Implement innovative, trauma-informed, solutions to build resilience in your community.
Rural Opportunity Institute builds the capacity of rural communities to support people’s healing from generational trauma to achieve health, safety, connection, and self-determination.
ROI supports youth, organizations, and communities in rural North Carolina to interrupt the cycle of generational trauma and design innovative solutions for healing & resilience.
Photo by Travis Dove for Teach For America. Used with permission.
At ROI, we believe rural communities are capable, strong, and deeply resilient. We harnessed the wisdom of the community in Edgecombe County, NC, to create a systems map to reveal that at the heart of poverty, education inequality, and health inequity lay one core theme: trauma.
People and organizations often respond to stress and trauma with punishment and isolation.
We need to work together to replace these punitive practices with restorative practices that remove the barriers to healing.
ROI combines big ideas with grassroots leadership and community ownership to create systems change. Here’s how we’re doing it:
Understanding how trauma impacts us and what we can do to heal on an individual and community level is the first step to building resilience.
Resilient organizations are the backbone of a resilient community and ROI offers intensive, cohort-based programming that helps organizations implement restorative practices that reduce punishment.
ROI tests small ideas to ignite systems change. Our Small Bets Lab explores promising but risky ideas that show potential to transform challenges rural communities face.
Information can only catalyze change when it is shared. We believe in making information accessible to every community so they can learn from it.
ROI is the go-to organization in the eastern part of the state dealing authentically with issues that impact rural areas. The name “rural opportunities” is reflective of what they do.
ROI knows from a systems-level how to create better outcomes in the community.
ROI is breaking the cycle of generational trauma and poverty.
ROI is building a healthier Edgecombe County through trauma-informed training and collaboration.
We partner with School Districts, First Responders, Public Agencies, and Community-Based Organizations on resilience building initiatives.
School Districts, therapists, family advocates, and many others use our Resilience and Breathing Cards to teach simple, powerful skills to help their students and clients to heal from trauma.
Photo by Travis Dove for Teach For America. Used with permission.
Give your community or organization a basic understanding of how trauma and stress show up in their lives and how they can begin to heal.
In partnership with Resources for Resilience, we’ve designed a 2-day training that equips your team, students, clients, or community with seven essential skills that lay the foundation for resilience, balance and wellbeing.
Photo by Travis Dove for Teach For America. Used with permission.
Support your community with evidence-based technology proven to decrease stress and increase health. Our Biofeedback Breathing program has shown transformational change in schools, prisons, and community-based settings.
Explore our upcoming no-cost training opportunities and community meetings.
A 90-minute awareness-building presentation about the impacts of stress and trauma on the body and brain and how to build resilience in local communities.
August 16, 2022 (11am-12:30am EST)
A 90-minute awareness-building presentation about the impacts of stress and trauma on the body and brain and how to build resilience in local communities.
November 15, 2022 (11am-12:30am EST)
Contribute to our work with a donation, recurring gift, or multi-year pledge. No matter how big, your investment has a direct impact on building resources, health, safety, and connection in rural communities.
Information can only catalyze change when it is shared. We believe in making information accessible to every community so they can learn from it. Explore resources about resilience here.
Words can carry immense meaning. When we choose our words carefully, we can clearly convey complex ideas, describe deep emotions and express our needs effectively. But the way we use a word—or misuse it—can affect the accuracy of our communication.
In February 2025, as a part of our ongoing policy work in rural eastern North Carolina, we held a monthly session in which we listened to our community to identify priority issues and then fuse community knowledge, international best practices, and local connections to solve them.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma have been linked to decreased psychosocial and physiological health functioning.
We would love to hear from you. Fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
Fill out the form below to get your ebook.
Please complete this form to help Rural Opportunity Institute staff better understand your needs for a Listening Circle. We will get back to you soon with options for how we can best support you. Thank you!
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please provide us with your contact details, and a team member will get back to you with more details and a pricing guide.
Please complete this form to help Rural Opportunity Institute staff better understand your needs for a training. We will get back to you soon with options for how we can best support you. Thank you!
Please complete this form to help Rural Opportunity Institute staff better understand your needs for a speaking engagement. We will get back to you soon with options for how we can best support you. Thank you!
Please complete this form to help Rural Opportunity Institute staff better understand your needs for a training. We will get back to you soon with options for how we can best support you. Thank you!
