GRRO unveils 'Rolling ROC'

Jan. 1—HENDERSON — The Green Rural Redevelopment Organization unveiled its new mobile unit, nicknamed the "Rolling ROC," at a community event on Friday.

The nonprofit rented out a screen at RCE Theaters for a private showing of "The Color Purple" and served food to those in attendance, including Mayor Melissa Elliott and City Manager Terrell Blackmon.

Prior to that, members of the nonprofit took a number of local officials, including Mayor Melissa Elliott, former Congresswoman Eva Clayton and City Manager Terrell Blackmon on a tour of the Rural Opportunity Connections Mobile Resources Unit.

The unit will service nine counties once it officially starts rolling "sometime in the next two weeks," said Melissa Richardson, GRRO's director of mental health services and programs, including Vance, Warren and Granville as well as Wilson, Pitt, Halifax, Edgecombe counties and the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal Area.

Community health workers will staff the ROC. Of some 30 GRRO has on tap, nine are state-certified peer supporters that will help those recovering from substance abuse disorders. Other services to be offered include free health screenings, free mental health counseling and peer support, educational workshops on topics like nutrition and healthy food prescriptions, a somewhat newfangled approach via BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina meant to treat diet-related conditions and food insecurity.

GRRO is one of 10 nonprofits across the state to receive $200,000 in funding from BCBS over the next two years for the program, BCBS said in June.

The ROC's staff will also point patients in the direction of other resource providers if need be.

"The Rolling ROC is the expansion of a three-year project that started in 2021 with a smaller mobile unit that provided COVID testing and vaccination services in rural areas," said Henry Crews, co-founder and Executive Director of the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization.

"This new mobile unit helps GRRO reach people in rural areas that don't have access to adequate transportation and helps us address the social determinants of health in these communities. It's all about creating thriving rural communities and helping people gain access to the services they need when they need them."

The ROC's prototype was made operational during the pandemic back and offered COVID-19 testing and vaccines. A truck pulled it around its service area at the time. The new incarnation revealed on Friday was paid for with $70,000 of GRRO's operating funds.