COVID-19 has stalled much of North Carolina's complex economy. With it, families have been pushed to the brink. Businesses, hospitals, and local governments brace for more uncertain months ahead.
North Carolina News Collaborative, a coalition of 22 daily newspapers, will examine the nuances of each community's climb back. We will tell these stories across all 100 counties, from the mountains to the sea and all the red, blue and purple communities in between. We'll tell stories from the prosperous urban centers and the beleaguered rural areas.
Data and surveys will drive us to these crossroads and living rooms. We'll tell the stories of the depleted coffers of county governments and the fragile hospitals struggling for solvency. We'll assess the health of vulnerable populations: single mothers, undocumented workers, and children without broadband internet access. We'll look for winners, too: the businesses that found a niche as other shuttered.
We will work with economists, sociologists, and health and labor experts to develop a methodology for gauging and predicting a recovery in counties across the state.