MARCH 30, 2018 | The Center for a Better South held two separate one-day grant-writing courses that attracted 37 people who wanted to know more about how to seek grant funding available through the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone.
The all-day workshops were on March 28 in Walterboro and on March 29 in Barnwell.
“These workshops, like similar ones we’ve had, will provide training to people who live and work in the Promise Zone of the basics of writing grant proposals so they can access money for needed projects,” Better South President Andy Brack said. “These sessions are designed to help people build capacity so we can accomplish Promise Zone goals.”
Since last year, the Center has provided training to more than 235 people in seven sessions across the Promise Zone, which includes all or part of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties
Trainer Patrick Patterson discusses how to write grants during a Walterboro session.
From February to June 2017, the Center for a Better South facilitated seven training sessions in the challenged counties of the S.C. Promise Zone in the lower part of South Carolina. From lasses on writing compelling grants to full-day sessions to help community leaders understand asset-based community development, the Center trained more than 10 dozen people from Walterboro and Early Branch to Allendale and Blackville thanks in large part to a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More trainings are planned.
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.
One-day, intensive training sessions seek to catalyze requests for funding in region
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:
Andy Brack, president of the Center for a Better South;
Georgia S. Cohen, Allendale leader;
Larry M. Crapse, Hampton consultant;
Faye H. Gooding, CEO, Le Creuset of America in Hampton County;
Michelle Knight of the Lowcountry Council of Governments;
Dorothy Riley, Allendale leader;
Shekinah Washington, executive director, Allendale County Alive;
“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.”
Better South President Andy Brack spoke last year at a Promise Zone organizational luncheon.
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.
MARCH 2016 | A newly-released strategic plan that provides long-term guidance for the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone received major input from the Center for a Better South, including production of a four-minute video about the project.
The plan, released earlier this month after town halls, meetings and strategy sessions involving 1,000 people, organizes efforts to reduce poverty in the southern tip of South Carolina through strategic efforts of eight workgroups, each of which has specific goals and all of which seek to achieve transformational goals by working together. Continue reading “Center provides more leadership in 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.
Collum’s Lumber Products is in Allendale County, S.C.
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.
