The Center for a Better South
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”
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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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.
You can see bricks on the roof of this Bridge Street house in St. Matthews, S.C., a town of just over 2,000 people in the central part of the state. Bricks? Yep. They’re keeping the tin on the roof from blowing away from periodic high winds that accompany thunderstorms. Continue reading “Bricks on the roof”
Fields across the South are sprouting corn and other crops or getting prepped, as highlighted in this photo of a Calhoun County, S.C., farmer plowing in the Sandy Run community along U.S. Highway 176. Continue reading “It’s that time of the year”
More than 380 organizations across South Carolina’s Lowcountry are teaming to raise funds on May 3 to support their nonprofits. We’d like you to join the celebration on May 3 to #LiftTheLowcountry and encourage you to give to the Center and other nonprofits that you support so they can keep doing the good work they do. Continue reading “Open up your wallets to do good on Lowcountry Giving Day”
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.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown remembers taking this picture last year in rural Clarendon County. They could be storage buildings or old tenant homes, she recalled.
Clarendon County has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black. Some other statistics:
Photo taken in 2013 by Linda W. Brown and originally posted in September 2014. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.