Civic Engagement and Get-out-the-Vote Efforts
As a youth-led and youth-serving organization, we see firsthand the efficacy and success when young people are educated, engaged and empowered to be involved in civic processes. Kinston Teens was founded because of a lack of engagement of young people at the city council, county commission, and school board level in the conversations and decisions that most affect us.
Since its founding, our organization has been an integral part of voter registration and engagement efforts in Kinston and Lenoir County. Our work has focused on targeting young, elderly, Black and other voters in marginalized and underserved populations in Lenoir County and empowering them to be civically engaged. These efforts include increasing engagement opportunities in local government agencies, registering voters, and providing direct outreach to encourage people to vote. Our voter engagement strategies include door-to-door canvassing, nonpartisan voter education materials, phonebanking, text-banking, rides to the polls, and Get-out-the-Vote events during Early Voting and on Election Day.
Leadership Development Trainings & Annual Youth Summit
Kinston Teens coordinates an annual Youth Leadership Summit for elementary and middle school students, grades 3 through 8, where we hope to spark dialogue on youth issues in our community, design community service projects, and develop leadership skills necessary to become productive citizens – locally and globally! Attendees enhance their skills through a series of workshops, group projects, empowerment messages from keynote speakers and leadership development exercises. Throughout the year, our organization hosts Leadership Development Trainings that focus on a variety of issue areas including, but not limited to: community organizing, public speaking, conflict resolution, disaster response, and entrepreneurship.
Building a Healthier, More Resilient Community
Our organization has worked diligently to provide fresh food, toiletries and PPE to community members to address food insecurity promote safe and healthy living, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The Kinston Teens Neighborhood Hub hosts a “Blessing Box” pantry that we stock daily with toiletries, canned goods and non-perishable food items that members of our community are welcome to take at no cost; as well as a refrigerator inside our Neighborhood Hub fully-stocked with milk and perishable food items. In 2019, our organization farmed a partnership with NC FIELD with the goal of addressing health disparities and increasing health education in underserved parts of our community, such as in East Kinston and among migrant worker populations in rural Lenoir County.
One pressing need, and opportunity, in East Kinston is the fact that our neighborhood has been designated a food desert by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While there had previously been grocery markets, backyard gardens, and even small farms dotted throughout the area surrounding the East Kinston Neighborhood Hub, our community’s economic downturn has caused these healthy assets to disappear. We are hopeful that through our efforts at the Neighborhood Hub, we will be able to identify a way forward for our community to address food insecurity in East Kinston. Possible avenues or opportunities that we are exploring to help us to realize this include: the creation of a grocery co-op store; a mini or mobile farmer’s market; community garden; and other efforts that promote self-sufficiency and a just and regenerative neighborhood economy.
Because we are a climate-impacted community, our organization has been on the frontlines helping neighbors recover from and respond to hurricanes and deadly flooding. Currently, we are conducting a Disaster Preparedness Survey to gauge the readiness and needs of our community if we were to be hit with another major disaster. We are also working to help community members keep “go-bags” and disaster preparedness kits in their homes.
Community Beautification & Development
Kinston Teens is prides itself in improving not just the aesthetics of our community, but also the material living conditions of its inhabitants. In 2015, we launched the Adopt-a-Street Program to encourage community groups and organizations to adopt city-maintained streets to clean and beautify throughout the year—similar to North Carolina’s Adopt-a-Highway Program. This program, a partnership with the City of Kinston & Kinston Public Services, has serviced more than twenty streets throughout our community and continues to provide recurring clean-up opportunities. In 2016, we launched a Vacant Lot Transformation Program where our organization and partners, with support from the City of Kinston, worked to acquire and transform vacant and neglected properties into beautiful community amenities. Successful vacant lot transformations include the Kinston Teens Vision Garden and our Community Message Board on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard. In 2019, we launched a renovation project on an abandoned home that we have transformed into the Kinston Teens Neighborhood Hub. In 2021, we launched a project to develop a Master Plan for the redevelopment of Emma Webb Park—a 7-acre park in the heart of Kinston.