In our “Focus on” series, WorkingNation takes an in-depth look at cities and towns around the U.S. – sharing the local efforts that are creating jobs and giving opportunity for family-sustaining wages and access to economic mobility. In this article, we Focus on Kinston, North Carolina.
Kinston, North Carolina, is a small city with big goals powered by small businesses. “What we always do is focus on small businesses…and the impact on our city. Small businesses are the backbone of our city,” says Mayor Dontario Hardy.
With a population of about 20,000, Kinston is located about 80 miles from the state capital of Raleigh, in the east-central part of the state in an area known as the Coastal Plain region. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 66% of the residents are Black, more than 24% white, and almost 3% Hispanic or Latino, among others.
“We’re a small town and I think if you look at the makeup of our town, small businesses are a considerable portion of it,” says Cale Grady, president, Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce. “That really is what supplies our town and what keeps us strong.”
With about 360 members, Grady says small business owners gather quarterly to exchange ideas and, in some cases, lend support to each other.
He says Lenoir Community College (LCC) is a great resource for local small business owners. “The Small Business Administration that works through the college is really good for small businesses. We try to make sure they’re connected with them and that they’re getting all the resources and grants, funding, that type of thing.”
“From the Chamber standpoint, making sure we’re helping them get to those resources, and also making sure that they’re marketing. We’re helping them get their name out there in front of everyone to promote them.”
Lenoir Community College Provides Crucial Pathways to Work
Among the impactful sectors in Kinston are health care, aviation or aerospace, and agriculture. Robust career-focused programming is offered by the LCC which serves the counties of Lenoir, Greene, and Jones. It is seen as an impactful workforce-related resource in Kinston. Virtually every interviewee for this article referenced the school’s strong programming.
“LCC is a great partner. We are truly grateful for Lenoir Community College,” says Mayor Hardy. He credits its president, Rusty Hunt, with engaging local stakeholders and creating educational opportunities that address workforce needs.
Hunt says community stakeholder engagement is crucial, “We have advisory committees for each of our programs that we have on campus, and employers are often on those advisory committees to keep our programs up-to-date and where they need to be.
“Our total population in our three-county service area is only about 80,000. So, it’s a lot easier to have some face-to-face time with those companies. We also have work-study relationships with a lot of those companies – our students are working at those companies while they’re studying.”
Training Programs to Fit Every Worker’s Need
Hunt says the institution offers a significant number of short-term programs, “You’re starting to see a large emphasis on these credentialing programs that may not require a degree, but they get a third-party credential. Students can get some short-term credentials that have value in the marketplace. Those programs typically last less than six months, sometimes up to a year.
“We’ve got truck driver training, welding, automotive, HVAC, energy distribution systems – which is basically propane gas-related systems. Those folks will get out making $25 an hour, which is still a good wage around here.”
The Lancer Educator Apprenticeship Promise (LEAP) is a fellowship program, explains Hunt. “We try to recruit and grow-our-own local talent” to teach in the local school system. The program is intended to create quality teachers and Hunt notes, “We’ve got folks who already have roots here in eastern North Carolina that want to stay here.”
Regarding its health care offerings, last year LCC announced expansion of its “health sciences and nursing programs to address the shortage in the health care industry by implementing new programs and expanding the number of students accepted into the nursing program.”
Hunt says, “We’ve got everything from nursing to surgical technology to medical assisting, polysomnography, radiography, those types of programs. Really, really popular.
“They leave here with a two-year degree with no debt because our tuition is so inexpensive in North Carolina. And we’ve got great scholarships and, of course, Pell and other foundation scholarships that most of our students leave debt-free. They go work at a hospital and then the hospital typically will pay for them to finish their bachelor’s degree, which they could do online in a year’s time.”
LCC also engages in active outreach to the Latino and Hispanic community. The school is part of a two-year program partnership called Train the East which is intended to recruit, train, and support students from these communities in rural eastern North Carolina.
‘Open ‘em up to the aerospace world’
While small businesses power the local economy, big industries are within sight.
“We are one of the leading economic drivers for this region,” says Jeremy Stroud, executive director, of the North Carolina Global TransPark (GTP).
GTP is described as “a multimodal industrial park and airport…to support the manufacturing and logistics needs of the aviation, aerospace, defense, emergency response, and advanced materials industries.” The Kinston Regional Jetport stands alongside the GTP’s 11,500-foot runway.
“The North Carolina Division of Aviation put out a report for all airports in North Carolina. And in that report, the Global TransPark [supports] directly and indirectly almost 3,000 jobs. We create $43.6 million in tax revenue, and we have a $781 million impact to the local economy.”
GTP is home to various tenants engaged in aerospace-related activities, including Spirit Aerosystems, flyExclusive, Mountain Air Cargo, Inc. Ground broke last summer at the GTP for a complex – the Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) – that the U.S. Navy will use to maintain, repair, and overhaul (MRO) military aircraft.
Stroud – who stepped into his current role on January 1 – says, “My largest challenge right now is our Fleet Readiness Center, that $350 million project for the military.
“We have an aggressive schedule. We’ve got a good contracting team that’s managing the project for us. But I think the reward for the completion of that and what it will bring to the Global TransPark in this area with the jobs, the support services, and manufacturing that’ll follow will pay for itself exponentially.”
Stroud says the military complex will sit on 17 acres under one roof and is expected to create 400 jobs. In addition, he says flyExclusive – a private aircraft service – is looking to expand their presence at GTP with a space for pilot training which could result in up to 200 new jobs.
“We have one of the largest runways on the east coast. We have a really uncongested airspace. So, it’s real attractive to tenants, future tenants, existing tenants who are not competing for resources.”
Mayor Hardy says the extensive GTP facilities are a pathway for residents and will “open ‘em up to the aerospace world.
“We want to make them aware of those opportunities because it’s one thing to want to be on a job –maybe working on planes or painting air shell buses, however, you’ve got to have access to the schooling,” says Hardy.
LCC’s Hunt adds, “The largest growing sector in our community – aviation – has really grown dramatically in the [last] eight years. We’ve got one facility over at Global Transport. We do everything from training all the new folks that Spirit Aerosystems hires to the re-certifications. We also do industrial systems, computer integrated machining, mechanical engineering, robotics, 3-D printing.”
Hunt explains that a new $25 million facility at GTP will provide aviation-related programming including pilot training, interior retrofit of aircraft, and aircraft maintenance.
“We’ll be partnering with Elizabeth City State University and East Carolina University to promote not only our short-term training programs, our two year degree programs, but also the four-year and advanced degree programs at those institutions.”
The Agricultural Sector in Lenoir County
“Agriculture and agribusiness make up the largest part of our economic development here in the county. It’s like 27, 28%,” says Tammy Kelly, Ed.D., county extension director, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Lenoir County Center.
“That is not just field crop production, livestock production, it’s also Wayne-Sanderson Farms, Smithfield. It’s food production factories and businesses. Forestry business is also huge here.”
According to statistics released in 2023, Lenoir County-produced crops include corn for grain, cotton, peanuts, soybeans, and livestock including cattle, hogs and pigs, and turkeys.
Kelly explains her office is part of NC State University and adds, “There’s an [extension] office in every county in the state of North Carolina. Every county has a staff that is based on the needs of the community.
“I have a field crops agent who works with farmers on research and development. I have a livestock agent. She works with anybody with livestock production, with youth that do livestock projects. I also have a horticulture agent who works with master gardeners, home horticulture, and home planting.”
Kelly says, for the most part, much of the office’s attention is related to agriculture but also includes focus on things like nutrition education and parenting education.
Career Exploration Highlights Local Opportunities
Regarding career exploration, Kelly mentions Junior Leadership of Lenoir – sponsored by the Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce – whose participants are area high school seniors. “They work in close partnership with our folks. We do workshops with them.
“But the original purpose of Junior Leadership of Lenoir was to give these kids an opportunity to see what workforce is available in the county, things they may never have heard of, go to businesses, meet with industry – in order to not be a senior-outgoing population. It gives them some ideas about where they want to go and how they might work back in their community.
“There’s a podcast that 4-H Youth Development does with them. They talk about challenges in school, academics versus sports, and mental health.”
The extension office also brings in paid university interns through NC State’s programming.
Kelly says, “We usually have one every year. That is someone that’s majoring in something similar that would work in one of our expertise fields. They come and spend the summer with us.
“We’ve had one or two field crops interns, but mostly they’re with 4-H Youth Development. So, we hope we’re building up folks to come back into our organization, too.”
