Generational Wealth Can’t Be Grown Overnight.
But here's what we're doing to make it happen.
Initiatives
Food Security
Food hall & market
The very first thing going in the newly renovated Henderson Tobacco Warehouse is a food hall and market, where locals and visitors alike can access a variety of fresh and prepared food choices. In our food hall, local food service entrepreneurs can produce, retail, and wholesale their products and run their businesses.
NC Farmer Network
Agriculture has always been a part of Henderson’s history, and a strong relationship with local farmers can help it be a part of our future too. We’re currently creating a supply chain of North Carolina farmers to stock our market with locally-made produce, dairy, meats, and more. And even better, all sales go directly to those farmers.
Healthy Lifestyle Support
Incorporating healthier foods into a diet can be really challenging, so we’re hosting free regular workshops on healthy cooking, meal preparation and planning, dietary needs, food budgeting home gardening, and more. We need to work together to make Henderson healthier.
Economic Opportunity
Business Incubator
We know our community is already filled with great ideas; we want to provide an affordable space to put them to work. Low-income residents with business ideas or entrepreneurs in need of a brick-and-mortar location can retail products or services in independent stalls throughout the Henderson Tobacco Warehouse.
Business Coaching & Support
No minimum level of education needed; we'll work with locals to start their business, make a business plan, market their products and services, and even provide funding support and guidance. An in-house business center will make sure that all business owners have access to the tools, technology, and coaching they need to be successful.
Employee-Owned Cooperatives
We’ll help to build community wealth by partnering to establish a local laundromat and a construction company, both employee-owned and locally-managed. The construction company will be made up of Job Corps graduates and local workers ready to learn the trade to keep building up Henderson and surrounding areas long after we're gone.
Affordable Housing
Downtown Landscape Improvement
Henderson is known for its historic Victorian architecture scattered throughout the city, but abandoned and dilapidated residential and commercial properties have quickly begun to overshadow it. We're acquiring as many of these properties as possible with our nonprofit partner to bring them back up to code, secure residents, and restore Henderson to its original beauty.
Homeownership Program
More than 40% of homes in Vance County are not owner-occupied and are instead occupied by renters, compared to the 26% and 27% of homes in neighboring Granville and Franklin counties, respectively (USDA). Homeownership is out of reach for the majority of Downtown Henderson residents, and we plan to establish a program to help families and young adults secure properties at affordable rates.
Single- & Multi-Family Housing Development
We envision Henderson’s future including both affordable and market rate housing for single and multiple families. We’re planning out locations for single-family homes, townhomes, and apartments in close proximity to downtown and all the new amenities our community revitalization will provide.
Investment in Youth
Early Learning Center
Childcare is often out of reach for low-income families. We want to help alleviate the stress of being a working parent by providing affordable childcare with teachers and staff you can trust. Our development partner has experience implementing early learning centers all over the east coast.
Healthy Living
In Vance County, more than 17% of adults do not have access to health coverage, and 25% of those are parents. We are committed to ensuring Henderson’s low-income residents, especially children and pregnant mothers, have access to affordable and accessible healthcare treatment in their own neighborhood.
Sports & Recreation
The Downtown Henderson area has little to no access to public recreation areas, and the negative impacts of this hit youth the hardest. We are determined to bringing in green spaces and varying recreational facilities ranging from parks and basketball courts to rollerskating rinks and more, encouraging healthy living through relaxation and exercise.
Henderson Art Walk
Sculpture installations
We're looking for local artists to create sculptures and other 3d art pieces to be permanently installed around the city!
new murals
Are you a building owner downtown? interested in a local artist installing a mural on your building? We want to celebrate Henderson and create new murals for our visitors and locals to enjoy.
Existing murals
These historic artworks paint the picture of Henderson's past, and we want to make sure they remain for generations to come.
About Henderson, NC
Henderson is the county seat of Vance, one of North Carolina's 100 counties, located in the northeast about 30 miles from the Virginia border.
Henderson is a rural, very low-income and low-access area (USDA) plagued by decades of underfunding, underdevelopment, and neglect. While Henderson saw better days during the city’s multiple manufacturing booms, today its downtown and nearby neighborhoods shows the scars of the major crisis experienced when manufacturing moved out: abandoned and dilapidated properties, citizens forced to live in unaffordable and substandard rental housing, poverty, crime, and joblessness. But if we know anything about Henderson, it's that the city is ready for the future.
Henderson & Vance County Fast Facts
Henderson is recognized as a very low-income and low-access community, also known as a Food Desert.
This means that more than 100 housing units do not have a vehicle and are more than 1/2 mile from the nearest supermarket, or a significant number or share of residents are more than 20 miles from the nearest supermarket. In Downtown Henderson, there is no access to a healthy food grocery and many residents do not have access to transportation. (USDA)
There is only one USDA farmers market in all of Vance County, open 2 days per week.
And to make matters worse, Vance was one of North Carolina’s ONLY counties to actually LOSE farmers markets between 2013 and 2014. Our project is bringing healthy food access through a full service grocery, while also teaching residents how to incorporate these foods into their daily lives. (USDA)
Almost a third of Vance County citizens are under age 18, & less than 15% are older than 65.
Henderson’s populations skews young, making the need for youth programming and investment in education, housing, recreation, and food access even more important. Revitalization of this neighborhood requires a focus on youth while controlling for property values to ensure Henderson’s aging residents are not displaced. (USDA)
In 2015, 93% of Vance’s children were eligible for free lunches.
The majority of children in Vance County live in poor or low-income homes, and 1 in 4 children live in families that struggle to put food on the table. (NC Child)
Vance County has a poverty rate of more than 30%.
And it’s even worse in Henderson. After tobacco and manufacturing moved out, joblessness and underemployment skyrocketed. It’s time for Henderson to build its own community wealth without relying on Big Business to move in and save a dying historic community. Job training and employment opportunities are key to solving this problem. (USDA)
More than 13% of Vance County residents were SNAP participants in 2017.
About 90% of Vance’s eligible population for SNAP benefits currently use them, but we estimate this population is dramatically growing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (USDA)
Tobacco in Henderson
Henderson quickly became a Tobacco Market in the early 1870s when the railroad running through town was built. By 1885, upwards of 7,000,000 pounds of tobacco per year were being marketed in Henderson. A cotton market opened in 1878 and it, along with tobacco, made up the principal economic production of the area. Although the downtown area suffered multiple devastating fires and the need to rebuild, times were relatively prosperous until tobacco moved out due to less demand, leaving behind empty, deteriorating factories and warehouses throughout Henderson and North Carolina.