Our Team
Staff - Co-Founders - Board of Directors - Advisory Committee - Youth Leadership Council - Mental Health Provider Network
Our Key Partners
UNC’s Farm at Penny Lane
C4CC is fortunate to operate from The Farm at Penny Lane to offer holistic and sustainable approach to enhance the quality of life of our participants. The Farm is located on 40 acres in northern Chatham County, North Carolina, and includes a large growing area, greenhouse, heritage-breed chickens, beehives, rabbits, a learning kitchen, and walking trails, and indoor and outdoor spaces for program delivery. Our participants experience therapeutic activities on the farm and engage with all it has to offer – whether planting, cooking, art making, trail walking, making music, yoga, and more – in community with staff, volunteers, and peers.
XDS Cross Disability Services, Inc
Founded in 2004, Cross Disability Services (XDS) owns and operates the Farm at Penny Lane, a 40-acre farm in Pittsboro, Chatham County. XDS provides space and partnership for C4CC to operate in a non-clinical setting with a therapeutic farm as the backdrop and nature as a vehicle for connection. XDS works in close collaboration with the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health (CECMH) to provide adults ages 18 to 80+ with serious mental illness with volunteer-led horticulture, cooking, and wellness-based classes, plus supportive housing in the Tiny Homes Village. XDS is a primary referral pathway to C4CC for young adults ages 18 to 26. C4CC will provide targeted in-reach to the Farm’s young adult referrals, offer our therapeutic workshops and mental health services to participants in this age range, and collaborate with XDS to pursue funding for Farm operation and our joint efforts to serve young adults.
UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health
The UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health (CECMH) works closely with XDS to manage the Farm at Penny Lane, recruit and manage student interns, and serve adults with serious mental illness through the Farm’s holistic offerings. CECMH will refer the Farm’s young adult participants (ages 18 to 26), many of whom have been newly diagnosed with a mental disorder, to C4CC for OT-centered mental health assessments, services, and therapeutic workshops, and will collaborate with C4CC to meet their identified needs. C4CC will provide in-reach to young adult referrals, train interns and other volunteers in evidence-based approaches to mental and behavioral health, particularly those who share identities and lived experience with youth populations at highest risk, and offer mental health services to support the whole-person needs and support recovery among young adults.
Duke School of Medicine Occupational Therapy Doctorate Division
Two of C4CC’s founders Drs. MaryBeth Gallager and Antoine Bailliard are professors for the Duke School of Medicine Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) Division, a formal partner with C4CC to raise awareness, develop community fieldwork placement and capstone opportunities for OT doctoral students, and pursue funding to conduct research and evaluation of C4CC’s programmatic impact. This relationship is currently being defined and we look forward to the creative ways Duke OTD and C4CC will collaborate to create healing and connection in our community together.
Chatham County Schools
Chatham County Schools (CCS) serves over 9,300 students across predominantly rural Chatham County and is a strong partner for C4CC to serve youth ages 12 to 18. Our formal partnership with CCS offers an innovative solution to promote mental wellbeing and cultivate connection among local youth. CCS’ executive director of student support services, Tracy Fowler, participates on C4CC’s Board of Directors. C4CC will pilot our model with the district’s new non-traditional school, ONE Academy in Siler City, that offers students in 7th through 12th grades an alternative pathway to their high school diploma, and we will pilot with students from across CCS identified with mental and/or behavioral challenges at high risk of school suspension or demonstrating chronic absenteeism. C4CC also offers training for CCS teachers, staff, volunteers and parents on mental health equity, trauma-responsive care, and occupational justice.
Community Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE)
C4CC looks forward to collaborating with Community Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE) to advance well-being, mental health equity, and racial justice in our community. CORE provides innovative racial equity trainings to community organizations and community members alike. When funding is raised, C4CC clinical and non-clinical staff and volunteers will participate in these trainings periodically. In addition, we hope to collaborate with CORE to develop and deliver systems-level trainings on trauma, justice, and mental health to the community.