She continues, “I would say as much as 75, 80% of the kids that participate in our agriculture programs end up doing agriculture. Everybody I’ve hired that does agriculture in my office right now that have four-year degrees and master’s degrees have participated in one of those programs.”
Kelly points out there are options for people not seeking a four-year degree.
“We do have a two-year program at State that is not rigid like the four-year program. It’s in all fields of agriculture. You do see a lot of folks going into that because what they’re learning is probably a little bit more hands-on, more practical stuff. We base our programming for youth on what they need.”
Focus on Youth: ‘We’re definitely changing that narrative’
Kinston Teens describes itself as “a youth-led nonprofit organization with a mission of empowering young people through service, leadership, and civic engagement…providing those who have been most marginalized and disenfranchised from leadership a chance to shape and influence the future of their neighborhoods.”
Founded in 2014, Chris Suggs, the founder and executive director, Kinston Teens as well as a member of the Kinston City Council, explains, “Over the last decade, we’ve offered a variety of programs and initiatives, all led by young people, focused on equipping us with the tools, the skills, the resources to make positive differences in our lives, but also the lives of others.
He estimates the organization has served more than 4,000 young people over the last ten years.
“We recognize that East Kinston …is a neighborhood that, unfortunately, has dealt with a lot of issues, a lot of struggles, but definitely has a high concentration of poverty due to a lack of opportunity,” notes Suggs. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 29% of residents live in poverty.
Closing the Skills Gap
Last summer, Comcast Corporation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors announced grant recipients – including Kinston Teens – who “demonstrated leadership and a commitment to expand digital training programs to help close the skills gap.”
The organization and the City of Kinston – with additional funding from the state – is launching the Digital Equity Corps. Suggs says, “We’re providing young people with a paid position to get trained and skilled up in digital literacy and digital skills. It is really a train-the-trainer approach.
“They’ll be able to go out into our community and train other folks, equip them with technology devices, and fully launch our digital resource lab.”
Suggs notes that Kinston Teens has strong relationships with stakeholders in the community and expects employers to help with career exploration by showing up to speak to corps members.
He says, “Folks will see that technology does impact more than just the fields that you immediately associate with being a STEM or technology field – everywhere from the health and human services fields… as well our school system and their data management team.
“Kinston Teens…has really helped shift what it looks like to be a part of a community, what those opportunities that are provided to young people in rural communities like ours could be like, and what leadership looks like. So often when you think of nonprofit leaders or civic leaders, or even the tech and digital fields…Black and brown kids from eastern North Carolina is not what comes to your mind, but we’re definitely changing that narrative and changing that viewpoint here.”
The first group of 10-12 participants, ages 16- to 24-years-old, is scheduled to get underway on March 1. The plan is to run at least two nine-month training cohorts through 2026.
Restoring Hope a Day at a Time
“Our mission is to help adults recover from addiction and/ or incarceration,” explains Chris Jenkins, executive pastor and executive director, Hope Restorations.
The organization helps its participants get workforce-ready. Jenkins says, “We do use the workplace environment – you might call it a simulated workplace environment – as the platform through which we can get to know the individual.
“(We) earn their trust, learn about them, and then use that as the day-to-day place where we can help each one identify their own unique barriers to success and come up with strategies and plans to either get around them…to live the kind of life they want to live,” explains Jenkins.
“We are teaching them soft skills, how to be punctual, reliable, how to resolve problems with respect, dignity, and calmness rather than flying off the handle – the kind of things you need to know to keep a job once you actually find one,” he adds.
A Well-Developed Skills Trade Program
Mayor Hardy says there is a shortage of people working in skilled trades. “We need folks to go into this sector” and says there may be entrepreneurial opportunity.
Initially, Hope Restorations acquired and renovated deteriorating properties that were donated to the organization and turned them into affordable housing units for low-income families.
With more interest in such properties by buyers, Jenkins says the program currently works on fewer homes.
Jenkins notes the program is not a construction class, but is led by someone with more than 15 years of construction experience.
Additionally, Jenkins says nearby Pitt Community College has a very well-developed skills trade program.
He says LCC is “one of our big partners,” offering high school equivalency classes, adult basic education, and vocational training.
Another enterprise is Restored Hope Boutique which is managed by a former program participant. Current participants – who are provided housing and food – are paid stipends to run the store. This gives them the flexibility to attend counseling sessions, meet with probation or parole officers, or manage court dates.
