One in five North Carolinians live in rural counties where residents are less likely to have access to health services, are more likely to engage in risky health behaviors and have a higher mortality rate than those living in non-rural areas.
We support Healthy Places North Carolina, a $100 million effort to improve the health of residents in the state’s most rural and financially disadvantaged counties. In addition to providing counsel on overall communications strategy, we help plan and implement launch events in new communities across the state—everything from drafting remarks to finding folding chairs to securing coverage from local and national media.
We also helped launch the Trust’s Great Expectations initiative, an innovative effort to ensure that the youngest children in Forsyth County, North Carolina—regardless of family income—have the foundation to be successful in school and life by the time they complete kindergarten. The launch took place in a packed local library branch and resulted in stories in the Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem Chronicle, Camel City Dispatch, EducationNC, Triad Business Journal, Philanthropy North Carolina, Philanthropy News Digest, the local NPR affiliate, as well as three local television stations.
