Camber Foundation Announces its Largest Single Investment to Date in Support of Community-Led School Transformation Across Eastern NC

Camber Foundation has partnered with the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition (NCCSC) through a $1 million, two-year grant, representing the foundation’s largest single investment to date. This landmark grant will support the expansion of the Community Schools model from 13 schools across six Eastern North Carolina counties in 2025-26 to 25 schools across 15 counties for the upcoming academic year.

A Model Built on Community Voice

NCCSC is a network of North Carolina schools and the local and statewide partners that support them. It operates primarily across rural and/or low-income districts where poverty, inadequate healthcare, and limited opportunity have compounded for generations – a burden that falls heavily in Eastern NC. 

The Community Schools model is an evidence-based strategy for transforming public schools into hubs of exemplary academic instruction and vital community resources. NCCSC structures its work around the four “pillars” of Community Schools that together create the conditions necessary for students to thrive: integrated student supports, expanded learning time and opportunities, active family and community engagement, and collaborative leadership. The model is place-based, allowing each school to tailor these pillars to its community’s needs and strengths, with local voices central to decision-making. 

Two structural elements reinforce this community focus. 

1. Districts prioritize hiring Community School Coordinators (CSCs) from within the community, selecting individuals with established relationships and deep knowledge of the school’s history and priorities. For example, Salemburg Elementary in Sampson County appointed Mikasa Melvin, a former kindergarten teacher with 26 years at the school, as CSC. Each CSC leads an Assets and Needs Assessment, collecting input through surveys, focus groups, and conversations with staff, students, families, and community members. This process produces a comprehensive report on each school’s strengths and challenges, guiding implementation. 
2. A School Advisory Board, including parents, students, educators, and community members, ensures local priorities remain central as the work progresses. This structure empowers residents to guide decisions based on local priorities. Students as young as fifth grade actively participate on advisory boards, and the impact of local ownership is visible across NCCSC’s schools. 

These approaches exemplify the community-driven solutions Camber seeks to support, and Camber’s funding will focus directly on School Advisory Boards at Community Schools across Eastern NC. 

The implementation of the model produces results aligned with Camber’s funding priorities of access to healthcare, mental health services, workforce development, postsecondary education, digital opportunity, and youth programs. 

For example, Northeastern High School in Pasquotank County hosted a Business Expo Night with 47 local businesses participating, resulting in job offers for more than 30 students and parents. The school also organizes college tours to help students who have never set foot on a college campus envision their future.

Some schools also provide weekend food programs to ensure food security, and others promote youth leadership opportunities to foster future leaders. Local health departments and physicians provide free beginning-of-the-year physicals at Elizabeth City Middle School and Northeastern High School. Family Resource Centers within community schools offer families computer access to apply for educational programs and health care coverage, seek employment, and complete loan and scholarship applications.

“This model reflects what Eastern North Carolinians have told us they need since our beginning,” said Leslie Ann Jackson, President and CEO, Camber Foundation. “We heard repeatedly about the desire to rebuild the relationship between residents and their local schools. The Community Schools model is a direct response to that. Supporting the School Advisory Boards empowers schools, parents, and students to work together to activate solutions for their community.”

Melissa McDonald, NCCSC Co-Director, sees Camber’s approach as a natural fit for the coalition’s model. “From really early on in conversations with Camber, their commitment to making sure that local voice was heard was clear, whether that’s the students, whether that’s the parents, whether that’s the staff,” she said. “And that is something that is really important to our model. We talk about a standardized approach, but for hyper-local work. Each School Advisory Board reflects exactly that.”

Early Results, Lasting Impact

In the 2024-25 school year, schools across the statewide coalition achieved several other noteworthy results: 2,218 students participated in expanded learning opportunities, 937 received no-cost mental health services, 1,110 received free physicals, vision screenings, and dental care, and 1,181 families received assistance with food, clothing, housing, and transportation.

In Eastern North Carolina, the model is already reshaping schools.

• P.W. Moore Elementary in Pasquotank County improved its state performance grade from an “F” in 2021-22 to a “C” in 2023-24.
• Mattamuskeet School in Hyde County, which has the highest percentage of food-insecure residents in the state, launched a “Backpack Pals” program that now sends 67 students home over the weekend with a backpack filled with nutritious meals.
• Northeastern High School in Pasquotank County reduced discipline incidents by 72 percent and out-of-school suspension days by 82 percent in one year.

These numbers reflect more than academic progress. They are evidence of communities that have begun to reinvest in their own schools. For Kimberg, that reinvestment is the whole point.

“I am so drawn to Camber’s bridge metaphor,” he said. “Sometimes people talk about public schools as a bridge out, a way to leave the community. I actually think it’s the opposite: it’s a bridge in. When a fifth grader is participating in school leadership, determining the greatest strengths of her community, and by the time she graduates, she’s saying, ‘Look at what we’ve built here. I need to stay in. I need to continue to be that bridge.’ That is the transformation we are working toward.”

Sustaining the Vision

Camber’s investment complements funding from other philanthropic partners, a growing group of state and national funders committed to preserving and extending this work. Kimberg sees that growing coalition of funders as more than financial backing. It’s a counter-narrative to the uncertainty facing communities across the state.

“An investment like this reminds us of what we have. We have children, we have families, we have teachers and community partners, all ready and eager to create together the best possible school community. In the face of scarcity, there is real abundance in each of our communities, and philanthropic partners like Camber help us shine a light on it.”

McDonald sees that abundance up close every time she visits a school in the eastern part of the state.

“The brilliance of the students in Eastern North Carolina is beautiful and bright, and the commitment of their teachers, staff, and parents is extraordinary,” she stated. “People have pride in where they’re from. Investment from funders and foundations is how we say: yes, it actually matters that we support you here, where you are, and we want to help you build the future you want right here.”

Visit the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition website to learn more about the organization’s work. 

Photo credit: Robert Kinlaw