This award funded the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) to support the work of the Carolina Across 100’s Our State, Our Work (OSOW) initiative. Carolina Across 100 launched in March 2021 to focus on using university resources to promote pandemic recovery and renewal statewide. OSOW was created to help communities build more effective workforce development systems for young adults 16-24 years old who were neither in school nor employed, known as Opportunity Youth. OSOW partnered with 13 community teams across 37 mostly rural counties to improve the employability and technical skills of Opportunity Youth. A collaboration with Microsoft and the North Carolina Community College System enabled OSOW to offer online technical training, resulting in participants earning high-value micro-credentials. Online employability training focused on topics such as time management, teamwork, critical thinking, and professional communication. This strategy responded to annual statewide business surveys that identified lack of basic employability skills as a significant hiring issue. The community teams and numerous workforce development boards, with representation from school districts, community colleges, and business and nonprofit organizations, recruited participants and delivered the program. UNC-CH evaluation experts assessed program success, including moving program participants into employment. Golden LEAF funds were used to assist with training/module development, ongoing work with the 13 local teams and employers, course website development, program marketing/outreach, and data collection/assessment.