Jenkins says, “We’re working on building relationships with employers in the community. So, when people graduate from our program, we can leverage our credibility to help this person get their first job and prove themselves.”
The program became fully operational in 2017 after a few years of laying the groundwork and a number of the staff are people who have gone through the program, explains Jenkins.
“It’s an interesting phenomenon to watch a high percentage of people who come through recovery as they recover. They have this incredible desire to spend the rest of their life helping other people recover.
“When we hear that being expressed in someone, if there’s any way possible, we find a way to put them on our team permanently,” Jenkins says. Jayda Sugg – now a certified peer support specialist at Hope Restorations – is one of those team members.
While housed in a Confinement in Response to Violation (CRV) center – which “provides intensive behavior modification programs for those who have committed technical violations of probation,” Sugg was nominated for her peer support work and acknowledges her own peer support mentor.
Sugg learned about Hope Restorations in 2022 while going through the family court process. She was hoping to obtain a transitional housing setting and was referred to House of Hope for Women. After getting settled, she told the organization that she had an office administrative background.
“I would come down on Fridays and work three-and-a-half hours a week. Slowly that turned into three days a week. And now I have been employed full-time, 40 hours for a good year now.”
Wraparound Services and Career Guidance
In her role, Sugg helps provides wraparound support services to participants, helps them with resources, goal-setting, and navigating their recovery and employment pathways. She says, “We want to start working on next steps.
“Just today, someone expressed interest in a particular company and I say, ‘Hey, you know what? I got to connect out there next week. Let’s sit down. Let’s schedule a computer time. You can fill out that application. When you fill out that application, I’m going to reach out to my connect.’ And I wouldn’t just put my name out on the line if I didn’t believe in this particular person.”
She continues, “[When] people say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go apply here.’ We say, ‘Make sure you tell them you’re a part of our program because that may get your application put on top.’ We definitely encourage our participants to let future employers…know you’re part of us.”
Jenkins explains the program’s success rate of 65% to 70%. “That’s probably got more to do with the fact that we don’t give up.
“In our mind, graduating is that either they become full-time engaged in a formal educational program – deciding they’re going to go to the community college and pursue a certificate or a degree – or they have obtained a job that they can find adequate transportation to so that they can sustain it and pays at least a living wage. Until one of those two things has happened, we don’t consider at graduation.”
Building Public-Private Partnerships in Kinston
Hardy – first elected in 2017 – is currently serving his second term as mayor and plans to seek re-election in November. He says he was motivated to run for office after the area was hard hit by 2016’s Hurricane Matthew.
“What put me over the top to run for office was the devastation of the hurricane and the impact it had across our city. I thought that we could do better on response. We could do better on resources, getting things out that people needed most.”
The state of North Carolina has developed the Flood Resiliency Blueprint which “will form the backbone of a state flood planning process to increase community resilience to flooding throughout North Carolina’s River basins,” including the Neuse River which runs through Kinston.
Cale Grady of the Lenoir Country Chamber of Commerce also references Downtown Kinston Revitalization, which “is charged with administering the program at the local level and building public-private partnerships to spur economic development that achieves measurable results such as investment, business growth, and job creation.”
Hardy notes, “Infrastructure is a big deal. What we’re working on currently to put in place is the flood mitigation project that we’ve been advocating for.
“We have started a construction phase. Focused on those jobs…and trying to figure out how to attract people to these particular jobs because they’re very, very important as it relates to building infrastructure, water, sewer, that type of thing,” notes the mayor.
The Goal: Destination Kinston
Hardy says, “I foresee even more growth. As we’re talking now, I think we had somewhere around 15 more small businesses added to the Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce here – just in Kinston alone.
“As I look into the future, I see more jobs coming, more housing. How do we attract industry, retail. Those conversations are on the table now and there’s some forward progress or initiatives taking place.”
The mayor mentions the city’s new baseball team – the Down East Bird Dawgs competing in the Frontier League – is launching its inaugural season in Kinston on May 9.
Hardy says he hopes, in the future, people will not bypass Kinston but intentionally stop to experience “the things we have to offer. I would like to call it ’Destination Kinston.’”
WorkingNation producer Deidra White contributed to the reporting for this article.
