Community- Campus Partnerships
UNC Rural couldn’t exist without our partners – the rural community members and Carolina faculty, staff and students that are committed to making the Tar Heel state the best place to live, work, and play. UNC Rural supports the growing network of partners collaborating on rural community-led solutions.
We visit to get to know you and your community. We listen to understand how we can be a better resource. As a result, we connect you to partners, actionable ideas and additional resources tailored to your community needs.
in Rural Research and Engagement Fund awards
RREAF addresses a critical need for seed funding for community-engaged faculty and staff through awards of up to $15k for rural partnerships.
Hybrid conference during Carolina Engagement Week featuring partnerships that are rooted in trust and focused on the assets of communities.
Whole Community Connection champions
From 2022 to 2026, WCC supported community-campus partnerships in Edgecombe County and Robeson County with leadership development and project funding.
Tar Heel Bus Tour projects
From 2023 to 2024, THBT grants supported participants in developing collaborations as a result of new connections to partners and communities.
connected to UNC Rural News and Events
Join our growing network of community-campus partners who serve North Carolina’s rural communities!
42 Projects Serving 48 Rural Counties
Health
- Chatham County Food Hub
- Developing the Buncombe Academic Health Department
- Disinhibited Eating and Cardiovascular Health in Rowan County Police Force
- Freedom Organization Tarboro Community Garden
- Health Promotion in Rural Northeastern North Carolina
- Healthy Resilient Youth
- Helping Rural Pharmacists with Buprenorphine Dispensing Barriers
- HOPE Alternative Learning Program
- MAPSCorp 2.0
- Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Trainings
- PEACE of Mind
- Reducing Stigma, Saving Lives
- Robeson Parent 2 Parent
- Rockingham Mobile Market
- Sexual Health Equity in the Intellectual/Developmental Disability Community
- Supporting Child Mental Health in the Robeson Lumbee Community
- Through the Lens of Recovery: Photovoice Initiative for Healing
- Whole Together Robeson
- Youth LEAD (Learning & Empowering through Agriculture for Development)
Workforce
- Engaging Pharmacy Students at Conetoe Family Youth Summer Camp
- From Bertie County to Carolina: Expansion of Project Uplift
- School of Education MAT Alumni Needs Program
- Supporting Data and Storytelling of Rural Our State, Our Work Teams
- Teaching the Tar Heel Bus Tour: Racial Literacy Curriculum
- Unheard Voices: Supporting Transition to Adulthood for Foster Youth
Environment
- Anderson Community Group
- Citizen Science Biodiversity Monitoring on Grandfather Mountain
- ECUIPPing Warren County Youth for EMPACT
Arts and Community
- Collaborative Mapping of Community Spaces in Princeville
- Preserving the Historical Record of a Pivotal Lumber and Railroad Town Belhaven
Education
- From Bertie County to Carolina: Expansion of Project Uplift
- Rural Child Care
Transportation
- Working Wheels' Vehicle Repair Program (VPR)
“The inclusion and centering of individuals and groups most impacted was exemplary public health work.” - Sheila Davies, Dare County director of health and human services and county manager
The Dare County partnership is focused on young adults’ mental health. From the start, community members defined what mattered. Then faculty aligned their research and engagement to support those mental health priorities — helping surface barriers like stigma and seasonal employment to co‑create solutions.
“No data should ever be published or presented without presenting it first to the community partners.” - Marie Lina Excellent, assistant professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s public health leadership and practice department
Impact
Student Success
Rural Health Scholars
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UNC Rural is part of Academic Excellence within the Division of Student Success in the Office of the Provost
UNC Rural
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
333 South Columbia Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7240
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill