This is the second of two articles about poverty in Robeson County. Last Sunday’s article addressed the poverty problem in Robeson County — editor.

LUMBERTON — Poverty has been persistent and pervasive in Robeson County: Nearly 40,000 Robesonians currently live in poverty, and the county is one of 250 in the United States and one of 10 in the state that have suffered a poverty rate higher than 20 percent since the federal government began tracking it 50 years ago.

Since factory and farm jobs disappeared, Robeson County has been trapped in a poverty paradox — low-paying service jobs keep people employed at least part time, but don’t provide enough income to boost them over the poverty threshold. That population, the working poor, depends on social welfare to get by, so each year millions of government dollars go toward Medicaid, food stamps, and other supportive services.

But experts say the historic problem can be beat. Adapting to the service economy to develop sustainable jobs can help move the working poor out of poverty, which starts a cycle of improvement: more money circulating in the local economy, more new businesses, more jobs, less poverty.

In a county that has long been fueled by agriculture and manufacturing, adjusting to a service economy means retraining and reeducating a workforce, as well as marketing the county to attract businesses and consumers, according to Jim Johnson, a distinguished professor with the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Communities compete just like businesses do for foreign direct investment and plant relocation. You’re competing in a global marketplace, so how do you position yourself?” Johnson said.

“All too often rural communities think they’re too small to compete, but that’s foolishness,” he said. “I say even giants were born small. Once you figure out what you’re good at, where the opportunities are, you can compete.”

Marketing assets

The Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise conducts community assessments in which the group researches a community to identify its strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace. The group has done 50 assessments for communities big and small, national and international.

“We come back and say, this is the way you look to the outside world,” Johnson said.

For at least a decade, Robeson County’s marketing has been mostly in the hands of the North Carolina Southeast Commission, a state program to help rural counties target and attract businesses.

County Manager Ken Windley said the county does what it can afford to do in-house, but its resources and marketing expertise don’t match those of the commission.

“They have resources we don’t have. They have a lot of nice, slick materials, they have videos, statistical information,” Windley said. “An example is if you want to know how many welders there are in a 30-mile radius to the city of Lumberton, they can tell you exactly how many there are. That’s the kind of detailed information they have.”

Johnson said Robeson County’s location between Raleigh and Wilmington on an interstate, near a military base, and in a Base Realignment and Closure region, are all assets that the county needs to exploit. He added that because Robeson County is rural, decisions can be made quickly, “at the speed of business,” which is a big advantage.

“When companies think about relocating, there are 14,000 U.S.-based communities competing for that site,” Johnson said. “There are things that could be done immediately if you put a competitive lens on how you view your community. You have to be in the business of economic development.”

Adapting to serve

Robeson County has been a victim of mechanization. Both of the county’s major industries, agriculture and manufacturing, evolved so fewer machines operated by fewer workers can accomplish more work. Everett Davis, extension director for the county, said mechanization has tripled the value of agricultural commodities since the days of tenant farming, but efficiency cost jobs.

As those jobs disappeared, the service industry took advantage of Lumberton’s location on Interstate 95 to develop hotels and restaurants for people on their way to tourism destinations, such as Myrtle Beach, S.C, or Orlando, Fla. Now that industry is a top employer in the county, though jobs are generally part time, minimum wage, and without benefits, but, Davis said, “they’re better than nothing.”

“I think many times, folks here are very, very family oriented. If there isn’t an opportunity here, they’re willing to take a job for less money because family is so important and they don’t want to leave,” Windley said.

During 2008 the service industry netted $118 million from travelers passing through who spent money at gas stations, restaurants and hotels. The recession is projected to cut that figure to $110 million this year, which equates to 1,120 jobs that cater to travelers, said Davis, who is also coordinator for the Robeson Tourism Development Association, a group interested in expanding tourism commerce.

The association has been working on a “one more day” campaign aimed at enticing travelers to stay an extra day in the county. They say accomplishing that could bump tourism revenues to $200 million a year, which means millions of additional dollars in sales taxes for local governments.

“We’re not a destination location,” Davis said. “We’re not going to get them to stay here over Myrtle Beach. ... But extra time in the county means extra jobs, extra money, extra tax revenue.”

The tourism group also wants local involvement.

“We celebrate when we attract a big company that adds 30 jobs, but what if we could open three small tourism-related places that all hire 10 people? That’s the same thing,” Davis said. “The potential is there, the opportunity is there for tourism development, and we need to take advantage of it.”

Davis said the area’s history, natural beauty, and agriculture and American Indian cultures are assets that can become attractions.

