The new Southern Crescent project by the Center for a Better South is an effort to draw attention to underserved areas of the American South to help coordinate better delivery of services to the area’s people.
- See the new Web site that highlights areas in the Crescent. as it stretches from Tidewater Virginia through the Carolinas and middle Georgia and then northwesterly toward the Mississippi Delta. [NOTE: The Southern Crescent Web site has since been absorbed into the Better South site that you’re using.]
Below at left in a map that shows the higher rate of diabetes in the South, you can see the general outline of the Crescent, the geographic area that stretches from the Tidewater part of eastern Virgina southward through the Carolinas along Interstate 95.
Diabetes rate, males, 30+, 2008, via Nature.com
It then turns west through Georgia and lower Alabama before curling northwesterly to the Mississippi Delta. Home to millions, this soft underbelly of the American South has been underserved for generations. It has a higher than normal incidence of poverty, unemployment and health problems that stretch through nine states.
This Web site provides weekly looks at communities in the Crescent to help people better understand challenges in the region. You can help by donating money to bolster our efforts or, if you live in the Crescent, submitting pictures of people and places throughout the area.