University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
EN-9: Community Partnerships

HOPE (Homeless Outreach Poverty Eradication) Gardens fosters relationships, educates the community, and addresses barriers to food access through shared efforts in sustainable agriculture. HOPE Gardens is an entirely student-run project of HOPE, a subcommittee of the UNC Campus Y. HOPE Gardens provides a reduced-price Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program to provide access to affordable produce, workshops, and a weekly nutritional cooking demo. HOPE Gardens operates throughout the year and is an ongoing program. Public service and engagement have long been a core mission at Carolina. By tapping academic and administrative expertise, applying research, and creating vital partnerships, the University serves as a resource for communities both near and far. Select community partnerships include: • Active Living by Design promotes physical activity and healthy eating through community design. Local projects include safe walking routes to school, community gardens, mixed-use neighborhoods, bike planning, and walking maps of downtown. • The Environmental Resource Program in the Institute for the Environment enhances public understanding of current environmental science and health research and its relevance to daily life, and empowers North Carolinians to make informed decisions that protect the environment and public health. Workshops involve K-12 teachers, high school students, African-American communities, and local and state government agencies. • The North Carolina Botanical Garden, an international leader in conservation biology, promotes a sustainable relationship between people and nature through public events and educational opportunities for teachers, students, and the community. • The Carolina Center for Public Service promotes opportunities for students and faculty to engage in public service that is responsive to the needs of North Carolina communities. The top five service focus areas for students are children and youth, health, education, social justice, and hunger and homelessness/poverty. • APPLES, Assisting People in Planning Learning Experiences in Service, a program of the Carolina Center for Public Service, is the oldest student-led service-learning program in the country. It brings students, faculty, and the community together to address poverty, health, education, and environmental issues.

The UNC Institute for the Environment and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources provide three-day professional development programs for teachers that focus on water, energy, and climate in North Carolina. Teachers explore watersheds and aquatic ecosystems, discover the effects of contaminated water on the environment, and interact with scientists who research water quality monitoring techniques and the health effects of toxic contaminants.

The Environmental Finance Center (EFC) in the School of Government delivers interactive, applied training programs and technical assistance to address the financial aspects of community environmental protection and service delivery. Trainings focus on water and wastewater infrastructure, energy efficiency, and purchasing. To leverage resources, the EFC often conducts collaborative trainings - partnering with organizations that have environmental but not necessarily financial expertise. In addition to direct community outreach and capacity building, the EFC works with decision makers to assess the effectiveness of environmental finance policies at the regional and state level, and to improve those policies at multiple levels of government. The Development Finance Initiative (DFI) at the School of Government partners with local governments in North Carolina to attract private investment for transformative projects by providing specialized finance and development expertise. DFI partners with communities on projects including: building reuse, community development, downtown revitalization, economic development, neighborhood redevelopment, and small business finance. This fee-based service extends the capacity of local governments to assess needs, develop new programs, and access relevant financing mechanisms. Both of these programs catalyze community resiliency and local/regional sustainability by simultaneously supporting social equity and well-being, economic prosperity, and ecological health on a community scale. Both of these programs are ongoing and plan for systemic change. UNC provides faculty/staff and financial or material support. Both programs adopt a stakeholder engagement framework through which community members, faculty, and other stakeholders are engaged in program/project development, from agenda setting and planning to decision-making, implementation and review.

The Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention works with both churches and hairdressers in economically distressed Warren County to launch and support community gardens and public health outreach programs.