North Carolina Models and Innovations
These stories feature model programs and successful rural projects that can serve as a source of ideas. Some of the projects or programs may no longer be active. Read about the criteria and evidence-base for programs included.
Effective Examples
HoMBReS
Updated/reviewed May 2024
- Need: To reduce the risk of HIV/STDs among Latino men living in rural regions of the United States.
- Intervention: Soccer team leaders are elected and trained as lay health advisors to promote sexual health education among team members.
- Results: Program participants report an increase in HIV testing, an increase in condom use, and an increase in awareness of how to prevent the transmission of HIV.
Project Lazarus
Updated/reviewed May 2024
- Need: To reduce overdose-related deaths among prescription opioid users in rural Wilkes County, North Carolina
- Intervention: Education and tools are provided for prescribers, patients and community members to lessen drug supply and demand, and to reduce harm in prescription opioid use
- Results: Opioid overdose death rates have decreased in Wilkes County
Heart Healthy Lenoir
Updated/reviewed October 2023
- Need: In rural eastern North Carolina, Lenoir County residents experience significantly higher rates of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and obesity rates compared to other parts of the state and nation.
- Intervention: A community-based research project was designed to develop and test better ways to tackle cardiovascular disease, from prevention to treatment.
- Results: The end goal includes the development of long-lasting strategies and approaches within the community to help decrease the risk and disparities in risk of cardiovascular disease.
Farm Dinner Theater
Updated/reviewed August 2022
- Need: To encourage farmers to make health and safety changes on their farms.
- Intervention: Farm Dinner Theater is an event in which farmers and their families watch three 10-minute plays covering health and safety topics and then discuss solutions to the issues addressed in each.
- Results: In a study, farmers who attended the plays were more likely to make changes and tell others what they learned, compared to farmers who received an educational packet with the same information.
NC-REACH: NC-Rurally Engaging and Assisting Clients who are HIV positive and Homeless
![funded by the Health Resources Services Administration](/assets/4669-20781/hrsa-badge-125.png)
Updated/reviewed November 2020
- Need: Provision of medical care access and follow-up for rural North Carolina HIV patients with mental health, substance abuse, and unstable housing/homelessness challenges.
- Intervention: Medical home staff model expanded to a care coordination program with a core Network Navigator and Continuum of Care Coordinator assisting with medical, behavioral health, and basic life needs.
- Results: To date, the program has advanced three aspects of medical home patient care for this target population: provided further understanding of the spectrum of homelessness, including "hidden" homelessness; implemented outreach with creation of new community partnerships and a community housing coalition; and integrated medical care and behavioral health care for HIV.
Promising Examples
Project C.A.R.E.
Updated/reviewed October 2023
- Need: There is a lack of dementia-specific support for rural caregivers.
- Intervention: Project C.A.R.E. was created to meet the needs of underserved caregivers of those with Alzheimer's or other dementias, targeting rural North Carolina.
- Results: Under Project C.A.R.E., rural families receive information and referrals as well as individualized care consultation from dementia-trained family consultants.
Other Project Examples
Project ACTIVATE (Advancing Coordinated and Timely InterVentions, Awareness, Training, and Education)
Updated/reviewed February 2024
- Need: To improve students' access to behavioral health services in rural North Carolina.
- Intervention: North Carolina Project ACTIVATE provides three tiers of behavioral health supports in the school setting.
- Results: The six pilot sites (Cohorts 1 and 2) have created or revised 91 mental health policies, and 40,572 school-based and related employees have received training in different topics and protocols.
Riverfront Talks: Substance Matters Podcast
Added December 2023
- Need: To reduce stigma around mental illness and substance use in North Carolina.
- Intervention: The Beaufort County Behavioral Health Task Force created the Riverfront Talks: Substance Matters podcast to interview people with lived experience.
- Results: As of December 2023, the podcast has 10 episodes.
Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) Rural Fellowship
Added August 2023
- Need: To increase recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural western North Carolina.
- Intervention: The Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) Rural Fellowship offers mentorship, education, research support, and community-building opportunities for local providers in their first year of practice.
- Results: Of the 30 fellows who have completed the program since 2017, 97% are still practicing in rural areas; 87% are still practicing in rural western North Carolina.
Healthy Places NC
Updated/reviewed July 2023
- Need: Due to systemic issues and historic lack of investment, people living in under-resourced rural communities in North Carolina– especially people of color– have poorer health than those living in urban areas.
- Intervention: Funded by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, Healthy Places NC invested $100 million over 10 years in rural North Carolina counties to improve residents' health.
- Results: Healthy Places NC has generated excitement and promoted collaboration in the participating communities. A full evaluation of the first 10 years of the program will be released in fall of 2024.
Last Updated: 5/21/2024