolina Across 100 and the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute, presenters will discuss best practices for partnering with schools and other youth-serving organizations and lessons learned to meet young people’s mental health needs in North Carolina’s communities.
Read more about Carolina Across 100 and the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute’s “Our State, Our Wellbeing” initiative.
2024 Carolina Engagement Week Reception
March 1 – 5:30 p.m.
Knapp-Sanders Building
Join Carolina Across 100, the Carolina Center for Public Service, UNC Rural, and other partners for a reception celebrating Carolina Engagement Week 2024. Hosted at the UNC School of Government, hear from campus leaders about exciting campus and community partnerships. Enjoy music and refreshments. Student submissions from the 2024 POV Challenge will be displayed and winners will be announced. Don’t miss this fun campus event celebrating Carolina’s ongoing work with North Carolina communities.
The Carolina Engagement Week calendar lists additional in-person, hybrid, and virtual events taking place across campus. UNC Rural also mapped community-campus partnerships showcased during Engagement Week since the event’s inception in 2022.