News

Community Practice Lab (CPL) Primary Lead Dr. Ryan Lavalley and CPL Community Engagement Fellow Sayoko Kawabata facilitated cross-university partnership and shared knowledge rooted in community occupation during a September 2024 trip to Japan. First, Ryan and Sayoko traveled to Saitama to attend the Japanese Society for the Study of Occupation’s...

Kevin Giff received the 2024 School of Medicine Dean’s Performance Award for his community engagement work through the Community Practice Lab (CPL). The award honors Giff’s support of housing and community development initiative with HOPE NC and Habitat for Humanity of Orange County. The Dean’s Performance Awards recognizes individual or...

The Community Practice Lab (CPL) concluded three years of partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Orange County (Habitat) in summer 2024. The CPL has supported Habitat in developing and implementing sustainable processes for community engagement. Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, an affiliate of the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity International,...

The Carolina Aging Network (CAN) officially launched on May 30, 2024. CAN is a grassroots, cross-campus collaborative advancing aging-related community partnerships, education and training, and research at Carolina.  On May 30, CAN members gathered at the Seymour Center in Chapel Hill to identify priorities and action steps for the coming...

Sayoko Kawabata, CPL community engagement fellow, received a 2024 Summer Research Fellowship and a 2024-2025 Jessie Ball duPoint Dissertation Fellowship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School. Sayoko’s dissertation, which focuses on play among Fairview youth, emerged from her longstanding engagement with the Fairview community through...

The Community Practice Lab (CPL) engaged in a wide variety of academic and community events, workshops, trainings, and presentations in spring semester 2024. Multiple sessions presented at 2024 Carolina Engagement Week  The CPL team contributed multiple sessions to Carolina Engagement Week 2024 in collaboration with our community partners, including:  Weaving...

Each spring semester, CPL Primary Lead Dr. Ryan Lavalley leads a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) course focused on community practice. This year he was assisted by Seth Mitchell, 2nd year PhD student in occupational science. In the course, six teams of four students are introduced to practice...

Carolina Engagement Week brings together University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty, staff and students with community partners to learn about and celebrate engagement and collaboration with North Carolina communities. The Community Practice Lab team is contributing multiple sessions to Carolina Engagement Week 2024: Weaving and Casting a NET...

CPL Community Programs Specialist Kevin Giff was featured in Chapelboro‘s coverage of the Fairview Youth in Action Program. Giff has helped coordinate the program since its creation in 2019. The Fairview Youth in Action Program is a paid internship for high school students to address challenges in the Fairview community....

The Community Practice Lab engaged in a wide variety of academic and community events, workshops, trainings, and presentations in fall semester 2023. Leadership of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County’s annual summit The Community Practice Lab (CPL) facilitated organization-wide planning around community engagement and empowerment at Habitat for Humanity of...