North Carolina initiative fuels pandemic recovery

Although disruptions from COVID-19 remain rampant, already many are working to lift their community's recovery above the fray. A statewide initiative aims to help.

The initiative launched with a focus on listening carefully to the voices of thousands of state residents to identify their priority challenges, and it has committed to partnering with communities in all 100 counties to respond to those priorities.

"During the two-year program, teams worked to ensure long-term sustainability by securing other sources of funding for the education campaigns about treatment and recovery, support programs and post-overdose response groups created," ncIMPACT Director Anita Brown-Graham told the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees this past March.

The ncIMPACT Initiative approach is simple.

"We give community teams expertise in two different ways, and this is really important to understanding the model," said Brown-Graham. "With the Opioid Response Project, experts gave communities evidence-based strategies for responding to opioid misuse. Equally important were the experts who shared evidence-based strategies for collaborating productively across sectors in communities."

Carolina Across 100 will also bring diverse community leaders representing different sectors together with multi-disciplinary groups of experts at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"Our survey and interviews have provided an extremely rich source of data that we are continuing to analyze in partnership with colleagues in the Department of Public Policy at UNC," said Brown-Graham.

It generated over 4,000 responses and included responses from each of North Carolina's 100 counties. The actual data represents 3,200 usable responses. Initial results show widespread trepidation about the future.

"Over 90% of the survey respondents agree that the pandemic will have long-term effects, and the majority of those — 70% — think the greatest impacts from COVID-19 on communities are still to come," said Evan Johnson, teaching assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, who is assisting with the data analysis. "Less than one-third of individuals believe that the worst of the pandemic is behind us."

More than a quarter of respondents said the loss of small businesses will have the biggest long-term impact on communities, something Roanoke Electric Cooperative CEO Curtis Wynn has been working hard to avoid by making changes to his business during the pandemic.

"We adjusted the way our line technicians come to work in staggered shifts in order to prevent disease transmission and a major loss of workforce due to COVID-19," said Wynn.

Additionally, Wynn had to respond to the business having less money coming in.

"There was a moratorium on disconnections for nonpayment of utility services, which impacted us because our cash flow was reduced since several customers couldn't pay their electric bill," said Wynn. "We are still to this day trying to collect past due payments."

At the same time, Wynn was busy bringing broadband to households that needed it more than ever before. Carolina Across 100 survey respondents also identified educational disruptions and employment instability as potential long-term consequences of the pandemic.

"According to our data, these concerns are remarkably consistent across counties and regions of the state, despite differences in the strength of local economies or educational systems," said Brown-Graham. "What this says is that individuals and communities all across our state are feeling concerned about similar challenges."

The Carolina Across 100 team will create community teams across the state, representing business, public and not-for-profit organizations, to address common pressing issues.

"Carolina Across 100 is just getting started," said UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. "We have listened and now it is time for our university to act. As we continue to analyze the data and results from our work, our team will share information and resources that will be useful for communities across North Carolina."