Carolina Across 100: Our State, Our Work – Connecting Young Adults with Their Future

Organization:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Amount:

$200,000.00

Program Area:

Open Grants Program

County of Applicant:

Orange

Year:

2023

Description:

This award provides funding to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) to support the work of the Carolina Across I 00’s Our State, Our Work (OSOW) initiative. Carolina Across I 00 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 are neither in school nor employed, known as opportunity youth. OSOW has partnered with 13 community teams across 37 mostly rural counties which are home to 58,000 opportunity youth to improve the employability and technical skills of opportunity youth. A collaboration with Microsoft and Google will enable OSOW to offer online technical training, resulting in participants earning high-value micro-credentials. OSOW will complement these technical credentials by offering online employability training modules on topics including time management, teamwork, critical thinking, and professional communication. This strategy responds to annual statewide business surveys that identify lack of basic employability skills as a significant hiring issue. Each of the 13 community teams, with representation from school districts, community colleges, and business and nonprofit organizations, will recruit participants and deliver the program. UNC-CH evaluation experts will assess program success, including moving program participants into employment. Golden LEAF funds will be used to assist with training/module development, ongoing work with the 13 local teams and employers, training website development, program marketing/outreach, and data collection/assessment.

Contact:

Anita Brown-GrahamOffice of Sponsored Research104 Airport Drive, Suite 2200 Campus Box #1350Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-1350(919) 966-3411

Areas Served:

Alamance, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Burke, Cabarrus, Carteret, Caswell, Cherokee, Clay, Columbus, Craven, Davie, Duplin, Forsyth, Graham, Greene, Haywood, Hertford, Jackson, Jones, Lenoir, Lincoln, Macon, Martin, Mecklenburg, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico, Pitt, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Swain, Wayne, Wilson, Yadkin

Any project more than a couple of years old may not reflect current Board priorities.
Please contact a staff member with any questions.