How One Building Full of Support Helped Guide the Next Generation

You’ve probably heard the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child.’ As those children grow into young adults, that responsibility does not fade – it expands. The Young Adult Hiring Event on April 29 at the Granville County Convention & Expo Center was an example of our village coming together to meet young people where they are in one of the most important moments of their lives.

The event is designed for 11th and 12th-grade students from Franklin, Granville, Vance, Person, and Warren counties – the ones still figuring it out, the ones who may not see college as their next step but still deserve a clear, supported pathway into the workforce and into adulthood.

“We have students come in from our five county areas to get to know the employers, to find out what opportunities are available, come in, bring in the local community colleges. We bring in community services and we bring in employers,” explained Jennifer Jones, who manages the Kerr-Tar region for NC Works, a state agency that connects job seekers with employment opportunities in North Carolina. 

As I moved through the building, I noticed attendee Jessica Johnson walking slowly, observing, taking everything in without fully stepping into any one conversation. She wasn’t disengaged; she was thinking. When I asked her what she was interested in, she told me she didn’t fully know what she wanted to be, but she knew she wanted it to have something to do with technology and artificial intelligence.

She didn’t have a clear direction yet, but she had curiosity, and that curiosity is exactly what spaces like this are meant to catch and grow.

As the event continued, I felt the energy in the building shift. Students who were quiet in the beginning started asking questions. Conversations became longer. And laughter started to mix into the exchanges between students and employers. You could see confidence building in real time, not because anyone was forcing it, but because the environment allowed it.

But what made this event different wasn’t just who was there, but it was what they were offering beyond that day.

Jones emphasized that the support does not end when the event is over. “We can actually send individuals back to school or they can do some on-the-job training or they can do paid internships. We've got quite a few programs that we'd like to introduce youth to.”

The thought that students have somewhere to return to as they grow is what transforms an event like this from a moment into a pathway.

“One of our pillars is workforce development. Our theme is to empower people, bridge more communities. And so we wanna empower our young people to grow professionally,” said Nina Evans, Director of Community Engagement at Turning Point Community Development Corporation in Henderson.

“We offer a program called Launch Pad for high school students with summer internships. They'll get a week of professional development, and then they'll be placed around their surrounding counties to work for five weeks. And they'll learn about financial literacy, public speaking. They'll build their soft and hard skills,” Evans said.

“We also offer other programs just to help build a whole person,” she added, capturing the heart of the event.

To build a whole person means recognizing that success is not just about getting hired, but about being prepared, supported, and stable enough to grow once you get there.

Before I left, I went back to find Jessica.

This time, she wasn’t walking around quietly.

She was smiling, engaged in conversation, and carrying a different kind of energy than before. Something had clicked. She had found something that interested her, something that connected with what she had been searching for earlier, and you could see the difference not just in what she said, but in how she carried herself.

That moment, right there, is what this event was really about.

Not just jobs, but direction.

Not just information, but connection.

Not just opportunity, but confidence.

By the end of the day, more than 250 high school juniors and seniors had walked through the building, and experienced a network of community support where employers, community colleges, workforce leaders, and organizations could stand side by side to guide young people through what comes next.

Walking through the event, watching students like Jessica shift from uncertainty to confidence, it became clear that this wasn't just about one day, one program, or one organization doing good work, but about what happens when a community comes together with a shared mission that young people should not have to navigate their future alone.