March | April 2018

Stakeholder Corner: "Kids Making It" Program Helps Deter Delinquency Through Vocational Training

By Jimmy Pierce, Founder and Executive Director, Kids Making It

Kids Making It Lead Apprentice Ashley Butler with Apprentice Program Manager Billy Phillips.
Kids Making It Lead Apprentice Ashley Butler with Apprentice Program Manager Billy Phillips.

Photo courtesy of Kids Making It.
Kids Making It is a mentoring program that offers woodworking, vocational skills training, and lessons in entrepreneurship to more than 500 at-risk or court-involved youth annually. Our goal is to ensure kids stay in school, stay out of trouble, graduate from high school, and go on to become successful adults.

OJJDP funding through the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission allows us to offer five different programs to youth residing in the Wilmington, NC, area. Participants in the Vocational and Entrepreneurial afterschool program, our core initiative, learn woodworking and receive long-term mentorship and vocational instruction. Items produced in the program are sold in our gift shop; this serves as an introduction to the free market system. Every month, our teens earn 100 percent of the profits from their product sales. With local gangs recruiting members from elementary schools in our area, we now offer Introductory Woodworking classes for preteens as a gang-intervention strategy. Participants learn to use hand tools and build a project for themselves. When they turn 13, they are invited to join the afterschool program.

Program participants with their sales profit checks. From left to right: Austin Wilson, Montay Howard, Josè Rodriguez, Julius Hall, Jasmine Robinson, and Ariyana Patrick.
Program participants with their sales profit checks. From left to right: Austin Wilson, Montay Howard, Josè Rodriguez, Julius Hall, Jasmine Robinson, and Ariyana Patrick.

Photo courtesy of Kids Making It.

We also offer an apprenticeship program for unemployed high school graduates who are not going to college. Teens receive paid training positions and complete larger production orders for the public. Through the program, youth learn to adhere to workplace standards such as punctuality, scheduling, and quality control. Products include engraved jewelry and ornaments that they market to gift shops on the east coast, as well as cutting boards, desk sets, pens, and custom-crafted signs.

For our Summer Jobs program, we partner with another local nonprofit to place older teens in paid summer jobs as an alternative to hanging out on the streets.

This month, Kids Making It is breaking ground on a 4,200-square-foot addition to house our new Skilled Trades program. We will introduce older teens to the basics of plumbing, electrical, masonry, construction carpentry, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. By partnering with local contractors, we will be able to place youth in paid apprenticeships as a pathway into the construction industry.

Proud Summer Jobs teens include, from left to right: Julius Hall, Austin Wilson, Montay Howard, Tiondrè Courtar, and Eric Deese.
Summer Jobs teens include, from left to right: Julius Hall, Austin Wilson, Montay Howard, Tiondrè Courtar, and Eric Deese.

Photo courtesy of Kids Making It.

Since 1994, we have successfully served more than 4,500 youth. Our teens have a zero dropout rate and their involvement with the juvenile justice system is less than 2 percent. We attribute the success of our kids to the following factors:

  • Participants learn to design and build things with their hands, leading to a sense of empowerment and self-esteem.
  • Most of our programs offer youth the opportunity to earn regular income beginning at age 13.
  • The design-build process is a hands-on application of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning that gives teens a deeper understanding of and appreciation for their schoolwork.
  • We are invested in our kids for the long haul to help them stay on track and, as a result, many return year after year.

Kids Making It is invested in the success of our teens and is committed to helping youth thrive in spite of their circumstances. Our unique, award-winning model for helping at-risk and court-involved youth works and can be replicated with success at any budget level.



James “Jimmy” Pierce is the founder and executive director of Kids Making It. For more than 20 years, he has shared his passion for woodworking to build a network of support for at-risk youth while building bridges with community partners and local businesses in Wilmington, NC.