Central Carolina Community College
EN-9: Community Partnerships

CCCC collaborates with many community partners to advance sustainability initiatives in the community. CCCC recently collaborated with the Workforce Investement Act office and Chatham County Together to hold a week-long camp for at risk youth and their mentors. These high schools students were introduced to sustainability concepts in agriculture, food systems, green building and renewable energy. Additionally, CCCC works with local school districts hosting information sessions for middle school students, guidance counselors, faculty and staff to demonstrate sustainable technology training on campus.

The Sustainable Agriculture program collaborates with the Chatham County Beekeeper association to increase pollinators in our area. The beekeepers offer materials and labor to manage numerous on farm hives, the hives in turn increase pollination on the farm and serve as a community education element for students in the continuing education, curriculum program and numerous farm visitors from the local elementary schools to high school guidance counselors. The beekeepers manage the hives and necessary infrastructure collaboratively with college staff and faculty.

CCCC's Sustainable Agriculture Program and Sustainability Technology Program work with the non profit organization, The Abundance Foundation on the Climate Resilience in Agriculture Conference held on the Chatham County Campus. The college faculty helped design the first conference in 2012 and continues to play an essential role by hosting the event and faculty serves as conference organizer. We engage the NC land grant institution, NC State and the North Carolina Climate office to explore the research needs and climate trends affecting our local agricultural economy and culture. Local farmers are engaged in the conference planning and conference engagement with land grant researchers. The partnership seeks to create a lasting dialogue between consumers (also conference participants), land grant researchers, climate scientists and farmers to create a systematic response to our changing climate. This response includes seed selection, increasing local markets for seasonal agricultural products and shared solutions to increase local farm productivity in climate resilient farming systems.