News & Updates
Investing in People
The people of western North Carolina make the region strong. When they succeed, we succeed. Governor Stein has worked with the General Assembly to pass into law more than $1 billion in relief funds. That includes funding for homeowners who need to repair or rebuild their homes, local governments to enhance downtown infrastructure, farmers who suffered crop and equipment losses, students who missed out on instructional time, and more.
Avery County Long Term Recovery Group
The Avery County Long Term Recovery Group connects resources to people in need who were impacted by Hurricane Helene. State funding has helped this organization build homes and begin direct outreach to increase the number of people they can support.
Camp Grier - Old Fort Endurance Fund
In the aftermath of Helene, Camp Grier transformed into a temporary shelter for people who had lost everything. State funding is helping organizations like Camp Grier continue contributing to local recovery.
Supporting Small Businesses
The Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative has distributed $55 million in funding from the Dogwood Health Trust, the Duke Endowment, and the State of North Carolina to 2,100 North Carolina small businesses.
Stepps Hillcrest Orchard
"We are really thankful for the local and state grants we were able to receive. All those together really helped us with the cashflow issue that we faced at the end of the season."
Pig and Grits Barbecue
"What it did for us here was it allowed us to buy some equipment, to take care of some of our employees that needed some help, and helped us rebuild our inventory and pay for some of the flooring and repairs and stuff that insurance didn't cover completely.”
Henry River Farms
“Receiving the grant helped us with our operating cost and our repair cost for some of our infrastructure that was lost during the storm. The main crop that was affected was our strawberry crop, which covers about a third of our income for our farm. So just having access to funds to help us keep going has been a huge help.”
Carolina Native Nursery
“It allowed us to keep people on payroll. At a height of our season, we have 20 people on payroll, so it aided with that and to achieve the size that we had, it’d taken us a lot. So this $50,000 really goes a long way to jump us forward, to get us back to where we're going to be.”
