Community Visioning & Equitable Development

We’re turning passion into action in East Kinston.

The East Kinston Neighborhood Hub is rooted in a living community vision — one shaped through years of organizing, relationship-building, and shared problem-solving with residents, youth leaders, and partners. Our community visioning process is not something we did and moved on from. It is an ongoing practice that continues to guide how we program, invest, grow, and plan for the future of East Kinston.

Over the past several years, Kinston Teens has worked alongside East Kinston residents, nonprofit partners, local businesses, and public agencies to co-create a clear, community-driven direction for the Neighborhood Hub and surrounding campus. That work culminated in the completion of:

  • A site and facility framework design for a future Neighborhood Hub facility

  • An updated organizational and implementation strategy that connects space, programming, partnerships, and sustainability

  • A set of equitable development strategies grounded in anti-displacement, climate resilience, and community ownership

Together, these elements are documented in A Vision and Implementation Plan for the East Kinston Neighborhood Hub with Equitable Development Strategies for East Kinston — a guiding framework shared with key stakeholders and partners to align action, investment, and accountability.

This plan is already informing how we:

  • Use and activate our existing Hub campus

  • Sequence projects and partnerships

  • Build organizational and neighborhood capacity

  • Pursue funding responsibly and strategically

As we look toward a future Neighborhood Hub facility, we are intentionally prioritizing community and capacity before construction. Rather than rushing toward a single build, we are focused on strengthening the ability of both the neighborhood and our organization to steward a project and facility of this scale well. That includes investing in trust, leadership development, operational systems, partnerships, and long-term sustainability.

We continue to implement projects across the existing Hub campus — expanding programming, deepening engagement, and testing how spaces are used — while building the experience and infrastructure needed to manage a permanent facility responsibly. This approach allows us to:

  • Meet real needs today, not just plan for tomorrow

  • Learn alongside residents what works best in practice

  • Grow thoughtfully into larger investments

  • Ensure future infrastructure reflects lived experience, not just drawings

Our Partners

Kinston Teens has received a capacity-building grant from the Design Workshop Foundation to launch our East Kinston Development Plan, and secured the services of Design Workshop’s Raleigh studio to complete the site and facility framework plan for the Neighborhood Hub.

We continue to identify and build relationships with local, state, and national partners to further our efforts in East Kinston Some of these partnerships include the NC Climate Justice Collective and its statewide network of resiliency organizing hubs—community based networks of mutual aid, organizing, climate skills training, and resource distribution—along with the Just Communities Lab at North Carolina State University. The Just Communities Lab is a program of North Carolina State University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning that focuses on landscape strategies to advance social equity and environmental justice in communities.

The vision for the East Kinston Neighborhood Hub is ambitious because East Kinston deserves ambition. It is achievable because it is grounded in:

  • Years of youth-led organizing and neighborhood programming

  • Deep community trust and participation

  • Completed design and implementation planning

  • A clear site and phased approach

  • Strong public, academic, and nonprofit partnerships

  • Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects and funding

Most importantly, it is necessary as long-term infrastructure for care, resilience, and opportunity. We are growing with intention, honoring the responsibility that comes with large investments, and ensuring that each step forward strengthens the foundation beneath it.

The East Kinston Neighborhood Hub and Equitable Development Plan has received statewide, national, and international recognition, affirming the strength of the community-led process behind it.

These recognitions reflect not just a design, but the power of deep collaboration, youth leadership, and community voice.