Universities play an essential role in preparing the future workforce through traditional academic activities, producing research and innovations that can be commercialized, and providing technical assistance to businesses and entrepreneurs. A less common type of university engagement in economic development occurs when a campus works directly with local governments to expand local capacity for jump-starting development projects and revitalizing target areas that are not proximate to the campus. In a newly published article I co-authored with my colleague Tyler Mulligan, we discuss how the UNC School of Government has taken this approach.

The case of Mother Earth Brewing in Kinston, a small town (population 21,667) in rural eastern North Carolina, exemplifies this pattern. At one time a thriving community with a prosperous economy based on tobacco and textile manufacturing, Kinston’s downtown had seen better days as it entered the twenty-first century. The tobacco and manufacturing heyday had come and gone and the once lively downtown storefronts were mostly vacant. Those looking for some semblance of a night life had better head out of town. Fast forward to 2013 and Kinston’s downtown now shows some burgeoning signs of life –lunch spots are packed by noon, folks head in and out of the shops on Herritage Street, and public art in the form of benches and bicycle racks dot the wide sidewalks. And once five o’clock hits, patrons from all over Kinston (and elsewhere) pour into Mother Earth, for locally crafted beer, fellowship, and on some nights, live music.

Mother Earth Brewery

Mother Earth isn’t the only reason for this recent downtown revival, but it can certainly take some of the credit. The brewery’s co-founders (and in-laws) Stephen Hill and Trent Mooring were both Kinston natives and successful local entrepreneurs who shared a home brewing hobby. They also kept an eye on Kinston real estate and were longtime admirers of a deteriorating yet beautiful downtown building that had once housed a pharmacy and a grocery store. Hill eventually decided it was time to “formalize” his pastime and go into business with his son-in-law. Thus, Mother Earth Brewing, the only Gold LEED certified brewery in the state, was born in 2008. In addition to satisfying certain criterion to serve as a manufacturing facility (size, functionality, access to quality utilities), Hill envisioned that the repurposed historic building would also be a vanguard of Kinston’s downtown revitalization strategy, helping to spur private investment and renewed interest in the promising, yet struggling city center. As a “native son of Kinston”, Hill was willing to take on the financial risk because of his commitment to his hometown’s future. And the gamble has appeared to pay off so far – Mother Earth, which is now distributed in three states, is set to meet its production capacity in 2013 and the brewery recently obtained its distillery license. As for Kinston’s downtown, several new downtown shops and restaurants have opened nearby, with several more set to open by the year’s end.

Mother Earth’s success doesn’t appear to be an anomaly – other breweries across the state, like Fullsteam in Durham, Aviator Brewing in Fuquay-Varina, and Dry County Brewing Company in Spruce Pine, have each played a similar role in providing some positive momentum to areas suffering from disinvestment. There’s much to be learned from their stories for local economic developers who are interested in attracting breweries to their towns in order to reap the “spillover effects” of these community-minded, innovative businesses. Because of their hybrid industrial/retail use, craft breweries require a unique blend of supportive zoning, an appropriate facility, adequate infrastructure, and local government assistance. The multiple needs of craft breweries require a delicate balance, but with planning and the right mix of ingredients, local economic developers can position their towns to develop their own “home brew”.

Marcia Perritt, a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate student pursuing a joint master’s degree in Public Health and City and Regional Planning, is a Community Revitalization Fellow at the School of Government.

Kinston Promise Neighborhood has been operating since April 2010 with a dedicated leader and a small group of community volunteers.  Through the business planning process, we were able to articulate the vision and structure of the organization in a single document.  We also outlined a 5-year implementation plan to formalize and grow the organization; however, the bulk of the work will take place in Year 1.  In fact, one of the first key steps for implementation will kick off later this month.  Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. will soon begin work with a group of researchers from Tufts University to conduct a comprehensive youth needs assessment in the target area.  This needs assessment is sponsored by the America’s Promise GradNation Communities program.

Other key implementation steps for Year 1 will include hiring staff, recruiting a strong Board of Directors, and, of course, raising funds.  The business plan outlines key staff positions, including job responsibilities, as well as recommendations for Board composition and governance.  The business plan also outlines projected financials for Years 1-5 of operations and provides a clear competitive analysis and risk analysis that can be reviewed by potential Board members or funders.  The strategic business plan provides an important road map for Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. to move forward boldly and intentionally.  With a strategic business plan in hand, the organization can really begin to expand their work, formalize operations, and increase their impact on children and families in East Kinston.

For more information on Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. visit www.kinstonpromise.org.

Betsy Robeson holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC.

