Ever wondered what the friendliest town in North Carolina is? It might just be right here in the Centralina region! The Town of Stanfield, located in Stanly County, is described on the community website as a “safe, peaceful town tucked away from the fast-paced hectic world.” You won’t find any fancy shops or stop lights, but you will encounter buildings with rich history and gracious locals who will be happy to show you around and make you feel right at home.

he National Association of Development Organization’s (NADO) Research Foundation’s Economic Development District Community of Practice (EDD CoP) recently launched an online resource called “Solving the Housing Puzzle: EDDs as Regional Housing Changemakers.” The report, which outlines the critical housing work carried out by development organizations to best meet various community needs across the country, includes various case studies, and we’re honored to say that Centralina’s work was highlighted as apart of a best practice case study, titled “Turning Voices into Action in the Centralina Region.”

Centralina Area Agency on Aging (AAA) strongly supports opportunities for professional development and continuing education to help each staff member grow in their roles and responsibilities and best serve residents and member communities throughout our region. This fall, AAA staff took part in three different training and certification opportunities to help increase knowledge and capacity in order to fulfill Centralina’s organization-wide mission to advance opportunity and improve quality of life for our region’s residents and communities.

When the City of Mount Holly found themselves needing to hire a new city manager, they turned to Centralina for assistance in the recruitment process. The city faced the common challenge of finding a candidate with the right mix of skills for effective leadership, adept management and community engagement. In response, Centralina devised a precise recruitment process aimed at ensuring the city’s continued administrative success, a smooth transition and overall community well-being.

Centralina Community Economic Development team recently collaborated with the Town of Matthews on a sidewalk extension project near their popular downtown district. Allocated funding provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program, allowed Centralina to work with the town to improve sidewalk infrastructure in order to provide a safe and accessible pathway for residents to access nearby local services.

For years, self-driving vehicles have been touted as a potentially revolutionary transportation technology. For most of the general public, however, the concept of self-driving vehicles has either seemed impossible or possible in the far-distant future. Public and private sector agencies have already been investing resources into developing “‘Connected & Autonomous Vehicles” (CAV), and momentum around the emerging technology is building rapidly. As research continues and public embrace grows, communities must be prepared to adapt to the changing transportation ecosystem. Through the established Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Task Force, Centralina Regional Council is bringing together stakeholders from across the region in order to best prepare for this wave of change in transportation.

2023 marks 55 years since the establishment of Centralina Regional Council. During this time, the organization has seen projects come and grow, but one thing that has remained the same is our core group of long-term employees, many of which have been with the organization for decades. So what is it that makes people stay? We sat down with some of our longest-standing staff members to understand why they’ve continued to work for our organization for so long, what makes Centralina special to them and some of their favorite moments.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the founding of Centralina Regional Council, formerly known as Centralina Council of Governments. Over the last five and a half decades, our organization has helped support the growth and prosperity of our region through various projects and initiatives. In honor of this historic year, we’re looking back at how our organization has evolved to where it is today.