CHAPEL HILL — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Across 100 initiative announced this week its selection of 37 North Carolina counties that will be part of a program to help connect young adults with employment opportunities across the state.
Bladen County is among those selected and is listed as Team 9, along with Columbus County.
The counties are broken into 13 teams – made up of business, civic, education, nonprofit, faith-based, and government entities representing the 37 counties. Those teams will receive various support from UNC-Chapel Hill, all aimed at connecting North Carolina’s young adults to jobs that pay a living wage.
“The University is eager to enhance partnerships and create new opportunities for members of our workforce,” saiud Kevin M. Guskiewicz, chancellor of UNC. “As our state addresses inequities created and exacerbated by COVID-19, Carolina Across 100 will connect young people with education and living-wage employment opportunities in North Carolina by bringing community leaders from across the state together to collaborate and bolster one another’s work.”
Anita Brown-Graham, director of the ncIMPACT Initiative and lead coordinator for Carolina Across 100, said she was impressed by the optimistic approaches suggested by the groups who applied.
“In their applications and interviews, communities expressed great enthusiasm about the resources Carolina Across 100 will bring to strengthen their work,” Brown-Graham said. “Our goal was to reach 20 counties, so we are thrilled that 37 counties made clear their commitment to partner with us for this first program to connect young adults to educational opportunities and living-wage employment.”
The organization Men and Women United for Youth and Families is currently working with the governments of Columbus and Bladen counties to provide job training and mentorship to Opportunity Youth, as well as counseling services that build life skills and grow communities.
MWUYF’s “Strengthening Families” program provides counseling to parents and families, and their partners at NC A&T’s Cooperative Extension provide evidence-based life-skill training for MWUYF’s “Community Voices” program MWUYF’s “Youth Ambassadors for a Better Community Program” foster students’ life skills through mentorships that range from MWUYF staff to local farmers.
The collaborative strives to empower Opportunity Youth “to see the value they hold and therefore visualize a successful future beyond the barrier they’ve always known.”
Teams will meet for a kick-off in mid-June, and for their first forum at UNC-Chapel Hill in mid-September. Throughout the two-year program, the 13 teams will meet for a series of forums to coalesce around a shared vision for their collaborative efforts to support Opportunity Youth, engage in cross-collaborative learning with other communities, and identify, plan for, and gather resources to sustain and expand their efforts over the long-term.
The Carolina Across 100 team will also conduct site visits across participating counties to facilitate the program’s implementation.
Leave a Reply