As a part of our ongoing policy work in rural eastern North Carolina, we hold monthly sessions in which we listen to our community to identify priority issues and then fuse community knowledge, international best practices, and local connections to solve them.

In record turnout, we left today’s discussion more open-ended looking to see what issues are currently at the front of rural North Carolina’s mind. Among the issues mentioned, concerns over safety, mental and physical health care, and effective community outreach rose to the surface.

Discussion Highlights

• Upon asking what issues are bubbling up to the surfaces of everyone’s mind, we primarily discussed both physical and systemic barriers to healthcare.
  • Among the physical barriers to healthcare many members lamented the lack of transportation available to connect local communities and general practitioners.
  • Additionally, on the systemic side participants detailed how lack of affordable healthcare and a lack of in network mental health providers leads to those who are unable to pay for private healthcare not receiving the treatment they need.
  • One member further highlighted how substance abuse disorders are often not covered and treated “because so many people don’t think of that as an illness as well.”
• Beyond healthcare, we then discussed how ROI can more effectively collaborate with other community organizations.
  • On the communication side, we brainstormed how to strike a balance between having too many or too little meetings between community members and organizations.
  • Instead of focusing solely on a top-down approach to outreach, one member recommended a more direct method where healthcare providers and other service workers can disseminate important community resources to their clients.