Second Engagement Week Brought Communities Together

By Alexander Saunders, Carolina Center for Public Service

Engaging With Communities Starts With Listening

A woman with medium length walnut color hair is standing in front of a projector screen and talking into a microphone. She is wearing a light color blazer with black shirt underneath. — *Stephanie Kiser introduces the audience to the “What Do You Need?” workshop.*

“We often, as health-care providers, lean into [community spaces] and say, we have all this knowledge, and we have all the solutions and we know how to make this problem go away,” says Stephanie Kiser, RPh, Director of Rural Health and Professor of the Practice with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

“But here’s what’s important. If the individuals in the communities and the people you’re collaborating with do not see themselves in the work, and they are not part of the work, and you are not listening, all your knowledge will be for naught.”

Kiser convened the Carolina Engagement Week 2023 event, “What do you need? Engaging in a Rural, Regional, Medication Optimization Needs Assessment,” which explored the ongoing process of engaging with rural federally qualified health centers (FQHC) across Western North Carolina in a multi-faceted medication optimization needs assessment. More than 200 miles away, participants in Asheville listened together to the presentation and joined in conversation and dialogue.

Why Engaged Work Matters

The second annual Engagement Week was a celebration of Carolina’s engaged scholarship and service with events held from Feb. 27-March 3, 2023. In total, 25 events were held this year, with attendance at all events exceeding 600, with many participants attending more than one event. Highlights included 130 attendees participating virtually for the Current State of Waste and Race in North Carolina and 107 attending the screening and question and answer session for The Smell of Money, produced by UNC-Chapel Hill alumna Jamie Berger.

A woman with short dark gray hair and dark glasses holds her hands up as she talks. A brown hair person to her left looks on. — *Lynn Blanchard engages with Tar Heel Bus Tour alumni and participants.*

“Our hope is that learning about the connections with community and hearing their perspectives during Engagement Week will plant seeds that result in more partnership and collaboration in service to the people of North Carolina,” says Lynn Blanchard, Ph.D., Director of Carolina Center for Public Service. Blanchard co-led the session, The Tar Heel Bus Tour: Stories from the Road, a roundtable discussion of organizers and alumni of the Tar Heel Bus Tour.

Reflecting on Carolina Engagement Week 2023

Carolina Across 100, a Carolina Engagement Week co-organizer, hosted the POV Challenge, which evolved from last year’s Civic Hackathon. POV Challenge competitors were tasked with combining their skills and available North Carolina data to identify solutions for challenges facing North Carolina’s Opportunity Youth, defined as young adults ages 16-24 who are not working and not in school. Read more about the winners, students Dania Khan and Elizabeth Wilkes, at the official POV Challenge page.

A man with short curly hair, glasses and a thin bear points up at a project screen. — *George Barrett points to different locations in North Chapel Hill at the needs-based vs. abundance-based workshop.*

This year, the Marian Cheek Jackson Center (Jackson Center) hosted three events that covered the broad diversity of the work they are doing to honor, renew and build community in the historic Northside, Pine Knolls and Tin Top neighborhoods of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. On Monday, Jackson Center Executive Director George Barrett led an engaging workshop showcasing the comparison of needs-based vs. abundance-based approaches to community development and engaged the audience in group activities at this session. The Jackson Center also held an off-campus event at their office demonstrating how their work with The Partnerships in Aging Program at UNC-Chapel Hill develops intergenerational programming that encourages community building, good neighbors and age-embracing relationships. Their third event was a workshop and training demonstrating community-based practices for recording oral history.

A young woman with a fuscia colored sweater and long dark hair swuats on mulch as she prunes cabbage. — *A student prunes cabbage leaves at the community garden on Wilson Street.*

Beautiful weather enhanced several outdoor events: APPLES Service-Learning and Buckley Public Service Scholars volunteered at the community garden on Wilson Street, the American Indian Center showcased the future site of the American Indian Cultural Garden and the Executive Branch of Student Government combined a menstrual product drive for the Community Empowerment Fund and an I-Serve campaign in the Pit on Wednesday afternoon.

Thank You

This year’s events illustrated just a sampling of the breadth and depth of engagement at Carolina. Carolina Engagement Week was made possible by the Carolina Center for Public Service, Carolina Across 100, Innovate Carolina, UNC Rural, the Carolina Engagement Council, the Center for Health Equity Research and ncIMPACT. Special thanks go to every community partner and campus unit who hosted an event, as well as all those who participated and engaged in the array of activities.

Did you have an impactful experience this year during the events? Please let us know!