Jones is the founder of Youth Navigating Toward Opportunity (YNTO), a nonprofit that provides after-school programming for over 40 low-income kids from Pamlico County.
YNTO started out as Jones’s senior project during high school, years before it became an official program in 2020.
Jones started his day at the nonprofit on a recent Wednesday by cleaning, cooking and preparing for upcoming festivities.
“Building a children’s program was a dream, something I always wanted to do, but didn’t know I was going to get enough traction to make it feasible,” Jones said in an interview with Down in the County while he grilled burgers for YNTO participants.
“Growing up, I had a father addicted to drugs. My mother tried her best, working and trying to take care of four kids,” said Jones, who was born and raised in the county. “At a young age, because of the way my father is, I felt like I needed to grow up fast and try to take some of the load off my mother and earn my own money. … I didn’t really feel like I had many options.”
As a child, Jones didn’t think he could turn to anyone for help without them judging him and his circumstances, he said.
When he shares his story with the kids at YNTO, Jones said, it resonates. “They know if I’ve been there, then I can’t judge them. That means a lot to kids,” he said.
Johnnie Barber III, who had been with YNTO before it was an official organization, lost the mother of his son three years ago. He was a single father for two years after her death, until he met his current girlfriend a year ago.
YNTO “made a big impact for me and my son,” he said.
Barber’s son, Johnnie Barber IV, loves to train for basketball and spends hours doing just that at YNTO.
“When I was working a lot, I couldn’t give him that one-to-one access as a parent,” Barber said as he expressed his gratitude for YNTO helping him fulfill that time.
Barber said he stays informed and connected through the YNTO parent group chat. “It’s really a community and that’s why I love it,” he said.
The broad range of activities includes robotics, sports, building Legos, homework, photography, drawing, taekwondo and pottery.
The student participants have their own favorites. Azyaha Miller, 12, and Angel Garner, 14, who has been with YNTO since it started, said their favorite activities are watching East Carolina University basketball games and “praise dancing,” which is dancing for God. Aryeh Frazier, 5, said his favorite thing is playing football. The kids usually spend three hours daily with YNTO.
With the programming, “I try to focus on showing them different paths that they necessarily never thought about,” Jones said.
With most of his days dedicated to YNTO, Jones, who receives a monthly paycheck of $750, said “from the outside looking in, people may believe that this generates money for me.” Although grateful for the funds received, Jones has been spending his check to buy food for YNTO, which is funded in large part by grants and donations. The organization is fully run by volunteers.
“Every day, I still have to go out and figure out how to make money for my family and still do this,” Jones said. He credits his wife and his siblings for helping him build and sustain the organization. He also appreciates the contributions of YNTO’s board members, donors and supporters, such as the YNTO building owner, who rents the space to the organization at a discount.
Jones said he would gladly welcome more volunteers. “It’s a family-run organization, but we are definitely not trying to keep it a family-run organization,” he said.
Jones wants YNTO to grow so it can support more children from the community. The school system allows Jones, who has only one van, to make one trip to the school to pick up elementary students and then another trip to pick up middle schoolers. He hopes to be able to buy another van in the future.
Growing the program would help YNTO serve as a model for other communities, Jones said.
“A lot of small towns miss out on different things,” he said. Jones also hopes to be able to “scale this to a point where we can show other people in small towns.”
Building a community center, which would open it up to more kids, programming and places to exercise, is Jones’ ultimate dream. “When there isn’t much to do, kids tend to get in trouble,” he said.
When asked what it would have meant to have a program like YNTO during his own childhood, Jones, who had just finished flipping a burger, immediately dropped his spatula and said, “Everything.”
The program provides “a secondary structure outside your home life,” he said.
Jones, who ends his day at 7:30 pm when he cleans, makes sure all of the kids are picked up by their parents and goes home to be a father, has a simple goal for the kids in the program. “I just want them to be successful,” he said.
Jones’ email address: yntopc@gmail.com
See the work of one of YNTO’s many programs, the Snapshots, here.
Donate and become a vital part of growing a visual and written history of the county.
Down in the County has its own Instagram page! Check us out @downinthecounty