In an effort to develop the county’s tourism prospects, the county Board of Commissioners recently allocated money for a full-time tourism development director. Until now, only Lumberton Visitors Bureau marketed the area for specific events.

The commissioners have also funded training and education programs to help displaced farming and manufacturing workers learn the technical skills they need in the new economy.

At Robeson Community College, a workforce training building, nurse training courses, and the heavy equipment training program are supported by the county, Windley said.

“We’re probably also one of the few school systems in the state where the county did not cut school system funding,” he said.

The Lumberton City Council in August took advantage of the workforce training programs to partner with BRAC, RCC and the county to apply for a $4 million federal grant that would make the Police Department’s rennovaton project energy efficient.

“This is an opportunity to bring $4 million into Robeson County to benefit people who live here ...,” Don Belk, a BRAC representative, said at a meeting in August. “This is all about jobs, and getting young people and displaced workers — especially those below the poverty line — trained and certified to make them as marketable as possible as ‘green’ becomes standard across industries.”

Fort Bragg already requires eco-friendly standards in its building projects, and “contractors often have to import a skilled workforce. This (training) would help ... people in the area get those jobs,” Belk said.

Residents’ responsibility

Technology jobs pay more than manufacturing and service jobs, but they need a highly-skilled employee base — an education level that is not common in the county.

“Education is extremely important, whether it be a four-year degree, a two-year degree, or technical courses, or even a high school education,” Windley said. “We have much too high of a dropout rate, and that does hinder us in our effort to attract business and industry.”

The high school graduation rate in the 2007-08 school year was 51.4 percent, and last school year was 63 percent, according to the Public Schools of Robeson County.

“At RCC, a lot of students have to take remedial courses before they can start on their degree, because in most cases, they did not put forth the effort in high school to obtain the knowledge they really need to move on,” Windley said.

A community’s education reflects on the value of the workforce, and health is also an indicator. Robeson County’s health chart doesn’t look good: The county has one of the highest obesity rates in the state at more than 31 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

“(Poverty) has enormous implications on food consumption patterns and the quality and the amount of food you have at your disposal,” Johnson said. “Robeson County has one of the highest obesity rates in the state, and that becomes a deterrent for businesses locating in the community. They look at obesity rates as a surrogate measure of health care costs.”

The county Health Department has taken steps to curb obesity by making the foods in the Women, Infants and Children program healthier with more vegetables and whole grains, and by promoting exercise, healthy eating, and no smoking in assistance programs.

In schools, state guidelines now require more physical activity and healthier cafeteria food for students. Whole milk is no longer an option in cafeterias, and elementary and middle schools don’t serve fried food. The only fried food in high schools is french fries, said Craig Lowery, director of Child Nutrition for the public schools.

Even without any state money appropriated to the program, it has been implemented in 40 cafeterias and in all county tutoring and after-school programs, Lowery said.

“We may not be able to do a whole lot with the older population, but if you start with the younger population, you hope those habits will follow them,” Smith said.

‘No jobs for anybody’

The county has made 36 industrial announcements — new businesses coming in or existing businesses expanding — in the past five years, creating an estimated 2,000 jobs, Windley said. Local governments are making the effort to attract sustainable jobs that allow people to earn livable wages plus disposable income.

But poverty is still pervasive.

Johnson says creating and attracting sustainable jobs must be a “core value in the community and in the government.”

“Job creation cannot be done in isolation. The quality of the school system, how transparent the government is, how fast decisions are made, that all comes into play,” Johnson said.

The population also plays a role: Government programs do little to help a community without an educated, healthy, or motivated workforce.

“A lot of folks are not taking advantage of the programs,” Windley said, adding that a poor economy means there just aren’t many job openings right now. National unemployment was 10 percent in November, following a 40-year high of 10.2 percent in October.

“Right now there are no jobs for anybody. With a recession in place, everybody is having a difficult time finding a place to work,” Windley said. “When the economy turns around in a year or so, you’ll find the people who made the extra effort will be rewarded.”

The Women’s Fund

The Center for Community Action hopes to help unemployed and underemployed women enter the skilled workforce with its Women’s Fund, a need-based scholarship program for women in college-level health care, mental health and education programs.

Health care and education are among the markets that are growing despite a dismal economy, and organizations worldwide have developed programs that target women — a largely untapped pool in the workforce.

The Women’s Fund has raised $11,000 to distribute in January, and is hoping to raise $11,000 more by Dec. 31, during which time a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant will match and double every dollar donated.

All donations are tax deductible and can be mailed to P.O. Box 723, Lumberton, N.C. 28359.

For information about the Women’s Fund, call (910) 739-7851.