Once a vibrant community, the East Kinston neighborhood was devastated by inland flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999.  Many residents in the area were displaced when their homes were destroyed and the county was forced to purchase a large amount of condemned property.  East Kinston today has become known for high crime rates, public housing, food deserts, and low-performing schools.  The city of Kinston has invested significant time and resources in improving the Martin Luther King, Jr. corridor which passes through the East Kinston community; however, city initiatives have focused primarily on attracting new development and private investment in the area.  The vision of Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. is to provide a comprehensive network of resources so that all children growing up in the East Kinston Promise Neighborhood will have access to effective schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and career.       

The Kinston Promise Neighborhood model is based on the highly successful Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), developed by Geoffrey Canada in the early 1990’s.  The figure below illustrates the HCZ and Kinston Promise Neighborhood service model.

In his first term, President Barack Obama highlighted the successful work of Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone by developing a Promise Neighborhood Initiative, under the Department of Education, which would provide communities across the nation the resources to replicate the HCZ model.

As outlined by the Department of Education, a Promise Neighborhood organization should break down agency “silos,” which means ensuring that multiple public agencies at all levels work together to share information, plan jointly, focus on improving outcomes, and ensure that outcomes are shared, communicated, and analyzed on an on-going basis.  To that end, Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. will monitor existing programs and ensure continuity from grade to grade.  The organization will review current program offerings and ensure adequate programming exists across five core areas (academics, mentoring, health, safety, and service) at each of the major developmental stages.  Finally, Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. will manage data collection and facilitate data sharing across all Promise Neighborhood community partners to ensure that no child or family falls through the cracks.

The Promise Neighborhood grant process has been highly competitive.  Despite tireless work by Executive Director Theresa Williams-Bethea and a collection of community partners, Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. has not yet been able to secure funding from the Department of Education; however, Ms. Williams-Bethea and a team of community organizers are committed to strengthening and growing a Promise Neighborhood in the East Kinston community in line with the goals of the Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhood Initiative.

With support from the Community-Campus Partnership, I will be working with Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc. to create a business plan and a strategic roadmap to help launch the initiative into its next phase of work.  With a business plan and strategic roadmap in hand, Kinston Promise Neighborhood will be better equipped to pursue private funding, begin Board development, and strengthen community engagement.

*Photo: Ms. Theresa Williams-Bethea, Executive Director, Kinston Promise Neighborhood, Inc.

Betsy Robeson holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC.

Drawing from Current Population Survey (CPS) data from 1977 to 2011, the report finds a one-percentage-point increase in employment among workers age 55 to 64 was associated with a 0.2-percentage point increase in the employment rate for 25-to-54-year-olds, and a 0.21-percentage point increase for workers age 20 to 24. This information led to the following conclusions:

• The lump-of-labor theory did not hold true during the Great Recession: there is no evidence that employment by Baby Boomers negatively impacted the labor force activity of younger workers.
• Just as during the Great Recession, over the last several decades, an increase in older workers’ employment has been associated with an increase in younger workers’ employment rate and hours worked.
• This relationship between older and younger workers’ labor force behavior also holds true within states.
• This relationship does not vary by education level or by gender.
• Older workers’ employment has no negative impact on the hourly wages or annual incomes of youth.

The full report can be accessed here.

Kendra Cotton is a project director with the UNC School of Government

The identified stages are broken into six age groups: family formation (birth), early childhood (0-5), middle childhood (5-11), adolescence (11-19), transition to adulthood (19-29) and adulthood (29-40). After presenting a detailed analysis, the authors arrive at the following conclusions:

• The majority (61%) of Americans achieve the American dream by reaching the middle class by middle age, but there are large gaps by race, gender, and children’s circumstances at birth.

• Success begets further success. Children who are successful at each life stage from early childhood to young adulthood are much more likely to achieve the American Dream.

• Children from less advantaged families tend to fall behind at every stage. They are less likely to be ready for school at age 5 (59% vs 72%), to achieve core academic and social competencies at the end of elementary school (60% vs 77%), to graduate from high school with decent grades and no involvement with crime or teen pregnancy (41% vs 70%), and to graduate from college or achieve the equivalent income in their twenties (48% vs 70%).

• Racial gaps are large from the start and never narrow significantly, especially for African Americans, who trail by an average of 25 percentage points for the identified benchmarks.

• Girls travel through childhood doing better than boys only to find their prospects diminished during the adult years. The proportion of children who successfully navigate through adolescence is strikingly low: only 57%.

• For the small proportion of disadvantaged children who do succeed throughout school and early adulthood (17%), their chances of being middle class by middle age are almost as great as for their more advantaged peers (75% vs 83%).

• Keeping less advantaged children on track at each and every life stage is the right strategy for building a stronger middle class. Early interventions may prevent the need for later ones. As the data provided in this paper make abundantly clear, success is a cumulative process. One-time interventions may not be enough to keep less advantaged children on track.

