The Carolina Center for Public Service is proud to have hosted the third annual Carolina Engagement Week in collaboration with the Carolina Across 100 Initiative, the Carolina Engagement Council, the Center for Health Equity Research, Innovate Carolina, ncIMPACT, the Office of the Chancellor, UNC Rural and dozens of other tremendous campus and community partners.
Carolina Engagement Week provides an excellent opportunity to proudly showcase the impactful alliances between and work of those connected to the University and communities across North Carolina.
Over the course of just five days, 34 events on and around campus offered the opportunity to ExCEL: Experience, Connect, Engage and Learn.
Community and Connection are Evergreen: Especially to Us in Carolina Blue
Many events during this year’s Carolina Engagement Week honed in on the importance of a community-based approach to learning, serving and activism. These events, though spanning a diverse array of critical issues and academic themes, all reinforced that to make progress on tough challenges, we must do so in community. These events, whether UNC Rural’s discussion on building strong partnerships between the University and rural communities, the Concerned Citizens of West Badin Community, NC Environmental Justice Network, and the UNC Environmental Justice Action Research Clinic’s event on community organizing for environmental justice, or the event on working in communities to improve youth mental health co-hosted by Carolina Across 100 and the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute , to name a few, provided strategies and corroboration that transformation is made possible through university-community partnerships community.
Centering Service for the Benefit of All
At its core, Carolina Engagement Week shows what is possible for our communities when we are in of service to one another. This sentiment was echoed by Carolina Center for Public Service Director Lynn Blanchard. “During Carolina Engagement Week 2024, students, faculty, staff and community members came together as a learning community to experience the breadth and depth of Carolina’s engagement with the state. From local government partnerships to efforts across the state to promote economic prosperity and conducting walk audits in Chapel Hill and other events, it was a five-day celebration of what can be accomplished when we work together.
Acknowledgements
The Carolina Center for Public Service extends our deepest gratitude to all the wonderful presenters and community partners involved in making Carolina Engagement Week 2024 the best yet. Thanks to all the event attendees, students and staff workers, and the many on and off campus organizations who collaborated with us.
Did you find a chance to ExCEL this Carolina Engagement Week? Send us a note at engagementweek@unc.edu to share as we make plans for 2025!
Be on the lookout during the Fall 2024 semester for information on how to submit a proposal for Carolina Engagement Week 2025.