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Hundreds attend Promise Zone meetings

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Jasper County residents talk during the July 16 Promise Zone meeting

Jasper County residents talk during the July 16 Promise Zone meeting

Here are some more recent news stories about the July 8-16 town hall meetings on the South Carolina Lowcountry Promise Zone held in a six-county region.  Some excerpts:

Big crowd attends Promise Zone meeting, The (Walterboro) Press and Standard, July 23, 2015

“The Promise Zone is not a big pot of money out there waiting for us to pick it up,” Andy Brack of the Center for a Better South told the standing-room-only crowd at U.S.C. Salkehatchie last Thursday morning.

“But there is a big pot of money out there — we just have to work to get it. We have to work together to get it,” Brack added at the start of the Colleton County workshop attended by approximately 140 people.

Brack and the Center for a Better South worked with the SouthernCarolina Alliance to put together the successful application to have a portion of Colleton County and five other Lowcountry counties designated a Promise Zone by the federal government.

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Town halls attract more than 650 people

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Colleton County residents discuss Promise Zone options in a July 15 town hall meeting.

More than 650 people from Promise Zone counties attended six town hall meetings in six counties in the southern tip of South Carolina.  The sessions, sponsored by the SouthernCarolina Alliance, provided people with information about the Promise Zone designation and allowed them to suggest priorities for the region and their counties.

  • Click here to see some of the county-by-county reports.

The meetings also got significant media coverage.  Here are some links and excerpts: Read more →

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Meetings set this week for Colleton, Hampton, Jasper counties

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15.0624.map_1000Three Promise Zone town hall meetings by the SouthernCarolina Alliance are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties.  The six-county region won a federal Promise Zone designation in late April that will provide organizations with new ways to tap federal resources to help change people’s lives.

Last week, more than 290 people turned out in Allendale, Bamberg and Barnwell counties for town hall meetings to share information and glean dreams of the future  (Read more here; photos of meetings are below). Read more →

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Bamberg residents share Promise Zone “wish list”

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Bamberg County residents talk during a Promise Zone town hall. SCPromiseZone photo.

Bamberg County residents talk during a Promise Zone town hall. SCPromiseZone photo.

Excerpted from the Orangeburg Times and Democrat, July 12, 2015:

DENMARK — Residents at a Wednesday morning town hall meeting cited a new state-of-the art hospital, industrial growth and enhancement of workforce-training programs as priorities as the community pursues federal dollars.

“This is not a pot of money out there waiting for us to go pick up,” Andy Brack, president of the non-partisan Center for a Better South told 50 to 75 individuals gathered at the Massachusetts Hall on the Voorhees College campus to hear about the region’s newly acquired federal Promise Zone designation and how to reap the benefits from the designation. “It is a potential pot of money waiting for us to go and pick up but we got to work to get it.”

Promise Zones are high-poverty communities where the federal government partners with local leaders to increase economic activity, improve educational opportunities, leverage private investment, reduce violent crime, enhance public health and address other priorities identified by the community. Read more →

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