HOPE program expanded to include Lenoir County
| May 24, 2010 | |
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The Community-Campus Partnership at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has awarded a $20,000 grant to support public health and poverty alleviation programs in Lenoir County through its Health, Opportunity, Partnerships and Empowerment (HOPE) projects. The projects aim to improve health outcomes for low-income women by providing support and financial incentives to make healthy choices.
Dr. Marci Campbell
“We’ve been impressed with the energy and commitment to community improvement in Kinston and Lenoir County,” said Marci Campbell, PhD, principal investigator for the HOPE projects and professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. “I believe the HOPE projects will make a significant difference there.” The grant, administered through the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP), will aid in the recruitment of up to 80 women from Lenoir County for HOPE projects.
Participants in the project will open individual development accounts and receive matching funds that can be applied toward furthering their education, learning new skills or creating a business.
Local partners include the Partnership for Children of Lenoir and Greene Counties and the Lenoir Community College Small Business Center. The HOPE projects also are funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health Challenge Award program.
The Community-Campus Partnership is a campus-wide initiative to forge effective partnerships with economically distressed communities in North Carolina. It offers small grants ranging from $500 to $20,000 to full-time faculty, staff or students of UNC-Chapel Hill to support projects that align with local priorities in Caswell or Lenoir counties, the locations chosen for the partnership’s initial focus.
Projects must build local capacity, skills or knowledge to address current and future challenges in the areas of community and economic development, education, infrastructure or public health or improve the livability and viability of local communities.
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UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.
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