Small business owners need a strong ecosystem to thrive. That ecosystem provides technical assistance, connections to space, and other resources and capital to launch and grow. Indeed, minority entrepreneurs sometimes struggle to find and gain access to the small amount of capital they need to launch or expand their businesses.

Youth sports can require a significant financial investment for travel to out-of-town tournaments. The expenses for food and lodging quickly add up, and communities in North Carolina are capitalizing on the increased interest in amateur sports by integrating them into their local economy.

Everyone agrees that we need more teachers and that good teachers are critical to the state’s ability to train our workforce and produce our citizenry. There are strategies for teacher recruitment and retention that must be state-based. However, local innovations are critical to our collective success in addressing some barriers.

Alzheimer’s programs, or those more generally for dementia across the state, are not just involved with improving the quality-of-care patients receive in the hospital. They also want to ensure a high quality of life for adults outside of healthcare situations as they go about their daily lives.