WNC is home to many innovative strategies for navigating complex health challenges.

Two of those include the role of Community Health Workers in the healthcare workforce and the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, which abruptly ended in the summer of 2025 due to the General Assembly's failure to pass a budget. 

In this episode we hear from Jacque Ballard, a community health worker who has worked in both Madison and Yancey Counties and recently supported research by the Health Policy Research Consortium to understand the impact of HOP's end. We talk about the work of community health workers, challenges experienced in WNC, and the impact of HOP's end.

“The Root of Good Health” documentary, produced by Resource Rural and in partnership with Beacon Media and Carolina Forward, shares stories that illustrates the good that North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) has done for Western North Carolina — as well as the cost to the region, the people it served and the local businesses and organizations it supported as a result of losing this program due to North Carolina’s ongoing stalled budget negotiations.

In this episode we speak with Paula Swepson Avery and Ginger Webb from West Marion Inc. about their decade-long journey of community transformation in McDowell County. They tell us how meaningful progress requires long-term commitment, not constantly shifting strategies, and how their work centers on addressing the social determinants of health, like housing, transportation, food access, childcare, and stigma in their WNC community.

Nicole Hinebaugh, Director of the The Smoky Mountain Harvest Hub in Haywood County, NC, joins the WNC Health Policy Initiative podcast to share how food hubs work, why they matter, and the impact of this kind of public investment. Topics discussed include how food-based health interventions already show a strong financial return on investment, how food hubs create stable markets for small family farms, what recent food insecurity data tells us about the urgency of action and why supporting local food systems is essential to economic recovery, disaster resilience, and mental health.Add excerpt here

North Carolina ranks 41st nationally on Long-Term Services and Supports, reflecting the fragmented system of care that many residents in WNC and across the state face when seeking help.

In this episode, we discuss the No Wrong Door (NWD) framework and how North Carolina is using it as a roadmap - although not yet a fully built system - to better coordinate services statewide, including in Western North Carolina.