History
From the White House to the Capitol Building, to boardrooms and city halls, young people are often left out of the decisions that most affect them.
That’s why, at 14 years old, Chris J. Suggs founded Kinston Teens in October of 2014. Already a recognized voice and leader in his community, he started Kinston Teens as an effort to amplify the voices of all of the youth of Kinston, and to create civic engagement and community service opportunities for his peers.
With a population of only around 20,000, Kinston, North Carolina has been ranked among the highest in North Carolina for violent crimes. Throughout 2014, our city experienced over 61 reported shootings with the average age of victims and offenders in these shootings being 21 years old. Needless to say, this issue affects our city’s young people. Chris recognized this, and worked to combat it by providing positive alternatives for our community’s youth though volunteerism.
Kinston Teens primarily operates in our town’s “East Kinston” neighborhood, a predominantly Black neighborhood. A 2014 report by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that Census tract 103 which is home to more than 2,000 citizens and comprises the geographic bulk and most densely populated area of East Kinston, is ranked the #1 most economically distressed census tract of all 2,195 Census tracts in the state of North Carolina. These rankings are based on three criteria: poverty rate, per capita income, and unemployment.
In the short time that Kinston Teens has been active, it has worked hard to include young people in the efforts to better our community. Kinston Teens has organized award-winning leadership development initiatives, and has been recognized on local, state, national and global platforms for its efforts. Since 2014, Kinston Teens has made an impact on the lives of thousands of youth through our membership efforts, Youth Summit, community workshops, volunteer initiatives, leadership development seminars, and programs and assemblies at local schools.
The organization operates Kinston’s first resilience hub, the East Kinston Neighborhood Hub. Previously an abandoned home that Chris purchased at 17-years-old, Kinston Teens has transformed this space to serve as an outreach center and mutual aid hub to empower our neighbors in East Kinston. In 2023, the organization launched a planning and design process to build a new and larger Neighborhood Hub facility to help better connect residents with the tools, skills, and resources needed to prepare for, withstand, and recover from disasters.
Kinston Teens is proud to have had such measurable success in a considerably short amount of time. We’re grateful for the support we’ve had from our community, and look forward to continuing our efforts to improve our great city!
