Community leaders emphasized the importance of public health messaging and precautions on both the individual and organizational levels. They identified mask wearing and rapid testing as major needs for their communities to be able to reopen and improve the local economy, especially in the leisure and hospitality industries, which are struggling under limited capacity. Community leaders also relayed concerns about the delayed financial impact on local governments as the federal CARES money dwindles. The community leaders described solutions they pursue, including local grants and loan programs to help sustain small businesses. They also emphasized the importance of regional and cross-sectoral collaboration in economic recovery, especially in larger communities.

The statewide Opioid Response Project forums offered the teams support as they worked toward their collective impact goals. The team found the forums to be a great opportunity to get out of their silos and collaborate as a district.

Join us for our series of webinars about how communities will recover from the effects of COVID19. We will share what we learn and collect your input as the project progresses. You will automatically be signed up for the series by registering once using this link: https://go.unc.edu/s2N4T

Webinar Dates: Sept. 30, Oct. 28, Nov. 18, and Jan. 27. All webinars begin at 2 p.m. ET