The Center for a Better South
MARCH 23, 2017 | The Center for a Better South will offer one-day grant-writing courses on April 20 in Bamberg and April 21 in Yemassee to help organizations improve skills for seeking federal funding available through the S.C. Promise Zone. Continue reading “Center to offer two more grant-writing courses in Promise Zone”
Thirteen Promise-Zone area residents met all day Saturday in Walterboro to learn about how to write grant applications from South Carolina native Vanessa Nelson-Reed through an agreement with the University of South Carolina.
“It gave an introduction to grant writing and piqued my interest in the grant-writing process and what requirements are needed to successfully complete a grant application,” one participant said.
Another added, “I think now I have a better understanding that you have to specify what you are hoping to accomplish and keep a good record of how and what you buy to be on point.”
The Center for a Better South, through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is planning other trainings for April and May. More will be announced as details are confirmed.
Here are some other pictures from the training session in Walterboro:
A dozen professionals from around the S.C. Promise Zone attended the Center for a Better South’s first day-long training class on Feb. 3 to help to build capacity in the region.
Participants met at USC Salkahatchie for the workshop to learn more about how to write compelling grant applications. Continue reading “NEWS: A dozen attend Center’s first training class”
JAN. 11, 2017 | The Center for a Better South will offer one-day grant-writing courses in February and March by recognized professionals to help organizations improve skills for seeking federal funding available through the S.C. Promise Zone.
“We’ve heard in focus groups this fall from Jasper County to Barnwell County that people want specialized training so that they can apply for various federal grants that are available to organizations and communities through the Promise Zone designation,” Better South President Andy Brack said. “Our new grant-writing sessions are the first of several entrepreneurial training opportunities designed to help people learn more so we can accomplish Promise Zone goals.” Continue reading “NEWS: Center to offer 2 grant-writing courses for Promise Zone residents”
By Andy Brack, Center for a Better South | There’s a palpable sense of energy flowing through the six counties of the southern tip of South Carolina in the federally-designated Promise Zone, which is now a year and a half old.
Walk along a downtown street or drive past expanding businesses and you get a tingling that things are happening. Two years ago, the SouthernCarolina Alliance, lead partner of the Promise Zone, was about the only regional organization that worked to pull people together to develop projects to benefit the area. Fortunately, the organization had the foresight in 2014 to try to win the Promise Zone designation as a way to bolster inter-agency collaboration and get local, state and federal organizations in silos to come out into the open and work better together. Continue reading “BRACK: Promise Zone keeps pushing for progress”
OCT. 19, 2016 | The Center for a Better South this week will lead an eight-member team from Allendale and Hampton counties in the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone for leadership training offered by the national outreach group NeighborWorks America.
The training in Columbus, Ohio, will focus on ways that neighbors can work with neighbors to build communities at NeighborWorks’ invitation-only Community Leadership Institute. It offers three days of meetings to support local leaders by helping them to sharpen abilities and to discover new tools and initiatives to succeed at home.
Among those attending (in alphabetical order) are:
“This is a phenomenal honor and opportunity for members of the team to learn leadership and economic development lessons from national experts and bring lessons home to implement,” said Brack.
The team’s state sponsor is the S.C. Association of Community Economic Development, based in Charleston. The Center is a member of SCACED, which also is a NeighborWorks partner.
“SCACED is excited about the partnership with our member and the leadership it is taking in the Promise Zone,” said SCACED President and CEO Bernie Mazyck. “This delegation is designed to represent South Carolina and bring some of the best practices in community economic development back to South Carolina.”
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AUG. 17, 2016 | A $50,000 grant for technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will allow the Center for a Better South to develop and implement a new entrepreneurial training program in the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone.
“What great news this funding is for people who live in the Promise Zone,” said Center President Andy Brack. “It will help us identify community needs in each of the Promise Zone counties for economic development training and then to target the kind of classes on entrepreneurship that people want so they can start businesses and improve their communities.”
Between now and the end of the year, the Center will hold about a dozen meetings in Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties to identify and assess needs. Starting in January, it expects to offer free training opportunities to help communities build economic capacity, Brack said.
The Rural Business Development Grant also will allow the Center to develop a broad database of individuals and organizations that can be shared throughout the Promise Zone to connect people in new ways and to target training activities that will strengthen communities economically.
The year-long project also includes a $5,000 baseline statistical study funded by the Center that will offer economic, educational and other demographic indicators to allow the Promise Zone to measure its progress.
The Center for a Better South was a leading driver of the area’s combined effort to apply for and be successful in winning the federal designation for the region to be a Promise Zone. You can get updates on the Promise Zone at its website: http://www.SCPromiseZone.org.
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If you’re in northeastern Mississippi, it’s hard NOT to stop in Tupelo to visit the two-room birthplace of superstar Elvis Presley.
Tupelo, in the news still for the fatal shooting of a black man who ran from a car by a white police officer, is a growing city of 35,000 people, 59 percent of whom are white and 37 percent of whom are black. People living in poverty, as Elvis did when he was a boy, comprise about 20 percent of the population.
Center for a Better South board member Warwick Sabin, who is executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, took part in the Asia Regional Agricultural Innovation Summit 2016 on May 25-26 in Bangkok, Thailand. Continue reading “Sabin participates in Asian agricultural summit”
After seeing these petunias growing outside a house in St. Matthews, S.C., on a plant stand made of a three-wheeler, it’s pretty clear that spring is in full swing and summer is just around the corner.
About a quarter of the population of the town is at or below the federal poverty line, according to this article. More than 60 percent of residents of the town, which is Calhoun County’s seat of government, are black.
The county is home to just over 15,000 people, which makes it the third least populous county in the state. It’s also the smallest geographically in the state. Named for former Vice President and U.S. Sen. John C. Calhoun, about 16 percent of families live below the poverty line. More.
Photo by Andy Brack.