Publications, Webinars, and Podcasts

North Carolina after the Pandemic: A Model for Creating a Successful Business Ecosystem for All

North Carolina after the Pandemic: A Model for Creating a Successful Business Ecosystem for All

As a magnet for both population and employment growth, North Carolina has a propitious opportunity to create an inclusive and equitable entrepreneurial and small business ecosystem to support the state’s newfound prosperity. Leveraging qualitative insights from key informant interviews with government officials, community leaders, and minority entrepreneurs in one of the state’s hot spots for growth, we outline the major parameters of a place-based approach to creating an inclusive entrepreneurship and small business ecosystem that generates shared prosperity, eliminating in the process longstanding inequities in community economic development in the state. 

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Building an Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Building an Inclusive Entrepreneurial EcosystemInsight by James H. Johnson Jr., Ph.D, Jeanne Milliken Bonds, MPAKenan-Flagler Business School UNC-Chapel HillOctober, 2022Home | Publications | Building an Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem  North Carolina has emerged...

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North Carolina’s Community Health Worker Initiative

North Carolina’s Community Health Worker Initiative

Community Health Workers support frontline public health professionals during times of public health pandemics by providing communities with trusted messengers that are a support system and liaison to medical and social services. North Carolina deployed Community Health Workers during the COVID-19 pandemic using funding under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with success. We offer recommendations for a more robust program going forward using what was learned during the pandemic.

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COVID-19 and North Carolina’s Shifting Demography

COVID-19 and North Carolina’s Shifting Demography

COVID-19 and North Carolina's Shifting DemographicsThis study reveals COVID-19’s impact on the geo-demography of North Carolina.Report by James H. Johnson Jr., Ph.D, Jeanne Milliken Bonds, MPAKenan-Flagler Business School UNC-Chapel HillAllan M. Parnel Vice President,...

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Real Estate Alert! Gale Force Demographic Wind Gusts Ahead

Real Estate Alert! Gale Force Demographic Wind Gusts Ahead

Newcomers from other states and abroad are principally responsible for North Carolina’s population boom–growth by 3.9 million– since 1990. However, seven powerful demographic disruptors—analogous to gale force wind gusts in an adverse weather event—can potentially quell future growth and demand for residential and commercial real estate. Strategies to circumnavigate the adverse effects of the demographic gale force winds ahead are discussed.

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Business Alert! Gale Force Demographic Wind Gusts Ahead

Business Alert! Gale Force Demographic Wind Gusts Ahead

Seven powerful demographic trends—analogous to gale force wind gusts in an adverse weather event—constitute potentially powerful disruptors of business and commerce in the years ahead. Four of the gale force demographic disruptors—slowing total and foreign-born population growth, white population loss, and declining fertility— have evolved over the past several decades.

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Assessing the Impact of Covid-19 on Low Income Households and Communities in North Carolina

Assessing the Impact of Covid-19 on Low Income Households and Communities in North Carolina

The North Carolina Community Action Association(NCCAA) commissioned a study to assess the impact ofthe COVID-19 pandemic on its efforts to combat povertyand facilitate self-sufficiency in low-income communities throughout the state. We conducted focus groups withindividuals served by Community Action Agencies (CAAs)and conducted a corresponding set of key informantinterviews with identified leaders in five communitiesacross the state.

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Proceed with Caution in Reopening Public Schools

Proceed with Caution in Reopening Public Schools

Despite advocacy from governmental officials and parents alike, we urge caution in the reopening of public schools before the coronavirus pandemic is fully under control. We are especially concerned about the premature re-opening of schools in impoverished and flood-prone urban and rural environments.

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Does Your Firm Have Reputational Equity?

Does Your Firm Have Reputational Equity?

Americans are turning to companies with purpose and ethics to lead us through the profound anxiety and crises we are currently experiencing as a nation. Use this corporate reputational equity checklist to brand or rebrand your firm as an inclusive and equitable workplace.

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Scientific Sense® with Gill Eapen: Prof. Jeanne Bonds

Scientific Sense® with Gill Eapen: Prof. Jeanne Bonds

Jeanne Milliken Bonds, Professor of the Practice, Impact Investment, and Sustainable Finance at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Whole Community Health, speaks on pilot project by Kenan Charitable Trust in two North Carolina counties.

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Pay for Success: How Emerging Finance Tools Are Supporting Workforce Development

Pay for Success: How Emerging Finance Tools Are Supporting Workforce Development

Pay for Success (PFS) is a public policy tool that may be used in the workforce developmentsector to test new programs guided by predetermined outcomes for a target population ora community. PFS is a contractual arrangement that ties payment for delivery of services tospecific, measurable outcomes. Through the contract, it ensures quality and effective servicesthat hopefully will lead to long-term positive change for both the individuals and communities.For example, outcomes may be measured by participants in job training programs finding andsustaining employment, and ultimately experiencing wage increases.

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