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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3/15 UPDATE: Broadband workshop, new website resources

SC Promise Zone

New funding opportunities and resources for the S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone

NEWS

Promise Zone to hold March 23 broadband workshop

The S.C. Promise Zone will offer a Broadband Workshop March 23 to focus on improving broadband services and opportunities in our six-county region.

  • PromiseZone_logo_80wWHEN: 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., March 23, 2016
  • WHERE: The Edisto Room, South Carolina Business Center, 54 Irving Street, Barnwell, SC 29812
  • RSVP: scpromisezone@southerncarolina.org

Multiple federal agencies, charged with improving broadband services in rural areas, will present information on federal resources, funding, technical assistance, best practices and more.  A wide variety of broadband projects will be covered including infrastructure, telemedicine and distance learning. Read more →

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Promise Zone unveils long-term, strategic action plan for region

SC Promise Zone

PromiseZone_logo_80wMARCH 4, 2016  — A broad, long-term strategic action plan for the six-county S.C. Lowcountry Promise Zone envisions a collaborative effort to provide omnipresent regional high-speed Internet access, develop a shovel-ready mega-site for jobs, build a sustainability culture, and reshape public education and health care, leaders announced today.

“This new plan is the fruit of a lot of hard work by hundreds of people throughout our six-county region,” said Danny Black, president and CEO of the SouthernCarolina Regional Development Alliance.  It is the lead organization of the Promise Zone.  “We’ve got big dreams that will transform our region if we continue to work together to use the blessings offered by the Promise Zone.  By focusing on the goals of this plan, we can reduce poverty by creating more jobs, improving education, reducing crime and building more opportunities for our citizens.” Read more →

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