Celebrating Rural Week: Announcing Rural Community Conversations

March 20, 2024

CHAPEL HILL, NC – March 19, 2024 – UNC Rural is celebrating “Rural Week” by announcing collaborations with dozens of local partners across North Carolina to host Rural Community Conversations. Governor Roy Cooper proclaimed the 3rd week of March to be “Rural Week” as a celebration of the rural communities and people of the state.

“North Carolina has the second largest rural population in the U.S. and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is committed to growing and supporting community-campus partnerships that advance rural well-being,” said Giselle Corbie, MD, MSc, UNC Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, UNC Rural Co-Director and Kenan Distinguished Professor of Medicine. “UNC Rural listens to rural community members’ experiences and priorities to connect them with existing campus expertise and resources to accelerate impacts.”

The first Rural Community Conversations will take place when UNC Rural team members and several of their community partners attend the 2024 Rural Summit in Raleigh on March 20-21. The NC Rural Center’s annual conference brings together rural champions from across the state. This year the conference’s focus is “Building a Vibrant Future” which is what UNC Rural aims to do through these conversations. They plan to continue conversations with rural communities by visiting each region to listen and return as a better resource.

“Community-engaged work is highly relational and moves at the speed of trust,” said Jada Brooks, PhD, MSPH, RN, FAAN, UNC Rural Co-Director and Associate Professor and Ross Distinguished Term Scholar in the UNC School of Nursing. “We hear from people who don’t know where to start or who to talk to about how Carolina can and does serve communities across the state. UNC Rural serves as a connector to help close that information gap.”

These conversations wouldn’t be possible without partners like Al Richmond, Executive Director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health. Al and Dr. Corbie’s 20-year partnership spans local, regional and national initiatives.

“I am excited to partner with UNC Rural to jointly sponsor a series of listening sessions designed to visit local communities and hear from amazing leaders in rural communities,” said Al Richmond.

Conversations will continue throughout the spring to inform UNC Rural’s programming which connects rural communities with Carolina campus members in mutually beneficial ways. UNC Rural also provides funding and supplies resources to make community-campus partnerships more effective. Since 2019, UNC Rural’s impact includes:

• Connecting 400+ community-campus partners.
• Developing 27 partnerships serving more than 1,780 rural residents.
• Partnering to provide $650,000 in grant funding impacting 38 rural counties.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a national leader in community-engaged scholarship and service with UNC-CH faculty, staff and students serving in community-campus partnerships in almost all 100 counties in North Carolina. Part of the Office of the Provost, UNC Rural’s work strengthens UNC-CH’s institutional integrity and honors its mission to serve North Carolina.

To learn more about upcoming Rural Community Conversations, visit: go.unc.edu/ruralcc