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NEWS: Officials work to secure better broadband Internet

SC Promise Zone
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Jim Stritzinger of Connect SC highlights how area telecommunications companies are installing higher speed networks now.

More than 30 local, state, federal and corporate officials met this month to discuss how to develop more broadband Internet access and service throughout the six counties of the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone.

A March 30 news story  at SavannahNow.com highlighted the all-day workshop held in Barnwell to develop pathways for high-speed broadband networks that are among the top strategic goals for economic and community development by the Promise Zone.  An excerpt: Read more →

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Promise Zone partners get $246,140 in grants

SC Promise Zone

Federal grants target housing independence, food insecurity

PromiseZone_logo_80wTwo Promise Zone partners have won grants that total almost a quarter of a million dollars to help residents earn housing independence and be more economically secure, particularly in terms of having enough food for their families. Read more →

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Federal officials, others to meet Wednesday on rural broadband

SC Promise Zone

Barnwell meeting will focus on opportunities, projects for faster speeds

16.0321.internetMultiple federal agencies charged with improving broadband services in rural areas will present information at an all-day Wednesday conference in Barnwell. It will federal resources, funding, technical assistance, best practices and more.

One of the top four, transformational goals of the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone, a six-county area of focus for strategies to reduce persistent poverty, is to develop “high speed broadband Internet networks to provide access to citizens and to help make the region more attractive to business growth.” Read more about the plan, which was unveiled earlier this month. Read more →

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OP-ED: Let’s transform our region by working together

SC Promise Zone

By Danny Black, President and CEO, SouthernCarolina Regional Development Alliance

BARNWELL, S.C. — Hundreds of people from our neck of the woods helped to craft the new long-term strategic action plan that will guide the South Carolina Lowcountry Promise Zone in the years ahead. Months of truly collaborative work provide us with a detailed map of what we need to do and how we must work together to reduce poverty by growing jobs, improving education, reducing crime and building more opportunities for citizens who live in the six counties of the Southern Carolina region.

Black

Black

Last year, you may recall, our area received a coveted Promise Zone designation from the federal government to encourage local governments, state agencies and area organizations to apply for federal grants and loans. Because we were named the South Carolina Lowcountry Promise Zone, applications benefitting our residents get special preferences, which should infuse significant federal dollars here to go with the millions of capital investment that the SouthernCarolina Alliance has been successful in bringing here for the last 20 years. Read more →

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