The Center for a Better South
FEB. 2, 2016 | A dozen leading thinkers and analysts from across the South met over the weekend to learn about the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone and make suggestions to broaden the impact of its collaborative efforts to reduce poverty. Continue reading “National leaders provide critical input on Promise Zone”
Center for a Better South’s Andy Brack outlines how the counties in the southern tip of South Carolina won the designation as one of the nation’s Promise Zones, a federal program to help areas with economic challenges get help to grow and change lives. Also part of the Sept. 9 meeting agenda for the designation’s partners and supporters: The lead organization, SouthernCarolina Alliance, and Vernita F. Dore, a deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More.
A Collum’s Lumber Products worker smiles from a bird’s eye perch above the lumber and po9le manufacturing plant in Allendale, S.C., one of the six counties in the S.C. Promise Zone. Collum’s is an independent, family-owned wholesale timber business that buys timber to make top quality, sustainable wholesale lumber. More.
[UPDATED, May 1, 2015] | The Center for a Better South is an integral part of the team that put together the successful application for rural counties in the southern part of South Carolina to win a federal Promise Zone designation this week.
“Without the visionary leadership and guidance of the Center for a Better South, the counties in the SouthernCarolina Alliance never would have applied for a federal Promise Zone designation, much less been able to put together the winning application that will change the lives of tens of thousands of people in the southern part of South Carolina,” said Danny Black, president and CEO of the Alliance, an economic development agency that will lead work in the Zone counties. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Center to grow jobs, reduce poverty and make our communities better.”
Better South President Andy Brack, who worked with the Alliance as part of a leadership team to bring together more than 20 organizations to partner on an application for the federal designation, said the Zone designation would make a big difference.
“This is going to change people’s lives,” he said. By being part of a new Promise Zone designations, just over 90,000 people in Allendale, Barnwell, Bamberg, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties will have new tools to be able to tap into existing federal grant dollars and other opportunities.
“It’s a big deal,” Brack said. “South Carolina is only the nation’s second rural Promise Zone and the only one announced today. If the same kinds of things happen here that have happened in the other rural Zone in eastern Kentucky, we should be looking at an infusion of millions of dollars over time to grow jobs, improve the economy, have better schools, get more affordable housing and reduce crime.”