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”
This abandoned motel on U.S. Highway 301 in rural Allendale, S.C., is almost across the road from another empty hotel we profiled in 2013.
Rural Allendale County in South Carolina’s southwest corner as one of the Crescent’s highest poverty rates — more than 40 percent of people live below the federal poverty level. The median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.
For the last few months, the Center for a Better South has been working behind the scenes with folks at the Southern Carolina Alliance and other organizations to push our South Carolina Work Group‘s goal of ensuring an application for a Promise Zone designation from the federal government on behalf of people living in the lower part of the state.
Today, we can announce that the application has been filed and, while we don’t know whether the Southern Carolina region will be named a Promise Zone, we’re tickled pink at the hard work of all involved.
To get an idea of what we worked on, let us encourage you to read this commentary posted earlier today by Better South President Andy Brack as part of his Statehouse Report weekly publication:
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
NOV. 21, 2014 — Imagine if there were some kind of program — a little something extra — that could give pervasively poor places a better chance so they could be more like most of America.
Imagine how such a program could create better job opportunities to stabilize family finances, reduce crime to make communities safer and improve education so children could expand economic mobility.
In January 2013, President Obama announced a pragmatic effort to help overlooked places in America. In his State of the Union address, Obama said he would designate 20 “Promise Zones” — special urban, rural and tribal communities where the federal government would partner with communities to make life better.
What’s smart about this effort is how it doesn’t drop a big pot of money on poor communities. Instead they have to come up with real plans on how to fix things. Then they can apply for federal help through existing grant programs. But the bonus: communities that get the designation will get human capital — trained federal workers who will help make applications for existing grant money to grow jobs, reduce crime or improve education. For these regions with low tax bases, that’s practical help. Next, the Promise Zone communities get a few extra points when an application is scored — a little bump because they’re persistently poor areas with a lot of challenges. That’s smart, too, because it gives these areas a realistic chance to compete for funding, instead of always being on the short end of the stick because they’re small and often forgotten.
Today, South Carolina’s poorest region applied for a Promise Zone designation. The Southern Carolina Alliance (SCA), an economic development nonprofit that covers Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties, is leading an effort to secure the designation for just over 90,000 people in this southern tip of the Palmetto State.
In this area west of Interstate 95, the poverty rate is 28.2 percent, including one sector with a poverty rate just shy of 50 percent of residents. Unemployment is 14.8 percent — more than twice the state average. Crime rates are too high. The schooling that most kids get is substandard, recognized just last week by the state Supreme Court in a long-awaited landmark case on inequitable school funding.
As part of the Southern Carolina Promise Zone application, the SCA, in coordination with the counties, nonprofits and private entities, proposes to energize job growth strategies that would help small farmers grow foods to be sold in the state’s metropolitan areas and keep hundreds of millions of dollars spent on food in the Palmetto State. Some 90 percent of the $10 billion in food we buy in South Carolina goes out of state.
Other job growth strategies call for special attention to agribusiness, such as food processing plants; creation of construction jobs by rehabilitating poor housing and building more affordable housing units; growing green-related jobs through a program to upfit homes to allow residents to save on energy costs and implementing a proven program to boost financial stability of low-income families. Also proposed: a revolving loan fund to generate more small businesses; education measures for more job training to expand skill sets; scholarship programs; early reading help; more prosecutors to curb career criminals and gang activity; and a peer victim advocate program in local schools.
SCA leader Danny Black says his group wants the region to be named a Promise Zone because it’s just plain good for areas that have been ignored for far too long.
“It’s the correct area of the Southeast to do something like this because we are hurting in all of the areas that they want to touch,” he said. “It’s something that allows us to bring quality of life issues and economic opportunities to a part of the state that really needs it.”
Tim Ervolina, head of the United Way Association of South Carolina, said his organization is excited about the possibility of a Promise Zone in the Southern Carolina area.
“It’s not just about the additional resources,” he said. “It’s about the opportunity to use those resources to build lasting community infrastructure which can bring sustainable change.”
Indeed. It’s about time. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Perhaps this image is the perfect characterization of poverty throughout the Southern Crescent. Not only is the word “crescent” misspelled in the sign outside this seemingly-abandoned motel in Allendale, S.C. But upon close scrutiny, it’s clear people are actually living in the rooms of this dilapidated place.
NOTE: This photo originally ran in September 2013, but we’re republishing today to remind people about the depth of poverty throughout the Southern Crescent.
Rural Allendale County in South Carolina’s southwest corner as one of the Crescent’s highest poverty rates — more than 40 percent of people live below the federal poverty level. The median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.
Photo by Michael Kaynard, Sept. 22, 2013. All rights reserved.
Most people in Allendale County, South Carolina’s poorest county where more than 40 percent of people live at or below the federal poverty level, can’t afford to eat lobster. Nevertheless, this now-closed restaurant represents how times were much better years back before Interstate 95 sucked sun-seeking tourists traveling through the county.
Today, part of the Lobster House is at least used — as a small convenience store, which is a better fate than many closed rest stops, gas stations, restaurants, clubs and factories that dot U.S. Highway 301.
Allendale County, also one of South Carolina’s smallest counties by population, has a median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.
Photo by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South, May 2013. All rights reserved.
“Food deserts” are often found in poor urban and rural communities because it’s hard to find grocery stores with lots of healthy options. People who live in food deserts may only have one store that stock more packaged and canned food than they do fresh foods. In turn, having fewer options tends to support unhealthy eating habits that lead to higher incidents of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity and more.
Pictured above is the Galaxy Food Center in Allendale, S.C. It was one of the poor, rural communities two grocery stores, until it closed. Now empty, it’s a reminder of just how Allendale, county seat of South Carolina’s poorest county, is cut off from lots of amenities and services found in larger communities like Charleston, Savannah, Augusta and Columbia.
With just over 40 percent of Allendale County’s 10,000 people living at or below the poverty level, the median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.
Photo by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South, May 2013. All rights reserved.
This clothesline in rural Allendale, S.C., represents more than drying laundry in the full sun to get that “fresh” smell and feel. It is a reminder that a lot of people in distressed counties prefer saving money by letting the sun do its work on clothes than spend a dollar at a laundry mat to get them dry.
Allendale County with just under 10,000 people is one of South Carolina’s smallest counties, but also its poorest. With just over 40 percent of people living at or below the poverty level, the median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.
Photo by Michael Kaynard, May 2013. All rights reserved.