• It’s never too late to intervene—people who succeed in their twenties, despite earlier struggles, still have a good chance of making it to the middle class.

The full text of the paper is available here.

Kendra Cotton is a project director with the UNC School of Government

Specifically, the chapter entitled The Continuing Evolution of American Poverty and Its Implications for Community Development poses three questions regarding the current relevancy and future success of community development as an effective tool to combat persistent poverty:

• Can it serve the needs of diverse communities in an ever-more pluralistic American society, where immigration and Latino growth are continuously transforming low-income populations and the issues they face?

• Can it shift its focus toward helping populations increasingly characterized by a lack of work in the post-recession economy, broadening activities well beyond housing and economic development to link people to much higher-quality skills than community-based job training has historically provided?

• Can it move well beyond inner-city communities in a world of majority-suburban poverty, where traditional place-based strategies may bump up against radically different physical, economic, and social environments?

Berube argues that “…today’s poverty differs in several fundamental ways from the poverty that reformers set out to address more than four decades ago. Community development has evolved significantly, too, but perhaps not at the same pace as the underlying problems it set out to address. The incidence, location, and socioeconomic characteristics of poverty have shifted dramatically in some cases. These changes highlight a series of challenges for the future of place-based initiatives that aim to alleviate poverty, enhance economic mobility, and ultimately ensure that no one is severely disadvantaged by where they live.”

The complete chapter can be accessed here.

Kendra Cotton is a project director with the UNC School of Government

Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone? analyzes employment data over the past three decades and determines that the U.S. workforce is substantially older and better-educated than it was at the end of the 1970s; yet, the share of “good jobs” in the economy did not increase in line with improvements in the quality of workforce. Instead, the share of “good jobs” in the U.S. economy decreased. The report offers a unique perspective on today’s fiscal climate in that it attributes the deterioration in the economy’s ability to generate good jobs to long-run changes in the U.S. economy, rather than short-run factors related to the recession or recent economic policy.

Kendra Cotton is a project director with the UNC School of Government

The following are anticipated benefits of a comprehensive housing assessment:

Discover Assets and Liabilities

A good housing assessment exposes both the assets and liabilities in a neighborhood’s housing stock. Housing assessments quantify problem areas by identifying vacant or dilapidated homes, noting the presence (or absence) of streetlights, and observing the presence of graffiti, boarded up windows, or overgrown yards. Housing assessments also reveal community strengths; they distinguish between the physical condition of a property and its general maintenance. While an owner may not have the money to fix the roof, efforts to keep their home clean and decorated (flower boxes, wreaths, etc.) could be signs that residents are good stewards of their property. Neighborhood leadership and stewardship, which can be identified in a housing assessment, are critical assets for community revitalization.

Identify Legal and Ownership Constraints

Housing assessments identify legal and ownership constraints on properties in a potential redevelopment area. By combining on-the-ground parcel scans with publicly available data, leaders can determine if properties are owner-occupied, renter-occupied, vacant, or part of a more complicated legal issue, such as foreclosure or heirs property. Properties tied down with legal constraints can present significant challenges to redevelopment.

Bolster Grant Applications and Program Initiatives

Housing assessments can provide valuable data to support grant applications for federal, state or private grants. Most grant programs require data on existing conditions as a precondition for funding. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program requires that applicants demonstrate the extent to which targeted areas are blighted or have real need. Housing assessments provide concrete, fact-based data to bolster these sections of grant applications.

Catherine Bartels is a recent graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill with a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning. She is working as an intern on community development projects in Kinston, NC.

Yesterday, the USDA Rural Development’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced $287 million in loan guarantees to aid electric utilities upgrade, expand, maintain and replace rural America’s electric infrastructure.

Two North Carolina entities received roughly $30 million of this investment. The Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation secured $20,000,000 to build and improve 114 miles of distribution and transmission line and make other system improvements, serving 1,489 customers. The loan includes $1,348,950 in smart grid projects. The Cape Hatteras Electric Membership Corporation received $9,792,000 to build and improve 17 miles of distribution and transmission line and make other system improvements, serving 290 customers. The loan includes $2,167,000 in smart grid projects.

In late June, the North Carolina Energy Office announced that it had received a $532,134 Department of Energy grant to work with eight public school districts, eight community colleges and six local governments to plan, implement and finance energy efficiency improvements to buildings and other public infrastructure.

The School of Government’s Environmental Finance Center produces extensive research regarding these types of initiatives, offering training programs and technical assistance to support communities across the southeastern region with their environmental finance efforts.

Kendra Cotton is a project director with the UNC School of Government